,Training my student Jesse who went on to win the DC (District of Columbia) Championship in 2019
Welcome! Coach David here, US national master and chess trainer. Our first two adult zoom classes were a success! We have registrants from 4 continents -- including India, Sierra Leone, Ireland, Nigeria, Canada, the US, and Egypt. These classes will continue every Saturday at 12pm eastern, 4 GMT.
The second class was "Building an Effective Attack." You can view the lesson's contents for your own learning here.
The first class was, "Planning begins in the opening: Shape the game with your will power (and why everything revolves around pawn play)." We reviewed a classic Capablanca (world champ from Cuba) game to reinforce these concepts. Check out the game here.
Who is this for? Any adult student with a basic grasp of the chess fundamentals. No rating restrictions. My teaching approach is to introduce advanced and challenging concepts, but to explain them so that any player with basic chess knowledge should understand them. And it's all about student input. Student input helps shape the class's understanding so that we can all gain a clear understanding of the concepts and learn from each other. The dynamic first class was great - and thanks to Xander for keeping an eye on the comments to make sure everyone's questions got answered!
The structure is designed to be affordable, so I suggest between 5 and 15 USD only if you are ableright now - or you can leave a tip based on the value you place on the class at paypal. The idea is that everyone who can pitches in a little and it'll help me to offer classes like this, but if you can't pay at the moment during these hard times or if you can only afford a small amount, don't worry at all, that's fine. I want everyone with the passion for chess to receive a quality chess education and to learn to think in new ways, regardless of ability-to-pay. This is a core value of mine and I have stuck to it.
After the interactive hour lecture, students have the option to play some games in a closed tournament on lichess.org that can be analyzed the following week. If you're not ready to play yet, you can opt out of this portion or just watch your fellow students' games and root them on. For the third class, we will focus on how to analyze your own games to learn from your mistakes and reinforce what you did well.
You can sign up at the form above. This class is designed for adults (late teens and beyond) from around the world. I look forward to seeing you there!
My background: I'm a US national master and FIDE (World Chess Fed.) candidate master (reaching 2200+ in both) and have been coaching full time since 2015. I have trained two DC champions, a World Open champion (U1400 section), a US Junior Grand Prix winner, and many who have simply improved their enjoyment of the Royal Game. I've run multiple online group classes like this with scholastic chess, in addition to in-person adult classes. I volunteer over 100 hours per year in an effort to make a community impact with chess. Now that the school year is over, I want to shift my attention a bit and make sure that adult players gain the same benefits, at an affordable price. Hope to see you there! :)
Here are some videos where I explain the concepts of the classes: