IM Sam Collins

I'm the top rated Irish player (2456 FIDE, with a peak rating of 2495) with 3 GM norms.

I'm a former Irish and Japanese champion. I've represented Ireland in 8 Olympiads (winning a gold medal in Bled 2002) and several European Team Championships.

I've coached the Irish junior team and taught the master class at the Berkeley Chess School. I also worked as an opening coach for the Norwegian Women's team in the 2015 European Team Championships. I've extensive experience coaching some of Ireland's top junior players, and regularly coach the Gonzaga Chess Team at the Milfield International Chess Tournament (champions for six consecutive years).

I've published 10 chess books (translated into four languages) and as many DVDs. I also publish a monthly opening column on chesspublishing.com.

In my work with students, I find the following approach tends to work well.

First, email me a description of yourself, your opening repertoire, your playing style and your learning objectives. If you can deeply annotate 3-5 of your recent games, this gives me a great view of your strengths and weaknesses, and allows me to make recommendations for further study. [EUR 80/USD 95 for 3 annotated games with suggestions, EUR 100/USD 120 for 5 annotated games with suggestions]

Lessons are run on Lichess with Skype or Zoom [EUR 100/USD 120 for 1 hour, EUR 160/USD 190 for 2 hours], using a combination of training positions (tailored to your playing strength and learning objectives), game analysis, and homework exercises.