Any Would be Mentors out there?

Any advanced players willing to play an on-line game with a patzer to analyze/coach game as we play?  I have started learning this year so I could help my 7-year old.  I am really taken by the game and am playing or reading/practicing every day to get better.  I would like to volunteer at my son's school this fall but I have a lot more to learn before I could help others.

I would like to, as we play, perhaps make a move, noting my reasons for the move, then get your input on the move or why I should have made a different move & why, etc.  If you're willing to help, I am very willing to learn! - Dan (dvaud)

  via KEEPING in touch me through this mail option on here... I can assist you

in getting better if you need it....  I have many, many, many, many ways you can

grow fast... that do not need you to curtail how I will do so, but I will show you

what to do... if you can put your ego aside, and be green and be a student the teach will appear... email me on here if you want your first suggested lesson or you can go yourway and obtain little....  if what you state is you want to be good, then your current course of action isn't it...

      As well include how many hours a week you wish to put into chess because if you want to get good using 1 hour a week, switch to checkers... because you child will out pace you in a HALF A YEAR... they learn so rapid, and if you are just putting in 60 minutes you will just keep learning at the starter level...

   THERE are so many things to connect with you will need an hour a day... to really absorb this chess thing... and many if not all of it you can do on your own,

i.e study, play computure, read books, play others, take notes.... as well you can even study with your child so you both are getting better and you make your sparing partner better...  well you have my contact info, look me up if you are for real about this... 

Alright, QoD.  The good news is that I have at least an hour/day.  Most days, I can spend a couple hours at chess.  Let me tell you the resources I have right now and you can tell me how to proceed:  I have a 10+ year-old Kasparov computer board.  It works great & lets you set up positions.  I have a PSP with the Chessmaster program that has some exercises on it as well as many computer oponents.  Of course, I have this website.  I also play some games on yahoo.  Books:  I have read Wolf's Complete Idiot's guide to Chess which was great.  It gave a great introduction to the game, introduced tactics (forks, pins, skewers, etc), as well as some strategy like control the center squares during opening, etc.

I currently have two books:  Practical Chess exercises by Cheng, & Modern Chess openings (black's response to 1.e4)

I am going on vacation July 4 and will not have web access for about 10 days.  I will have my books, Kasparov game and PSP game though.

I'm ready for you help - Thanks!

Dan

I'd also be interested in this (having someone with a high rating do in-game analysis as we play)

I've only been registered here for a few days, but I have played chess since about third or fourth grade (will be entering junior year in college this August). I don't have a particularly high rating here yet and I'm still a bit green as far as quality openings are concerned, but I do know a significant amount regarding strategy. I'm probably not the best option you've got here but I can definitely help some if needed.

I would also be interested. I played some as a kid but quit for a long time. I just recently started trying to play again after my brother in law killed me in a couple of games while on vacation a year or two ago. I would like to get better and would like to find a online mentor . . . via online games, email etc etc. Just joined here and have been playing on www.chesshere.com also. 

-wayne

 

It might be worth getting an admin's view on in-game analysis. The rule that comes to mind is that using chess engines in-game is acceptable if both parties agree and if it's an unrated game. Is analysing a game in-game acceptable? Just worth double checking, if it is, I'd love to play a few games with someone who can analyse what I'm doing as I'm doing it.

Dan,

You may want to check out the local club in your area. Here's a list of Florida clubs from the USCF website:

http://www.uschess.org/directories/AffiliateSearch/clubresultsnew.php?pg=1&st=FL

If at all possible, do try to get as much over-the-board experience as you can. It will be much easier to learn from a live person. Also, my advice (and I know I will get criticized by non-experts) is that you should seek a teacher with a rating of at least 2000 USCF. No doubt players rated below that level can give you good nuggets of advice here and there, but you need the guidance of an expert (and preferably a master!) to get you where you need to be.

Good luck to you, and I hope your child learns to love chess as much as the rest of us.

