ABOUT
Improve And Enjoy Your Chess
For many years, I have taught chess to children and run chess competitions. This has given me a wide range of experience and learning tools to share with prospective students.
My personalised approach ensures that no matter what your skill level, I can help you improve while enjoying your chess.
I am convinced that chess is of huge benefit to children. Chess teaches them how to sit and concentrate to a time limit. Chess also develops logic, critical thinking and creativity. Plus, chess also teaches that hard work can be rewarded.
Finally, or course, chess may be played as a fun game!
LESSONS
Get One Step Ahead Of The Opposition!
INDIVIDUAL LESSONS
In-Depth Coaching For All Abilities
My approach is to understand the style of each individual student. I teach children to play chess the way that suits them, so that they get maximum enjoyment from the game.
The children I have taught have shown an immediate and marked increase in playing strength and confidence.
Click 'Learn More' below to contact me for rates and availability.
GROUP LESSONS
It's A Team Effort
I run chess clubs in several schools. See how I can grow your chess club and increase the confidence and strength of your young stars. I teach to a national chess syllabus and can run your club competitions.
I am also available for one-off lectures and displays.
Click 'Learn More' below to contact me for rates and availability.
CLIENT TESTIMONIALS
Satisfied Clients
"Ray has been an amazing chess coach for our daughter. Ray helped our daughter to complete all levels of the Institute of Chess exams. We are very happy to say that with the guidance and support of Ray, she was able to achieve this feat in less than a year. He made sure she was strong in all her chess concepts and theory at each level before taking up the exams.
Ray is an excellent and invaluable coach, possessing a unique ability to translate complex chess ideas and concepts into simple language to help our daughter better understand. He is patient in understanding the student capability and supported our daughter to engage in and absorb new concepts. He is someone who goes with the playing style of children and improves their skills in chess.
We are very grateful to Ray for believing, encouraging and supporting her. We would highly recommend Ray as a coach!
Sivanandan & Lakshmy"
Parents of Bodhana Sivanandan 1st= Points Score in World U8 Girls Championship, 2022
Ray has a genuine passion for getting kids to improve chess. My son started playing for Bucks Juniors, then moved into playing Bucks adults and now plays for England. All of this is down to Ray’s generosity with his time to come and watch him play and selecting him for the Bucks junior team in the early days, and also coaching my son to further build on his chess skills.
I have tried a few other chess coaches, but many seem to be purely driven by money, and all their advice seems to revolve around how they could earn more (rather than what’s really in the best interest of the child). However Ray teaches out of the genuine passion for chess and a love for kids improving their chess. This is really valuable and rare in a chess coach.
Ray’s extremely patient and allows students to find ‘their way’ and their own playing style, rather than making students learn the openings the coach knows (again a valuable and rare quality in chess coaches).
Ray’s also very methodical in how he teaches. He follows standard chess theory going through levels and getting students to do exams. This helps parents understand their child’s progress as well as formally getting accredited for the level they have reached.
I’m very grateful to Ray for believing in my son and creating the opportunity for him. I can’t recommend him enough!
Shirin Alavi
Ray has been an invaluable mentor to our daughter. Ever since she has been under Ray's tutelage, we have noticed her skill and confidence grow and her chess rating improving at a steady pace. Knowledgeable, professional and extremely patient are only some of the many attributes Ray possesses. We would highly recommend Ray as a coach to any school or individual.
Suzi & Simon Pitcher
Ray is a superb chess teacher with a thoughtful and patient attitude and a deep knowledge of the subject. His lessons are well planned and he has a way of explaining complicated chess theory in simple terms that Primary School children can understand. As the driving force behind Junior Chess in Bucks, he has helped and encouraged our children to rise from complete beginners, to winning trophies at County and National level tournaments.
Phil Skuse & Belha Haria
Ray has been providing private chess lessons to my 8 year old son for over a year now. My son looks forward to his lessons with Ray as he is kind, patient and engaging.
Whilst being systematic and thorough in his approach to teach chess Ray also tailors the lessons to my son's particular needs and individual preferred style of playing chess.
Nghi Tran
Ray is a very dedicated, thoughtful teacher who has a genuine passion to teach chess. His methods of teaching are very organised and methodical. This way he explains every little detail in a much simpler way so that its easier for the kids to understand. Ray has lot of patience and he explains multiple times until kids understand the method. He encourages his students to complete the standard chess theory and write the exams so that they are accredited for their hard work. He has mentored my son and has helped him improve his chess skills further, which has helped raise my sons grade by a lot. Thank you so much Ray. We definitely very strongly recommend Ray!