The coach combines concise notes from these teaching references with your current board and Stockfish analysis. The notes guide explanations; they do not prove a move is best.
Opening principles and traps; good and bad bishops; knight outposts; pawn structures and breaks; calculation and tactics; attacking and defending; exchanges; middlegame plans; pawn, rook, minor-piece and queen endings; rules, notation and training habits.
Try “Explain good and bad bishops”, “How do principles change in the endgame?” or “Teach me a minority attack”. The coach adapts the explanation to your level. Ask for a board example when you want to practise.
Use the Pawn play & structures section to learn chains, backward and doubled pawns, islands, tension, breaks, shields, majorities and passed pawns. Compare plans in French, King’s Indian, Carlsbad, Stonewall, Sicilian, Maróczy, Hedgehog, Benoni and Benko structures. Board exercises show concrete examples; the coach should explain both sides’ plans and check whether an idea fits your actual position.
Further reading: GM Johan Hellsten’s pawn-structure curriculum and NM Robert Ramirez’s pawn-weakness curriculum. Our concise notes and exercises are original; these links are references, not copied courses.
The lesson menu also covers defensive tactics, clearance and X-rays, underpromotion, visualisation, converting advantages, triangulation and rook defence. New board exercises demonstrate en passant, double check, removing a defender, clearance, trapping a piece and knight promotion. Two-bishop and bishop-and-knight exercises show the final mating pattern; they are a starting point for learning the full technique.
Prepared positions are checked for legal moves. Selected endgames also have exact endgame-database checks. Newly constructed examples are illustrations and may need correction.
Teaching library expanded 27 September 2026. The coach uses general chess knowledge plus selected teaching notes and exact-board analysis. It can discuss topics beyond the prepared exercises, but it does not know everything or verify current theory on the internet during a lesson. Unknown named positions and precise claims may need clarification.