I have FIDE and USCF ratings of *exactly* 1800 each, but despite having joined the site four months ago, I haven't backed this up any by playing any turn-based games. I'm the best person to play unrated teaching games with and grow. Luck at al the ritting about it wot I did.

Its worth pointing out that half-assed teaching and learning wastes peoples time. Prospective teachers and students should take a little time to investigate thoroughly people they decide to get involved with, before you squander precious hours. Think about it - do you really want to be taught by someone who rants on, badly spelt and grammatically awful text dripping with holier-than-thou tones?

As for analysing during a game, of course its allowed. Its just not mandatory. I love analysis and discussion and I've got plenty of time for  unrated games with weaker players. Particularly if your rating is <1000 challenge me and I'm sure I can find some ways to help you stop dropping pieces etc. I have some genuine teaching experience, though not as a chess coach and I have never taught anyone online. I love to find different approaches, trying to 'crack' someone's learning style, and watching a student (casual or otherwise) improve is a joyous thing. I can't make any commitments about mentoring someone properly and full-time though.

I know some players like to discuss games with their opponents whilst some don't enjoy analysis (they "just play") and others don't like to discuss there ideas with a weaker player, as they feel they are giving away their 'secrets'. I'm the first-type, so if you are nearer my rating (~1250 at this moment) then send me a rated challenge if you are the sort that likes to do some post-mortem analysis, or at least doesn't mind me occasionally spurting out a better response you had three moves back!

Of course, to reiterate my first point - take the time to be sure. No sense wasting each others time now, is there? 

dvaud, grey pieces point is well made, review the qualifications and profile of those who propose to teach, if they haven't actually played a single game here I'd be dubious.  There are also people here on low ratings otb and online who seem to feel qualified to actually charge for their time and set themselves up as coaches in their profiles.  I can safely say I'm a pretty average club player who can play at expert level when I'm on form, I'd be happy to help beginner level but I wouldn't presume to charge.  There are titled players on this site who are professional players and even trained coaches, look them up.  Or at least get someone with proven experience and be clear at what level they consider to be able to operate at.  Don't get caught with time wasters.

As for ingame analysis I have played some coaching games with a few people and we just play unrated games, then the ratings are not affected.

Best of luck

edit  I don't have time to be coaching people right now, I have agreed to do a few games so please don't message me if you haven't already :-)

Its important that u also realize that higher rating doesnt always mean quality teachers either. Sometimes they can play very well but not know how to properly place u in there shoes and direct u to the kind of improvement u seek. And then u can have someone who isnt so good as in not a master might not even be 2000+ but better at showing u what they have learned in a easy to understand way. Just some thoughts. As for me i dont consider myself to be a well organized teacher of chess even though im fairly good myself...

PerfectGent u seem to have an idea of what ur talking about. I can teach but only through how i came to learn it. Alot of lessons i learned came from personal study of my games and trying to see which area's need the most work and work on them. This requires alot of hours of course. Tell me what methods do u use to help your students gain understanding of the principles u want them to learn so they can then take what u showed them and make it work in there style?

Thanks to all who have given input - especially a few of you who are helping me in unrated games.  I hope to be good enough to help others someday soon - especially my kids!

I'm also very interested in finding a teacher/consultant/coach.

I'm just beginning to teach my 5 1/2 year old daughter how chess works and things are starting to click just wonderfully, If someone has advice for properly teaching a 5 year old the next crucial steps that would be awesome.

 

As well for me, i think at my peak I'm around a 1600 player or so, played in High School and a little later in life, I can spend a few hours a week studying/playing, etc.

 

If anyone is willing or interested, you can start an unranked game with me for an evaluation.

While this thread is still fresh I will also like to inquire if there are any other members on here not already taken in teaching another member that would like to help me out. I've known how to play chess for the majority of my life but have recently began to take it more seriously. I have been studying the game on my own, ready, watching, and doing in various unrated games versus random members but I feel that if I had more guidance I could become a better player faster. If anyone would like to help me out, please send me an unrated  game challenge and I would be quite happy! Thanks for your time!

