CM Sandro Šafar

I'm a 25 year old Croatian computer science student, active chess player and coach.
I'm also a huge video game, board game and escape room fan!

It has always been my dream to help people reach their dreams and goals, and I can happily say I'm living that dream through chess :)

I've been actively playing every tournament I can since I was 8 years old so I have 15 years of playing experience which have taught me a great deal

Credentials:
- Currenly peaking at 2293 FIDE (almost FM)
- Have an IM norm (from EICC2024)
- Top 1% of players in Bullet, Blitz and Rapid on Lichess
- Former #1 in Puzzles for Croatia on Chess com (Peaked over 3450)
- Former top 10 U20 in Croatia
- Current top 3 rapid players on Chess com in Croatia
- Croatian Junior team chess champion (2019)
- Over 2600 Bullet and Blitz rating on chess24
- Over 35 trophies and 100 medals

I've helped 153 people from 28 different countries so far (yes, I really do keep count :'D )
I've been a coach for over 5 and a half years now.

My best improving student improved from 1300 to 1800 in a year!

The strongest opponent beat by one of my students was someone rated 2489 Rapid Chess com (who is now 2600 rapid there)

I teach everything, but my expertise is understanding the game through rules and principles!

I've developed an innovative structure over the years because I'm a big believer in structured learning.

Usually our first lesson will be game analysis so we can see your strengths and weaknesses together. I will also give you practical tips to solve as many problems as I see right off the bat (at the end of that first lesson).
From there, I make a personalized lesson plan for you which we follow through our future lessons.

During my more than 5 years of experience I've seen it all, so don't worry. I am very confident I can get you to the next level because I've done it many times before! :)

At the start of each lesson I like to leave some time for any questions you might have (about your games, about something you've heard online but don't quite understand, about how to work on chess yourself, etc.) before we jump into the lesson I have planned for today.

If you would like to learn something, you can suggest it and I will let you know if it's worth your time. If it is, I will happily adjust my lesson plan based on your suggestion! :)