Children's Chess Tutor With 18 Years of Playing Experience

Harrison K.

Hello! My name is Harrison, and I have been playing chess for 18 years (since I was four years old!) and played in my first in-person tournament at the age of five. My current rating is 1825 on chess.com, placing me in the top 0.5% of players on the site!

I absolutely adore working with kids – I have spent the majority of my career working with children between the ages of 5-13, and pride myself in being able to educate and form tight bonds with them. I founded and tutored for a local children’s chess group that met weekly, where nearly all of the small group sessions filled up. The feedback was so stellar that many of the parents requested 1-on-1 practice to even further strengthen their child’s chess skills outside of the group sessions. This provided me with thorough expertise to tutor a wide range of levels, from complete beginners to intermediate players who want to further improve their game.

My ethos when teaching chess to kids consists of the following:

1) Making sure they are having a good time! It is crucial for kids learning chess, especially in the early stages, to enjoy themselves and feel confident while playing. This will greatly increase the likelihood that they would want to continue playing chess for a long time.

2) Mastering the fundamentals! Chess is a game where foundations are vital to long-term success. For instance, while memorizing opening sequences can win games in the short term (i.e. “the four-move checkmate”), being able to understand why you are making a move is infinitely more helpful for improving at chess.

3) Challenging themselves! Even the greatest chess players haven’t completely mastered the game. There is always more to learn, and positive reinforcement is one of the best ways to make it stick.