PerfectGent wrote:

Quite often the best performers are the worst teachers. Often they dont know how they achieve what they do and can give inappropriately high level info and bamboozle their student.

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As far as chess is concerned, I'm not so sure I agree. I think that any of the Top 100 GM's in the world would be an infinitely better teacher than a sub-2000 USCF player.

@ dvaud:- you mentioned some books you had, and of course books are useful. The best book you can get hold of is a beginners manual. It doesn't matter how big and complex the book gets as long as it has good section intended to get newcomers to the game playing properly.

Don't worry if you sometimes play the most awful games after seemingly learning some new ideas, either - it tends to happen. Think of it like playing your first ever games using a completely different approach.

Most critical - Don't overwhelm yourself and certainly don't overwhelm your son! If you heap too much pressure on yourselves, you may destroy your appetite for it. Take a break once in a while, and make sure you always have chess-stamina left for when your son wants to play a game! Ideas have to percolate in your brain while sometimes. Don't alienate your son by swamping him with concepts that he will think are "hard", or by killing him too much at the board! Don't let him win, but certainly allow him to take back mistakes if he asks or looks upset.

Hard things are not fun for children, chess should be fun above all. Its best just to help him not to hang too many pieces, and give him only barest strategy advice for a while, "you have to get your pieces out" is a good one.  Remember children don't like strategy and tactics. But they LOVE plans and tricks! =)

I wish you the best of luck exploring chess!

I am not so sure I see the need for caution here.  Worst-case scenario, you try to learn from someone who is unable and/or unwilling to teach and -- oh my goodness -- you would have wasted your precious time by -- gasp -- playing chess!  What is the harm?  There need not be any competition among teachers willing to help.  Learn from all those who can teach you.  Teach all those who can learn from you.  Pay it forward.  And recognize also that chess knowledge is huge and multi-dimensional.  First of all, a higher rated player is not necessarily better than a lower rated player, for a variety of reasons.  Second of all, even granting that one player is better than another, their knowledge bases still need not form concentric circles.  There may be overlap, but it is still likely that the lower rated player knows something that the higher rated player does not (picture a Venn diagram with two overlapping circles).  I have learned from players rated both higher and lower than I am.  I have helped players rated lower than I am, and am happy to still do so, but probably would not take too kindly to being interrogated prior to undertaking the lesson.

Vance917 wrote: I am not so sure I see the need for caution here.  Worst-case scenario, you try to learn from someone who is unable and/or unwilling to teach and -- oh my goodness -- you would have wasted your precious time by -- gasp -- playing chess!  What is the harm? [A waste of precious time, stunted chess development, the formation of bad habits, etc.] There need not be any competition among teachers willing to help.  Learn from all those who can teach you.  Teach all those who can learn from you.  Pay it forward.  And recognize also that chess knowledge is huge and multi-dimensional.  First of all, a higher rated player is not necessarily better than a lower rated player, for a variety of reasons. [see Post #20] Second of all, even granting that one player is better than another, their knowledge bases still need not form concentric circles.  There may be overlap, but it is still likely that the lower rated player knows something that the higher rated player does not (picture a Venn diagram with two overlapping circles).  I have learned from players rated both higher and lower than I am.  I have helped players rated lower than I am, and am happy to still do so, but probably would not take too kindly to being interrogated prior to undertaking the lesson. [teachers who are fit to teach are used to being asked about their qualifications]

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"Can't we all just get along?"  Rodney King 

Seriously, I see good points on both sides & am very appreciative of everyone's input.  I didn't expect such a large response - Not only is this a great game, but what's cool is the passion for it that we players (beginners thru masters) have in common about it!  I may be speaking too soon (as I've only had this passion 3 months) but I feel like I've discovered a life-long passion - it's very cool!