Chess Students
- By Brian Rowe
Welcome to Chess Lessons!
Congratulations! By now you’ve decided on the time and days for your lessons. Part of any successful journey is being prepared.
Supplies
- Tournament Board & Pieces w/ portable bag
- Chess Clock – Recommended Basic digital chess clock $30 (optional for 1st year students, required for students with at least a years experience) I personally use a Chronos clock which is very durable but more expensive ($110)
- 3 Ring Binder w/ dividers label sections – My games, Tactics, Endgame, Openings & Hero’s Games, Questions (Tech savvy students can set these documents up online through shared google docs)
- Comprehensive Chess Course Volume I & Volume II:
- (players with ratings 1200 or higher should wait for teacher recommendations)
- Silman’s Complete Endgame Course – This is crucial for all students
- Choose a Chess Hero (maybe Vishy Anand the current World Champion, Garry Kasparov, Susan Polgar, Mikhail Tal an amazing attacker, or Bobby Fisher) and get a book of their best games to read for fun & for lessons.
Expectations for students
- Daily practice for 30 minutes to 1 hour focusing on chess vision, tactics, endgames & other assigned work
- Keep a log of practice work completed
- Keep track of questions – Feel free to email me questions before lessons. I prepare for lessons in advance and this is the best way for me to answer your questions
- Come to lessons 10 minutes early to set up your board and be ready to focus for lessons
For parents
- The Benefits of Chess
- What is the Suzuki Method? – The way I teach chess has been heavily influenced by the Suzuki Method of teaching music.
- For an intro to chess for adults I recommend Yasser Seirawan’s Series Play Winning Chess
Recommended Chess Website
- ChessBase.com – Best free chess news site
- Chess.com – Great chess site for playing online and practicing (My user name is Sarterus feel free to friend me)
- Susan Polgar’s Blog – World class chess player with a great blog that includes daily puzzles
