I feel Jesse on the whole "being poor for so long" thing and having a hard time justifying spending (that type of) money on chess coaching (even if you're no longer poor). Man, do I ever feel that! I'm still getting used to going to the grocery store and not calculating in my head how much everything in my basket is going to cost.
There's a way you can combine both of Jesse's points. I had a 2350+ friend who wouldn't analyze his games. I'm a 1600 player. But me and my friend Stockfish had both ends covered. He wouldn't look at the engine. But I'd often tell him the candidate moves and definitely when his play seemed inaccurate. We'd discuss why. I'd notice patterns in his play, which helped him to see them. When he disagreed with the engine, really disagreed, it was often way over my head. But we fought hard to understand, and he usually figured it out. It was win-win-win. The last win is for the fun and the intellectual stimulation.
There's a great story about Kasparov and Yusupov. Kasparov hired him as a second when Yusupov was 2 or 3 in the world. They'd meet, and Garry would talk and Yusupov would listen. He said most of the time he had no idea what Kasparov was talking about. Of course, there wasn't anyone better than Kasparov.
I think it might be useful to distinguish between a coach and a trainer, which are two distinct roles in most sports. The coach is someone who has a birds eye view of your game, lots of experience over time, strategic concepts etc. A trainer could be someone who drills down on specifics like openings, master game analysis, tactics patterns etc. Both roles can support all topics of course, along with psychology, motivation etc.
The old-timer coaches suggested by Jesse are undoubtedly great but I'm glad I chose a coach who is currently a strong player, is fluent in modern chess software and does what strong players do in the current year. For players trying to make IM/GM in the current year, maybe they should also get input from those who achieved it in the recent past.
What do you think of hiring a coach just for post tournament analysis? Maybe one 90 min session every 2-4 months. As a low income adult improver I feel like I get the most from a coach from having them look over my games with me and advise me on what to work on over the next few months, but I’ve found many coaches don’t want to take on a student that sporadically. Do you know anyone who would do something like that and do you think it’s a bad idea to hire a coach that way? My online ratings (classical/rapid lichess) are 2100 for reference. I’ve just started playing G30 quads this past month at our club and our first real classical tournament is in January.
You can find a low rate coach on lichess coaches. Just send a bunch of messages and I am sure you can find someone to accommodate this style you desire.
A low-rated coach would be next to useless for a 2100 imo. 2100s are pretty good already. I’d be interested to know how your progress has gone over the past year.
This show was very helpful and timely for me. Three comments. First, I would have preferred it to be less focused on Kostya (I felt embarrassed for him being basically put on the spot publicly) and more focused on anyone who was considering a coach. Second, it mentioned "chess coaches", Chess tutors", and chess lessons". I had never thought of these titles/categories before. I would like to know what the differences are and the advantages and disadvantages of each. Finally, it seemed like the advice was focused in players who are well established, perhaps with ratings in the 1500-2200 range. What about players who are basically starting out and have ratings that are half of that, e.g. 750-1100? What advice do you have for us beginners? Thanks!
On the point about chess coaches/tutors/lessons, I’m not sure there’s any clear distinction. In my experience chess lessons are given by coaches/tutors (the same thing). You can have one-to-one lessons or group lessons, the former being more focused and specific to your needs (and more expensive, though not necessarily prohibitively so).
A point on titled coaches… I’ve had sessions with quite a few different GM, IM, CM & WFM coaches (no FMs though) but not so many untitled ones. However at the level of a 2200-2300 Lichess rapid player, 1800 FIDE/1900 ECF OTB (likely similar USCF) my experience is that the coach’s level of play has very little correlation with their ability to teach (i.e. to communicate their knowledge in a clear and accessible… and engaging(!)… way.) So my view is that what you really want is a coach who is good enough to keep up with you (and at least slightly ahead of you) who has knowledge and experience that you need AND is able to relate it in a way that you can understand and are interested in. Not every GM is Naroditsky (or Jesse 😛)
Yeah I get the same thing tutoring kids in math. So how many problems did you do? None? Well, that's your problem. I can't put the work in for you. The student has to do the work. The coach can only help guide them on what they need help with.
It's tough working with a coach long-term if they're indifferent to your success and growth as a player. They tend to get lazy with you once they see you get a little better because they know they can just say "look you got 50 points higher since we started you can't expect to constantly rise your rating ECT blah blah" when in reality they're not taking the next steps of really taking extra time of learning you as a player and coming up with strategies tailored to YOU to Really maximize your potential. I think every chess player committed to improvement should get a coach I'm just saying keep your eyes open cause if you don't they'll just take your money and give you half-assed lessons with low energy if you're not on top of it. I think if you do 10-20 sessions with a coach and you do tournament games and analyze them with your coach then at that point you could buy some books and study those and keep improving on your own as long as you actually read/study challenging chess books. Also getting used to doing puzzles that take 5-10 minutes to solve is an EXTREMELY UNDERRATED tool at your disposal that if utilized will immediately impact your play in a positive way.
