IM Kim Steven Yap

My name is Kim Steven Yap and I am an International Master and a FIDE trainer. My best achievement in Chess is when I played in the Asian Chess Clubs League in 2014 in Al, Ain, UAE for team Philippines. I won the gold medal in board 2 but I played the board 1 players in almost all the games, I beat 3 GMs in the tournament including Sasikiran Krishnan of India. Our team, team Philippines - Tagaytay finished 2nd ahead of China.

In 2018, I traveled around the United States to coach players in different Chess Schools, in the same year I grabbed a Grand Master norm.

I have been playing Chess since I was 7 and became a National Kiddies Chess champion when I was 12. I sealed the International Master title when I was 20 after grabbing my final norm in Singapore Mixed-Masters Open. I won the Gold Medal in ASEAN Chess Clubs League in Al Ain, UAE in 2014. During the Berkeley Masters Invitational 2018, I scored 7 pts out of 9 in the IM event to secure first place. In the GM event, I scored 6.5pts to grab a GM norm and went on to snatch second place in the tournament.

Right after I became IM, I worked as a Chess Coach for the University of Cebu. After finishing college, I have worked in Singapore under ASEAN Chess Academy from 2011 to 2014. In 2014, I founded my own Chess School, the Cebu School of Chess, with the goal of producing future masters. Most of my young students have already received numerous awards. One of whom is Jerish Velarde, who grabbed a silver medal during the Asian Chess Schools in Singapore in 2014, thus coming out as a Candidate Master when he was only 8 years old. In 2018, I traveled around the United States to coach players in different Chess Schools, in the same year I grabbed a Grand Master norm. I worked with Megan Paragua when she was only 7 years old during the pandemic and now she is a Woman FIDE Master with 2100+ rating and a World Champion for the 12-U in both Rapid and Blitz section.

I have been successful against a number of Grand Masters such as GM Wesley So, GM Zhao Jun, GM Sasikiran Krishnan, GM Conrad Holt and so on.

My student, Phuwin Louwakul, recently won first place in Thailand National 10U. I have also been coaching Boaz Liu, who achieved 700+ points rating in 10 months. I do training sessions (sparring and game analysis) with the World number 1 for 9 years old. My other student, Gracie Yan finished as champion of the All-Girls National for 8under in the US. I have been preparing 9 year od Sean Aldrich Obaldo for the Asian Chess Schools in Thailand.

I usually try to understand a player according to the way he understands a position and I focus on finding solutions to move him to the next level. I am a specialist in endgames and e4 openings for White. As Black, I have a repertoire for the Grunfeld system, the Nimzo Indian, the King's Indian Defense, the Caro-Kann and the Sicilian defense. My greatest strength is through the power of preparation, I always see to it that before a player battles, he stands a good chance of winning.

I provide holistic training programs for my students that includes tournament and psychological preparation. Each player has a different weakness and strength and as a coach I work on how I could correct the player's bad habits and enhance his strength much further.