English Chess Forum

While looking up some details, I noticed a fair number of the leading ENG players and others (resident here) invariably seem to offer some form of chess coaching. Am I overstating this, or is it something that has become more prevalent since the pandemic (some coaching and online models probably started then)? Or has it always been a thing?

Four examples (there will be many others!):

(1) Matthew Wadsworth

https://lichess.org/coach/mwadsworth

(2) Yichen Han

https://sites.google.com/site/yichenhan07

(3) Chess Vantage Academy

https://chessvantageacademy.com/our-teachers/

Lan Yao and Harry Grieve

(4) Eagleide Chess

https://eagleidechess.com/about

Lorin D'Costa

I literally only found out about the third one just now.

I am asking because I am aware of the ECF Registered Coaches list:

https://www.englishchess.org.uk/registe ... ches-list/

And I see some titled players there (e.g. Mark Hebden and Danny Gormally).

I know titled players do not always do coaching (some are excellent some probably prefer playing) and approaches can vary a lot depending on the type and level of coaching and teaching. Some have been coaches full time for many years (e.g. Lorin D'Costa).

What I am trying to work out is whether any of this has changed recently, and if there are obvious examples I have missed out of younger titled players moving into this area?

I am looking more at the UK chess scene, but examples of how this is done in other countries would be of interest as well.

I can imagine it has always been a thing, given the difficulty of making a living from prize money.

Did not Hawkins go into coaching almost as soon as he got his title? And did not Stean see his GM title as a chance to charge more, albeit clearly not enough, as he left the scene completely to secure a safer income?

You can even hire me on lichess if you really want a bargain deal... Plus I offer a guarantee of at least a 100 point rating increase or your money back I'm so confident, you wouldn't find any grand master that does that.

I think the only possible better deal might be to hire grand master mark howitt (as he is now calling himself) but he's just such a great master that his prices are very high and places are very exclusive....

Joey Stewart wrote: ↑

Mon Sep 08, 2025 5:42 pm

You can even hire me on lichess if you really want a bargain deal... Plus I offer a guarantee of at least a 100 point rating increase or your money back I'm so confident, you wouldn't find any grand master that does that.

I think the only possible better deal might be to hire grand master mark howitt (as he is now calling himself) but he's just such a great master that his prices are very high and places are very exclusive....

Is he really?

Much as I appreciate Joey's point, could we keep the discussion on titled players who are coaches and maybe three main strands:

(1) Coaching the next generation's talents (this may include ECF funding).
(2) Making-a-living coaching (talented juniors and ambitious amateurs).
(3) Coaching professionals (this includes captaining and training national teams).

I may not have named or described the categories well, but have I captured some of the differences? (I have left out here the sort of coaching that is vital, but not something I was trying to include: namely teaching beginners and children.)

It may be that a fourth strand is writing books, see e.g. Jacob Aagard and other chess authors. The influence here is not so direct. I am not talking here, by the way, about 'seconds', but someone might want to compare this sort of activity to how chess 'seconds' (normally teams these days) are effectively the top tier of chess coaching, though at that level it is not really coaching. More 'training'.

Christopher Kreuzer wrote: ↑

Mon Sep 08, 2025 8:21 pm

(I have left out here the sort of coaching that is vital, but not something I was trying to include: namely teaching beginners and children.)

I think it's now an important part of the chess economy and something on a paid for basis that has only arisen on any sort of scale in the last thirty years and a bit. Even GMs do it a bit. Prior to that it would have been an unpaid voluntary activity.

Teaching children the piano or horse riding has probably been around since before most of us were born. I can vaguely recall being dragged along to piano lessons and horse riding lessons as an under 8 in the 1950s

I took piano lessons, and enjoyed playing the piano. I never had the (mis?)fortune of horse riding lessons. I think that is something more common in rural areas. I am trying to imagine a 7-year-old Roger de Coverly playing the piano and having horse-riding lessons.

**OFF TOPIC***

Back to chess coaching please!

Do you mean things like the CSC (Chess in Schools and the Communities) coaching positions?

Christopher Kreuzer wrote: ↑

Mon Sep 08, 2025 9:50 pm

I am trying to imagine a 7-year-old Roger de Coverly playing the piano and having horse-riding lessons.

