Who is a Chess 'Coach'?

During a chess tournament in Greece in 2008, I and a German GM had a fun conversation with two young jolly blokes from Turkey who were sure it was no comfortable career being Chess players in their country.

"But then, how do you hope to lead a good life?"

"You know, we can become Chess coaches. There's good money in coaching".

"But aren't you playing serious tournaments here?"

"You know, we want to become Grandmasters, and then become costly coaches!!"

(A Grandmaster coach and a regular coach)

I was chuckling for days on that, but the German wasn't impressed. He was distraught with the notion that anyone can choose to be a teacher, without having any passion and qualities for the role.

The joke stayed with me, and made me think a lot too. When I turned a chess professional in 2012, when I had to take a decision of how to earn my bread and butter, I had to think seriously. And it wasn't too difficult.

Varugeese Koshy, Vishal Sareen and RB Ramesh are three professional coaches and close friends whose workings I have enjoyed watching from close quarters. I have observed them a lot, how they teach chess to children. How and why they succeed as coaches. And I found it easy to take a decision on teaching children: I simply did not have the abilities to become a full time chess coach.

(Many coaches have knowledge of such deep concepts)

My decision was based on a few clear reasons:

• I really really enjoy playing chess, and cannot think up a reason why I should quit playing tournaments.
• Coaching is a responsible profession, when you have to observe each and every aspect of a child minutely, making the smallest of deductions about your ward. It is possible to do it only when you dedicate yourself completely to the task. Since I decided to continue playing chess tournaments, it was simply impossible to dedicate to coaching full time.
• With the number of amazing child talents in India (and abroad), it is simply a disservice to become a coach and then not to devote yourself full time to a child. Especially with the faith the children and parent have on you...
• I have had the pleasure of working with many Grandmasters and being their 'Second' on occasions in the past. (And hopefully they benefitted too!) Hence, being a 'Mentor' was appealing, instead. To be the kind of 'consultant' coach for stronger players who are matured individuals too. When one can work with a player for a few days in a couple of months and make a difference in their work and play, where my own experience and wisdom of playing chess for more than three decades can help a younger but already strong player to work on his own.
• Apart from working on the chess board, I also enjoyed being a Columnist, Commentator, Event Host and a Reporter, all centered on chess. And I wanted to learn photography too, as chess photography seemed to offer lots of possibilities and enjoyment. And I wanted to make a living doing ALL things I enjoyed, instead of sticking to only one aspect of chess, namely coaching.
  
• When I became a 'Mentor' to a handful of players, I soon started enjoying their friendships, as much as I enjoyed the chess part. Everything became fine, and I was happy to find a niche with the work.

(From Saint Louis 2019. Many Important reasons for not sticking to being a Coach only. Two of those moving pieces in the foreground have been inspirations to find real joy in life itself)

In the past few years, there is an alarming swell in the number of chess coaches in the world. Combine this with the eruption of super talents in India, you literally have a stampede among parents to find a good coach if their child shows early promise. Of course, this is thoroughly justified and admirable, looking at the extent that parents are willing to go to find someone who will properly bring the inherent talent out of a child.

But here lies the catch - not everyone can become a coach for young children, and not everyone possesses the knowledge and temperament to teach chess properly. It was cringe-worthy to hear about a coach who taught Dutch Defence to an 8 year old boy who kept winning, simply because the children who faced him didn't know what to do against such barbarianism in the opening! Or another who simply provided hundreds of printouts of positions to solve daily apart from insisting students to play among themselves for 4 hours a day.

('You will finish 100 positions today. You will be a tactical genius next week')

I have had a sickening feeling of this 'Coach culture' very strongly in the last few years, but didn't dare to vent it out in the chess circle, as it might not be a popular opinion. Till I talked it out with two trustworthy friends who are strong players.

And one of them hit the bulls eye!

During a lazy evening walk on a rainy day, he gave me a pearl of wisdom, "You see, because we do not know the difference between chess strength and chess wisdom, we tend to attach a lot of significance to a coach's title and rating. And simply get tricked by reputations! A coach is good in Openings means that he may just be a theoretician. A coach has lots of well written books behind him may just mean that he is a good writer. A coach may be able to make his students work hard may mean that he is just a good Drill Sergeant!"

(When you can make your students 'finish' Dvoretsky's Endgame Manual in 6 days, and a night)

Of course, I had similar opinions. Was overjoyed to hear that a strong player felt so too. The only point of view where I differ is that, anyone with a knowledge of any facet of chess may be able to inspire a child to learn that particular aspect well. Any kind of chess knowledge is welcome in a child's brain. Except for the Opening kind, of course.

So, who IS really a good coach? Someone like Koshy, who sat months and years with a young Harikrishna and instilled the importance of analysis and endgame knowledge into the genius. Or Krishnan, who instilled a passion for chess knowledge and importance of hard work in Sasikiran, his prodigious son. Or RB Ramesh, who spotted the talent among his students when they just started with chess, and patiently developed them into world beaters, instilling the importance of focussed work and an honest character over the years, Aravindh Chithambaram, Praggnanandhaa and Vaishali among them. Or Vishal Sareen, who spotted the tactical abilities of Abhijeet Gupta and Sahaj Grover much much earlier than it was noticed, and worked with them for years to create such sharp forces of players.

(Vishal Sareen during an intense training session with Abhijeet Gupta)

Simply, any coach who has the flair to spot the spark in young children, who has the wisdom to teach them the most important basics strong and early, who explains the beauty of chess so vividly to develop a burning passion for the game, who shows the importance of competition but stresses on a character with integrity, and who inspires a deep thirst for chess knowledge even while showing the existence of a much huge wider world beyond the chess board too.

And who doesn't dare to teach the Dutch Defence to an 8 year old. That one should be sent to the Cellular Jail at Andamans, which should be rebuilt for the purpose.

(Vacation homes for those who teach Dutch Defence to 8 year olds)