About Me

38 years old, IM, 2 GM norms (still looking for that 3rd!) London/Berlin, been involved with chess coaching for the better part of 15 years. Most people know me from my commentating exploits (I have been the host commentator for some of the biggest tournaments in recent years, both online and live, including World Championship Finals), as well as the vast array of training materials I have produced for the likes of Chess.com, Chessbase, Chess24 and various other outlets. I was also the creator of the most listened to chess podcast in the world, the Full English Breakfast (www.thefeb.com), and was the manager of the 3rd highest rated player of all time, GM Fabiano Caruana.

Teaching Philosophy

I pride myself in being a skilled orator and being able to get across ideas in a simple and precise manner. I believe this by far the most important quality a trainer should have. My classes are always interactive and fun, and I always aim to keep my students engaged throughout a lesson so that they get the most out of it. I also endeavour to challenge my students as much as possible as I find this is the way they can get maximum value from the lesson and see maximum improvement.

Teaching Methodology

In the first session, I like to gauge exactly what my student's ambitions are. What is it YOU want to achieve. From there, we will devise a plan together to see exactly how you can achieve your goals.

My lessons consist of the following:

1) Analysis of your games - this is crucial to identify recurring mistakes, identify key weaknesses/strengths, establish how to plug the big holes in your game.
2) Analysis of master games - By looking at how the top players play, we can learn a lot. I find this to be a very useful and inspirational exercise.
3) Solving Exercises - Once we look at a particular theme/topic in a lesson, I like to get my students to solve a position based on that theme. This can either be done during the lesson, or afterwards as homework.
4) Playing a game! - Students often ask if we can play a training game and then go over it to see exactly what can be improved. I find this to be both fun and extremely useful for the student.

Naturally there are various other methods we can for our lessons, but whatever we do I will consult with my student first to make sure he/she is happy and comfortable with what we have planned!

If you are serious about improving your game don't hesitate to get in touch! Looking forward to hearing from you. You can also contact me via email trentosk@gmail.com

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