Rook_Handler

Hello! I am Brooks Chandler, a high school junior tournament player and coach from Jacksonville, Florida with 8 years of experience. I learned to play at 7 at a small chess club for homeschoolers, where I got my first taste of competition in an intraclub ladder. Before long I was going to scholastic tournaments in North Florida and Georgia, making new friends through the game and enjoying the competition. I began playing in tournaments run by the Jacksonville Chess Club, mainly because I joined their startup scholastic training program run by Kevin Pryor (@kasro). Kevin Pryor was the former president of the Florida Chess Association until recently and is now the Vice President of US Chess. I continued to grow and develop as a scholastic player there, and the program, excellently run, expanded from less than 30 students in 2016 to almost 200 pre-pandemic. During the pandemic I matured as a person and player and began working hard with a coach to improve in preparation for the return of OTB chess. He taught me to analyze my games, look for active moves, and play more principled chess in general. I studied books such as How to Reassess Your Chess and My System, learning positional chess and establishing a solid repertoire. Sure enough, in 2021 my rating rose from 1226 to 1457, a solid improvement, but I felt I had done more work than that. In 2022, however, something finally clicked. In January, I won a local tournament outright and jumped from 1457 to 1609, an improvement close to the entirety of the previous year. I started working with a new coach, Miguel Ararat (http://gainesvillechesstraining.com/), who helped me organize my repertoire around my playstyle and improve my control of the game. I won the Class B section of the CFCC Sunshine Open in July, and finally broke the 1800 barrier in August. This year I have my sights set on becoming an Expert, finally winning the Jacksonville Scholastic Championship, and maybe even a high finish in the State Championship.

With a solid base of chess knowledge and experience under my belt, I looked for a way to invest back into Jacksonville scholastic chess. In the summer of 2022, I began teaching at the same training program, still run by Kevin Pryor and George Foote, that I once attended as a student. I’ve gained experience in working with kids of all ages and skill levels at the training program, from bright-eyed kindergarteners just learning the game to eager preteens with tournament experience.

As a coach, I can help you

• Identify your strengths and weaknesses as a player by analyzing your games, and improve on those areas by playing through instructive master games
• Train the fundamentals of the game, such as opening principles, basic endgames, tactics, and strategy, through exercises, recommended books, and lessons
• Formulate a training plan
• Become a stronger player!

My rates are $20/hour for private lessons through Discord or Zoom, $10 for a written analysis of a game, and $15 for a video analysis of a game. You can reach me by email at brooksmchandler@icloud.com or through Chess.com messaging. I’m excited to work with you!