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Denver and Colorado Chess Teacher referrals:

Contact Todd for a recommendation of a good chess teacher anywhere in Colorado. 

Todd is nationally recognized by the other top master-level chess teachers in the country as a leader in the fields of chess instruction, education, and journalism. He has well over a decade of full-time teaching experience in the classroom, camps, private and group chess lessons, and training other people how to effectively teach the game.  

Todd grew up in Denver and knows most of the Denver chess players and Colorado chess players who give lessons. There are many quality chess instructors in metro Denver and Colorado that he can refer you to for lessons in your area.

It is very important to know that any competent chess teacher with a good reputation will not have to travel very far from home or to a new city in search of new students; his plate will be overflowing where he lives. A chess teacher who looks for students outside his hometown should raise a red flag that something isn't right. History has shown that these individuals usually run low-quality programs and need to have a constant influx of new students to survive.

BEWARE OF "CHESS TEACHERS" FROM OUT OF TOWN:

It is a shame to have to bring this up, but as many of you know, the Colorado Front Range region of the state in the last several years has been plagued by a number of unscrupulous individuals and organizations that have committed various immoral and criminal acts (with prosecutions) passing though the area from other states looking to make a quick buck teaching and organizing chess. The quality of the chess teaching from such entities is usually quite poor.

Aside from the risk of potential criminal activity, individuals and organizations that pop-up from time to time and attempt to teach chess out of their local area tend to run low-quality programs for several reasons: 

1) The individual running the organization usually has limited chess teaching experience him/herself (often has less than even 5 years of full-time, hands-on, experience); and

2) They attempt hire anyone they can find willing to teach a chess class (or classes) for them where they make a large percentage of the tuition. People willing to work for them in such an arrangement usually have even less chess teaching experience or possibly no experience at all (of course these recruited teachers are promised quality training !?). 

The problem for those running this type of business model is that it is difficult to find a quality chess teacher foolish enough to go in for this type of arrangement since they already have the chess instructional skills and experience to teach on their own and have no reason to pay someone else or ride under their banner for the privilege to teach.

The goal of the person trying to hold chess events that tries to hire other instructors to work for them is nothing more than an attempt to get rich quick by making overrides on other's time. After developing a poor reputation in one city, they usually move on to the next one. Being able to teach a technical subject well requires more than just teaching a few classes here and there...it is a skill that is developed over  time. If by chance a company does manage to successfully recruit someone to work for them, the overall quality usually decreases due to the problems listed above. It is important to remember that quality chess teachers don't work for other people - they work for themselves! Check out these companies carefully so you don't end up paying for a high-priced baby-sitter to watch your kids play chess!

The end result of these situations is the consumer ends up paying a higher price for far less quality then they would by hiring someone who lives locally with more teaching experience and historically a much better program and reputation. There is a network of Colorado-based instructors who have a proven track record of running solid programs. As with most things, it is better to go for quality, not quantity – you will be happy you hired a chess teacher who is confident enough in his/her own teaching skills that they work for themselves and not others.

Todd has referred hundreds of students over the years to other quality chess instructors with good teaching skills living in Colorado who are in it for the long haul and teach good local chess programs. Should you have a question pertaining to a particular program in the state, give Todd a call at 303-770-6696. He will be happy to discuss your options.

Colorado and Denver area chess instructors for years have acted respectfully toward each other by not soliciting each other's students. Any newcomer to the area should respect those who have taught here for years and have abided by this unwritten rule and not poach students from anyone else upon moving to the state.  

Denver Chess Classes

Todd has trained and helped out many people in the Denver area who are new to chess to run successful chess programs at their schools.  Give a call if you wish to have some assistance in running a successful chess program (and for no charge!!).

What to Look for in a Chess Coach:  

• Make sure there is a large rating differential between the student and the coach.  Beginners are fine learning from Class A, B, C, and D rated players for a while.  Once the student reaches the 1000-1200 rating range, you may want to look for an Expert or Master level teacher in order to keep the chess strength differential high.  Keep in mind, however, that in chess as in any other field, the best players do not necessarily make the best teachers. 

• Make sure your prospective coach has a track record of success with students in your rating range.  Ask the coach for referrals. 

When it comes to teaching children, first and foremost you should look for an instructor who is a good role model for your child.  This day and age, it is prudent to screen and do a background check on anyone who is working with children (ALWAYS do background checks on any and all prospective chess teachers who are working for an organization from out of state prior to attending their event).  

Once again, ask for referrals and check out the reputation of the prospective instructor because adult chess players, as a subculture of society, can be quite a bit stranger than the average person you meet in the general public.

• A good chess teacher has a written plan or road map of their teaching philosophy and what areas are most important for the student's progression from beginner to the Expert level (95th percentile of all rated chess players).  Ask the teacher what his plan for your progress is!

• A good teacher can give you referrals of current and previous students who are in your rating range. 

• The teacher should focus on teaching the student the game, how to think, and how to correctly evaluate the position and how to come up with the proper strategy.  Chess fundamentals should be the focus.  The best teachers are skilled at getting inside the student’s head, relating to the student, and teaching at the student’s level.  

• A chess teacher should not focus on giving out tactics problems, but structure the lesson based on a chess theme.  Tactics are an important part of chess, and they will come up naturally in the lesson as a matter of course.  The student can get a good problem book like Combination Challenge and solve tactics problems on his own time.  

• Openings (and opening traps) should not be the focus of the chess instructor's program, especially for students rated under 1200.  Inexperienced chess teachers tend to teach specific opening lines to beginners because they don't know what else to teach. Most of the games of players who are rated under 1400 (Class C), don’t get very far into chess opening book lines, and what the student does learn about openings, tends to be memorization, not chess understanding.  Does it really matter if you have to think on your own after eight moves instead of six? Without a fundamental understanding of the game, opening knowledge won't matter much in the end (especially to the beginner); the student gets little bang for their buck and study time by focusing on different opening variations.

• Effective chess teachers spend time teaching, not playing against the student or having the student watch the instructor play online. Speaking of teaching online, it is usually much more effective to teach the student face-to-face, in person. Also, it is a good idea not to allow children to play chess online because most sites have a "chat" feature and you don't know who your child is talking too (see Beware of Teachers From Out Of Town above). 

Teaching chess classes requires additional skills than just teaching private students. Not only should the teacher have the traits listed above (good role model, sufficient playing strength, and a proven plan of action), but also be an energetic and exciting speaker, relate well to the class (getting inside many student’s heads simultaneously), keep control of the class, and make chess fun for the students. As a general rule, the higher rated and stronger the chess teacher is as a player, the poorer the social skills and ability to relate to and effectively teach the children in the class. Carefully check out the personality of a chess teacher before hiring him. Strong chess players tend to have social interaction issues and act in a quite strange manner to normal people. Children quickly identify weird acting adults ... always put good role models in front your students! Your students will learn much more from a normal, average rated player with a more limited knowledge about the game who makes learning fun, than a master, with communication and personality issues who can't effectively relate chess knowledge to young students.

Click here for an article on how a student will normally progress up the rating scale and what realistic expectations should be expected.

Denver Chess Camp and Class Instruction

For group chess instruction in the Denver metro area, click on Denver Chess Academy or Denver Rocky Mountain Chess Camps

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