"Chess, Like Love, Like Music, Has The Power To Make Men Happy."

Siegbert Tarrasch

About myself

Hello! I am an avid wood-pusher who came to competitive chess at a pretty late age in life (40, to be exact). But I have significantly improved in the last few years. I started with an initial USCF rating of 1244 in 2016 and am now at 1565 (as of 1/5/2024). I continue to play tournaments as well as casual games, and would like to make NM one day.

I am interested in playing coaching games with folks who would like to improve their chess prowess. I call these coaching games rather than lessons, because I find that I teach chess best when I am talking somebody through a game in an organic fashion. It is also a way for me to expand my chess horizons while hopefully helping you to improve your game. And if I'm being honest, I'm also looking for a way to help fund my increasingly frequent travels to chess tournaments. If you are interested in playing coaching games with me, please message me or email me at bulletproofchess76@gmail.com

A few things:

Current rates: $30 per hour.
Time controls: Minimum G5, Maximum G30, increments welcome. I like to talk and analyze games as we are playing them, and it is hard to do so if the time control is too short. And as much as I love chess, I have other professional responsibilities (see personal details below) to attend to. Hence the G30 maximum.
My primary market is players who are rated 600 - 1300 USCF or chess.com rapid. I am open to playing higher-rated players who are looking for sparring partners, but I feel that my most valuable service lies in helping lower-rated players to improve. I am open to all ages, but I have noticed that I work best with adult improvers.
That said, I have taught my (at the time) four-year-old niece to play chess before, and neither of us ended up in tears, so I am going to put this on my resume :-)
As far as coaches go, I am much lower-rated than most others out there. But I see this as a strength: I can relate well to the struggles of lower-rated players, since I was there myself not that long ago.

Finally, if you have read this far, I probably owe it to you to tell you a few personal things about myself:

I was born and grew up in Singapore, and came to Idaho via a few twists and turns.
I have a PhD in Philosophy, and am currently a philosophy lecturer.
I am also a free-lance chess writer. I have published a few articles in Northwest Chess over the last year or so.

siegfried23