Matt Palmer

My classes always start with a quick bit of tactics training using Lichess. I find that this is a great way to warm students up and get them into the chess mindset. Chess is about seeing patterns on a board and drilling some basic tactic patterns lets students see them more easily in their games.
Before the class, I will normally have looked at the student's games and come up with a plan that fits them. If they seem to be having a hard time in the opening, then we might look at some opening theory using an opening database, videos, and online presentations. If they are struggling to plan in the middle game, then we will look at some middle-game ideas like pawn breaks or planning an attack. I will prepare some slides for the class like these and we will go through the ideas in the slides. Once we have completed that stage of the class we then move onto the practical stage of the class during which the student will engage in guided practice online and we will discuss how to apply the ideas that we have learned in a real-life game. The student and I will then look at how to analyze their game so that they can learn from their previous mistakes. Homework generally involves reviewing those applies and applying them to their games during the week, or watching some videos. For younger learners, I have made some games and videos like this one to learn the basics.