Tips for Advanced Chess Tutors

For the tutor who is Expert level and above. I've discovered a better method of teaching one-on-one lessons. Instead of having the student show his game to you and then you explaining move-by-move what he/she should've played, it's much more effective to do this:

Sit down with the student and have the student show you the entire game. As they read it from their scoresheet you tell them, "Now as you show me this game I'd like you to explain your reasons for each one of your moves." So they show you the game and at some point they will ask you what you think about a particular move? You tell them that you'll explain all the moves in a minute, but right now you are interested in what they thought about the position.

After the entire game is shown then you set the board back up and go through each move. You make a comment on every move that they made a comment on and also evey move that was bad and explain all the sidelines of play available to them that were better. Obviously, you didn't make any notes or use their scoresheet to do this. If you can't remember their game and comments then this lesson is not designed for you. Most players of Expert ability can do this without a problem. It fortifies the student's confidence in you as they realize that you have not only remembered their game and their comments, but also the sub-variations to their game.

So why is this a better method than the usual one? It does three things:
1) It allows you to get a better understanding of where the student needs help. This is because any comments you might've made during their presentation could alter the way they interact with you.
2) It fortifies in the mind of your student that you are quite talented and they will have more confidence in what you tell them.
3) They realize that if you can do this, they can learn to do it. Once they learn to do this trick it helps their minds remember openings, strategy and positions during tournament play.

It seems to me that a tutor would still benefit from #1 on your list even if he is not good at juggling the game, the students comments, his own comments and all the sidelines available at the same time without notes. The tutor would get a feel for the way the student thinks, which is probably the most important window to look into no matter what the level of student or tutor.

We should always recall that just because a person is good at something, even Expert level at something, does not mean he can teach it. Just look at all the crappy math teachers who say "It's easy, just do it this way!" without realizing that for most people these concepts are very hard to grasp.

I find it quite difficult to go over other people's games as they often have their own way of playing which is completely different to mine. I try to be careful not to force my style onto them.

This is especially true of attacking players - if I'm going over a game between a couple of ten year olds, then it's likely I'm going to be able to find an adequate defence to the winner's sacrifical attack. But does that mean I should tell them their sacrifice was unsound? I tend to just refute the really obviously bad sacrifices and attacking ideas and suggest better ways of carrying out a similar idea.

My theme for tomorrows lesson is "How to survive a sacrificial attack". One of the things I'll be doing is pairing them up and asking them to continue the following game:

1. e4 e5
2. Nf3 Nc6
3. Bc4 Bc5
4. Bxf7+ Kxf7
5. Nxe5+ Nxe5
6. Qh5+

I will try to pair them up so that a player with an attacking style in Black, and one with a more positional style is White, just to see how it works out.

Originally posted by Fat Lady
I find it quite difficult to go over other people's games as they often have their own way of playing which is completely different to mine. I try to be careful not to force my style onto them.

This is especially true of attacking players - if I'm going over a game between a couple of ten year olds, then it's likely I'm going to be able to find an adequa ...[text shortened]... e in Black, and one with a more positional style is White, just to see how it works out.

This reply inspires me to suggest another reason to have a student speak their thoughts aloud. Not only would it be good for the teacher to know the thoughts behind the moves, but it would also be good for the student to hear those ideas, too. I would think that many young players play very intuitively without really considering specific chess ideas. By talking aloud about the game with no interruptions, then perhaps the students could actually learn something about the way they themselves play. Kind-of like video taping your golf swing.

This may be a good activity in group classes as well--set up some exercise where the students have to communicate their thoughts to one another.