Online Chess Lessons: One Coach, One Student, One Shared Board

The groundwork self-taught players often skip: the complete rules, how to record a game, and what the pieces are really worth.

• Full rules including castling, en passant, and promotion
• Algebraic notation for reading and recording games
• Piece values and the principles of a good trade
• Basic checkmate patterns with one and two major pieces

The tools that win material: short attacking patterns that repeat in nearly every game ever played.

• Forks, pins, and skewers across different positions
• Double attacks and discovered attacks
• Combinations that lead to mate on the castled king
• Calculation drills two to four moves deep

Learning to build a plan when no tactic is on the board: square control, pawn structure, and piece placement.

• Pawn structures and weak squares
• Active pieces versus passive pieces
• When to trade and when to keep a piece
• Building a plan from what the position demands

The phase that decides the score: technique for converting winning positions and holding difficult ones.

• King and pawn endings: opposition and key squares
• The practical rook endgames that appear most often
• Technique for converting a material advantage
• Drawing resources: stalemate, the desperado rook, and the wrong-colored bishop

The student's own games are dissected with the coach to surface recurring mistakes, then repertoire and competitive nerves get their turn.

• Move-by-move review of the student's games
• Building a simple opening repertoire for White and Black
• Clock management in classical and rapid games
• Preparation for school, club, and online tournaments