I am a Professor Emeritus in Psychological Sciences and in Statistics at Rice University and have taught and researched many topics including memory for chess positions and the development of chess expertise. My experience studying and researching learning and cognition as well as my teaching experience helps me be an effective chess coach.

I learned chess when I was 4 years old but didn’t play much until I was in 10th grade. My first tournament was the Cleveland Open in 1965 at which I won the “unrated prize.” My most notable achievements are being a 1967 US Junior Open co-champion and being tied for 1st in the 1970 Ohio Championship. I am now a USCF National Master.

Although I am not active anymore in classical tournament chess, I still play speed chess online and enjoy seeing analyses of the games of the leading players.

I have coached many players informally in high school and college. I also taught my younger brother who nearly won the US elementary school championship. He was tied for first and had a winning position in the last round but ended up losing.

I asked a team member on our college chess team (which played at a Pan American Intercollegiate Team Chess Championship among other tournaments) whether I should become a chess coach. His answer was “You should definitely coach. You were the clearest explainer of chess I ever met. Anyone would be lucky to have a class with you.”

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