What is a Chess Coach

July 12, 2010
Tags: Teaching Chess Articles

Written by guest author Erik Czerwin for Wholesale Chess.

Nerdy glasses, nasally voice, maybe suspenders, and definitely uninteresting conversations…  That’s what makes the best kind of chess coach.  Of course, those of us in the business of coaching chess players know that the complete opposite is true.  Though some of us fit the stereotype (I wear my pocket-protector valiantly), a chess coach is really just a coach.  All the attributes that make a good coach also describe the best chess coaches.

Chess Coach?

The best thing a chess coach can teach kids, though, has little to do with skills.  The best thing a coach can teach a kid is a love of the game. Chess, probably more than most sports, takes a lifetime to master.  Tennis pros are outdated by the age of 30.  Football and basketball stars burnout about the same time.  Some lucky baseball pros can play professionally for years beyond that, but even Nolan Ryan barely broke into his 40s before leaving the game.  Of course many chess superstars hit their peak in their mid 30s, the vast majority continue actively in the chess community for years and decades beyond.  Also, let’s be honest, many of our students may not play chess in a professional setting.  Chess is a sport of amateurs who battle in parks, living rooms, dusty basements, and musty classrooms.  Amateurs in a strictly loving sense, of course.

If we really want to make an authentic impact on a person, we should strive only to teach a love for the game.  Chess is a great sport that can enrich lives forever.  If we work so hard to get our competitive youth into the winning categories, we may lose sight of the real goal.  The kids, almost assuredly, though, will.  With a focus on winning, kids often get very down-trodden very quickly as losing is half of learning the game.  That’s why one of the first things I teach my students is that losing is perhaps the greatest gift chess can give a player.  Once they learn to look at each loss as a priceless opportunity to learn and enrich their game, the students really begin to understand the true beauty of chess.  That’s when they begin to fall head-over-heels in love.  Okay, no; I’ve never seen a kid kiss a chess board, but I have heard some passionate soliloquies on the subject.  I’ve heard 15 year olds talk about chess to their friends as if it was a real love affair.  And to be honest, that’s when I really start loving my job of coaching them.  That’s when it really starts to get easy.

chess book and chess board

Once they love the game and all of its ups and downs, they start asking me whatever it is they want to know.  Of course, in developing the love of chess, I teach them as much as I can about the basics: the chess board, time, material, position, forks, pins, skewers, etc.  But, once they know all of that and have a passion for play, they start asking the real questions.  They start asking the questions I can’t answer.  That’s when I have to teach them to love learning. I start pointing them to different chess books, different programs, other students to learn what they seek.  If they seek deeper knowledge of openings, I start by asking which openings they like to use.  Then I point them to chess books they can buy and learn from.  Hey, I’m a full-time teacher and part-time coach.  I don’t know everything about chess openings, but maybe they can teach me…  Actually I use the kids for exactly that.  Once a kid learns some neat tricks or some slick ideas, I ask them to teach their teammates.  I casually listen in and pretend to know what they’re talking about.  I even argue with them, and when they vehemently argue back, I know that they’ve gained something I could never have given them.  And when their teammates look at them with respect and admiration, I know that they’ve gained something that will shape them for the rest of their lives.  Meanwhile, I’m learning things, too.  And maybe in 20 or 30 years, I’ll be one heck of a chess player.

The greatest reward I ever received came recently when one of my alum finally entered a USCF tournament.  This was his second tournament, as he lost all 4 rounds in his first.  But this time, he knew what he was in for, and this time he succeeded.  In three rounds, he split even with one win, one draw, and one loss.  But the reward came when the only game he really wanted to talk about was his loss.  He knew exactly where his mistake was.  He saw the blunder and knew it was irrecoverable.

Fritz 12

After we plugged the game into Fritz 12, Fritz agreed and flagged move 34 as the deciding move.  The real reward came as we talked about why he had blundered.  We talked about his psychological state of mind.  We talked about how he felt before he moved that knight, as he made the move, and what he felt afterward.  We talked about his frustration with himself.  None of this seems particularly impressive until you consider his past.  Only 3 years ago, this roly-poly Puerto-Rican kid came to me after having been suspended for fighting over virtually nothing.  Here he was, a man standing before me who used his steely nerves and ferocious attitude to demolish opponents across a chessboard.  And now when he gets angry, he knows how to deal with it like a man.

So what makes a good chess coach?  Is it a thorough knowledge of openings books, tactics, strategies, and past masters?  Is it an intricate knowledge of teaching methods?  Is it a pocket-protector and a nasally voice?  No, thought those things do help (voice and pocket-protector aside), but being a good chess coach is really about being a good mentor.  Being a good chess coach means helping kids discover that which made us fall in love with chess ourselves.  It’s really all about being a good human being.  Perhaps over time, I can pass on some of the tips and techniques that I use to teach the game, but behind it all, there must be a love of the game.  Chess is a metaphor for life and as we improve our skill in the game, we improve our skill in life.  As Ben Franklin said, “The game of Chess is not merely an idle amusement.  Several very valuable qualities of the mind, useful in the course of human life, are to be acquired or strengthened by it.”

Erik Czerwin is a self-taught chess player and also a self-taught chess coach.  He founded the current Marengo Community High School Chess team, founded the Marengo Chess Club, plays at the Rockford Chess Club, and occasionally volunteers as a chess teacher at the Rockford Public Library, all in Northern Illinois.  In his spare time, he’s also a full-time high school language arts teacher, part-time graduate student, part-time tutor, and full-time father of two and husband to a very understanding wife.