Chess4Life Chess Coaches

Vishnu Warrier

"Chess, like love, like music has the power to make men happy" - Siegbert Tarrasch. My goal as a chess coach is to motivate my students to do their best and realize their potential to become better chess players and better people through the game. By going through the chess playing, studying, and coaching process, my students push themselves and have fun while doing so. Chess is a game that builds upon itself; so I want my students to master all the basics of the game, including piece movement and basic strategy, before moving onto more complex ideas.

As an aggressive player myself, I usually focus on middlegame positions where precise calculation of different variations is of the utmost importance. I also stress endgame study heavily as it is important for students to understand the advantages and disadvantages of each piece individually. I place minimal importance on the opening since it focuses more on the memorization of moves rather than the risks and intellectual creativity seen in the middle and endgame. However, I am flexible with working on different openings with my students by request. A main goal of mine is to help my students plan out the endgame even in the middlegame or opening so my students know what kind of endgame to trade or not trade into.

Personal/Chess Life:

I am majoring in economics at the University of Washington. I learned to play chess when I was 3 years old and I am currently rated around 2000 (peak rating of 2013). I have over 10 years of competitive playing experience. Although I have slowed down my tournament play within the past few years, I still play competitively from time to time. A personal goal of mine is to become a master and after that possibly to pursue the grandmaster title. A few notable achievements of mine include:

Coaching Background:

I have been coaching chess privately since 2005 and have been coaching with Chess4Life since April 2007. I have experience teaching after-school chess clubs, Elliott’s Chess School classes, camps at the Chess4Life center, and private lessons.

I teach private lessons on Saturdays and Sundays at my parents’ home (less than 5 minutes from Kirkland Costco) at a rate of $30/hr. I am also available to do lessons on weekdays in the U district (usually at Odegaard Undergraduate Library) for the same rate.

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