Indeedio

I come from the chess loving country of Iceland, where I started playing the royal game at the age of eleven. I've been playing it ever since, and I now teach chess full time. I have other hobbies, such as movies, tennis, and long distance running, but chess remains my passion.

I started playing in junior and adult tournaments in my home town in Iceland in the late 1980s, and I would also regularly travel to the capital Reykjavík where bigger tournaments were held. I was the champion of my chess club in 1993 (Akureyri Chess Club), and came second in the open division of the Icelandic Chess Congress 1995. I've travelled to other countries for chess, such as Spain, Czech Republic, Croatia etc. My peak FIDE rating from a few years back was 2113, and I also have a rapid FIDE which is 2083. I've played against David Bronstein, Alexei Shirov and Robert Hubner, to name a few.

I've worked full time as a chess coach in Melbourne and Sydney in Australia. Before that, over a long period I taught many students in Iceland, several of which became national champions in their categories under my guidance. I am a FIDE Trainer (FT). In total, I've taught chess for about eighteen years. I am also a certified teacher, and I've worked as such for many years also. With me, you then get an actual teacher, plus someone who has a lot of experience with chess.

As a teacher, I've taught many other subjects beside chess, such as mathematics, grammar, literature, geography, English and more.

I normally connect well with my chess students, making it fun and interesting for them to learn the game. I think my passion for the game shows when I teach (or so people have told me) which in turn can motivate further the already eager students. I've been told that my lessons are structured yet interesting, and I put in the work to make that happen.

I would like to offer Skype lessons to students ranging from beginner up to about 1700 elo. I believe in getting the basics right before moving on to more complicated things, because the more advanced things are always based on a combination of the basics. I have gathered and created a large amount of lesson material which my students have been privileged to, and that material is constantly being updated and improved because I'm constantly using it and getting feedback from students. The private student will need to play games before the lesson that we will analyze together and there will also be homework in the form of puzzles.

One of my favourite maxims is Lasker's "When you see a good move, look for a better one."