Thank-you for placing this image which I am attempting to expunge from my imagination.

Christopher Kreuzer wrote: ↑

Mon Sep 08, 2025 9:50 pm

Do you mean things like the CSC (Chess in Schools and the Communities) coaching positions?

That's rather more formalised as an adjunct to the teaching profession. I was more thinking of people offering chess lessons to all and sundry. Aren't at least some of these titled players? Some coaches have been known to complain about rivals objectively too weak to go much beyond beginners or claiming status they didn't have.

On the final point, becoming a chess author is or was a means of earning an income as a chess professional. There was a flood of books just after the Covid lockdown. How many of these make anything for their authors may well be a commercial secret.

The forum had threads about coaches a while back.

https://ecforum.org.uk/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=3951
https://ecforum.org.uk/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=3923

John Upham wrote: ↑

Mon Sep 08, 2025 10:01 pm

Christopher Kreuzer wrote: ↑

Mon Sep 08, 2025 9:50 pm

I am trying to imagine a 7-year-old Roger de Coverly playing the piano and having horse-riding lessons.

Thank-you for placing this image which I am attempting to expunge from my imagination.

But those riding lessons certainly paid off:
https://www.google.com/search?q=image+o ... e&ie=UTF-8

Prior to the advent of the Internet there was little possibility of the average club player getting access to any advanced chess coaching. I was born in 1955 and like many of my contemporaries, I am self-taught. Reading books and playing over the board were the only sure ways to improve.

There was junior coaching available at Richmond Junior chess club during the 1970s, under the guidance of Richard James. Maidenhead and Cobham chess club also had active junior sections. I can't recall any other clubs that offered chess tuition to young players at that time.

I received tuition and analysed my games with an adult member of my club during the decade. His ECF rating peaked around 200, so he was a competent tutor. My own ECF rating peaked around 155. Had I dedicated more time to study and practical play I may have improved further, but was content to play at intermediate club and Conty level.

Ultimately, I feel, all education is self-education.

What a good coach can do is save time. No one ever taught me any positional ideas; it took me decades to get any sort of feel for that sort of thing, albeit imperfectly.

I slightly precede Ian, but my father did ask Bob Wade to coach me. He apologetically said he was too busy and recommended Leonard Barden, so he asked Leonard who apologetically said he was too busy and recommended Bob! We did see the funny side. My father asked Bob first as he knew him, no slight was intended towards Leonard.

When Mike Basman started "Audio Chess", he included coaching, so for a few years I sent a couple of games, an audio-cassette, (a primitive version of a USB for our younger readers), and money to Tony Miles, and then John Nunn, who made helpful comments. Mike rightly said this was good as you could look at the game and listen to the comments, rather than reading annotations, which is distracting. The cassettes have probably fallen to pieces by now, but I did do a rough transcription of the comments. My favourite is John saying, "You may be interested to know that your move is a theoretical novelty. Unfortunately, it is not a good one, as..."

Nick is right of course, you have to do a lot of work yourself, but a gentle shove in the right direction helps.

Kevin Thurlow wrote: ↑

Thu Nov 20, 2025 6:33 am

My favourite is John saying, "You may be interested to know that your move is a theoretical novelty. Unfortunately, it is not a good one, as..."

That reminds me of a post-mortem I had with a well known GM some years ago. I'd spent a long time thinking about a move. He asked me what I was thinking about. I said I was trying to work out whether I could play ... h6, or whether it lost a pawn. His comment, paraphrased, was that even if it didn't lose a pawn , it was a terrible move to play. So I correctly rejected the move, but for completely wrong reasons.

In the late 1990s I played Jessie Gilbert in the Minor section at the Surrey Congress. She completely demolished me and I was so impressed by her play that I asked if she had a coach? "Yes", she said ... "Mike Basman". Subsequently, I then asked Mike Basman if he would coach me and when he dicovered my ECF grade was about 110 he suggested one of his students who had a grade in the 180-200 range. I didn't follow that up and have instead relied on the several hundred (~1000?) chess books I have bought over the years. So yes, there was chess coaching going on in the past.