Chess Tutoring, Chess Coaching, Chess Classes with NM Will Stewart

The essence of chess war is struggle between two opposing armies, or two hostile and irreconcilable wills of the generals of the two armies, each trying to impose itself on the other. It is like a pair of wrestlers locked in a hold, each exerting force and counterforce trying to throw the other. Chess war is therefore a process of continuous mutual adaptation, of give and take, move and countermove. The key here is that [...]

Winning is chess is often over-thought and underachieved. Chess players by nature are very interested in psychology, and this often leads to detrimental effects on their quality of play as it easy to “psych yourself out” and over-think simple decisions. For the experienced player, playing chess should be ingrained in your brain similar to seasoned athletes retain muscle memory in sports. The best way to approach a game of chess is with a strong mentality [...]

The chess board represents a very accurate reflection of life. By dissecting your play, you will encounter a very strong representation of your personality and competitive mentality. In my own games, I always strive to create maximum threats and aggression – my only goal is to win and I do not care how it happens (under ethical constraints of course!). And this is exactly the type of psychology I would like to impart on my [...]

1 of the biggest mistakes I encounter in online chess classes with beginner students is the natural inclination towards making exchanges. It’s almost like many beginner chess players hear voices in their head telling them “You must trade a lot of pieces to win.” Now I’m not trying to say you have to completely avoid trading pieces – however it’s very important to understand and apply the concept of maintaining and increasing pressure in a [...]

  When you teach your child to play chess, you’re giving them valuable tools that they can use in life. They can relate the lessons learned over the board to what is going on around them.I like to give a lot of real life analogies throughout my lessons. It makes teaching fun! There are many ways to do this, and I have shared my most successful analogies in my book, Chess Is Child’s Play. Real [...]

1of the most difficult concepts to learn in chess is the flexibility of material worth. There are 3 basic elements to evaluate in a position: material, position, and time – however for the purpose of general study you typically only need to worry about the material and position. Accurately leveraging the value of certain pieces against positional considerations is so tough because both aspects are constantly changing with every move. It can be easy to [...]

It is very easy to pay too much attention to the pairings, and specifically your opponent’s rating. Over-emphasizing your opponent’s rating is one of the most common mistakes a beginner chess player can make, potentially resulting in a lack of confidence, feelings of anxiety and hopelessness, and generally bad play. It’s OK to check the pairings and try to get a head start by trying to prepare against an opponent if you’ve played them before [...]