D.S

How We Met

I was teaching the advanced group at a chess camp back in the Summer of 2023. The players in my group were 700+ USCF, and I had a very enthusiastic student who kept showing up to the camp.

His name was D.S (name is shortened for confidentiality purposes). He was 8 years old and was 917 USCF when he entered my class. I taught him twice a day over the course of 7 weeks. He participated in class, always paid attention, and in between classes he would play chess socially with his friends. By the end of the camp, he was 1201 USCF.

The Journey to Private Coaching

As the last few weeks of camp were winding down, D.S’s mom approached me asking me to teach her son.

We discussed a good training schedule for him, and I have been teaching him online since September 2023.

Whenever D.S is in class, he keeps his full attention on the chess board and doesn’t look anywhere else. He has a fantastic memory, which allows him to have a great learning curve. Combined with his talent, D.S has been very diligent with his homework, even going above and beyond and reviewing them by himself in his spare time.

His consistent hard work has definitely paid off, as seen by this beautiful tactic he played against an opponent last October:

D.S has just become 1362 USCF and is in the top 20% of overall players in the US. Congrats on all your hard work D.S!