IM Valeri Lilov

I am a 33-year-old International Master and professional chess coach. My FIDE rating is 2438 (Classical) and 2515 (Online). In addition to giving high quality private lessons, I work as professional lecturer for many popular sites, including Chess.com, ICC, ChessBase, ChessLecture.com, and ChessCube.com. I have extensive knowledge of openings, typical middlegame positions, endgame planning, competitive chess psychology, and many others. Furthermore, I use a new flexible method of teaching that allows each of my students to receive the most important skills they need for the moment to excel in tournaments and casual games, while correctly improving their chess. I believe chess is a good way for anyone to strengthen their character, learn how to make important decisions for limited time, or just have a lot of fun. I welcome you as my student and will do my best to assist you within hours of contacting me! Below, I have included more detailed information on my training methods and services I provide to everyone interested in training with me!

At the age of 6 years and a half, Valeri played for the first time in a real chess tournament among other strong players under the age of fourteen. Then, he took the respectable second place. At the age of seven, Valeri was able to play blindfold chess on several boards simultaneously. A year later, he managed to boost his ELO rating to 1985, which was a record-breaking achievement for an eight-year-old kid in his native country of Bulgaria. In the following years, Valeri became the national chess champion in all age groups including U10, U12, U14, U16, U18, and U20 and that achievement brought him numerous medals and distinctions that encouraged him even more in his quest of becoming a master. In the year of 2000, Valeri became the European Individual School Chess Champion U10 scoring 6.5 out of 7.0 points in this annual international event held in Moscow, Russia.

Today, IM Valeri Lilov is the proud owner of over thirty cups and medals from national and international tournaments. In 2005, Valeri made another interesting personal record by achieving thirty-two wins in a row from national championships and prestigious competitions around the country, which included two magnificent victories in simultaneous exhibitions against the top Bulgarian grandmasters, Veselin Topalov and Kiril Georgiev. In 2007, the former President of the Republic of Bulgaria, Georgi Parvanov, officially awarded Valeri Lilov with a one-year scholarship in recognition of his achievements in chess through the years.

At the end of the same year, in one of the most popular chess servers, Playchess.com, Valeri claims to have made yet another significant personal record when he defeated one of the strongest computer chess engines in the world, Hiarcs 11.1, in a bullet chess match with a total score of 4 wins vs. 3 losses. Around that time, he also managed to win a 4+1 blitz game against the strongest chess player of all times, Garry Kasparov, who supposedly plays under the nickname of 'Raffael' on Playchess.com. In 2008, Valeri Lilov achieved his top FIDE rating of 2443 and in 2013 the title of International Master.

Currently, Valeri works mostly as chess trainer. He is now employed as part-time lecturer for five of the most popular chess giants on the internet, including ChessBase, ICC, Chess.com, ChessLecture.com, and ChessCube.com, while receiving countless offers to comment international opens, train whole national teams, and help anyone who wants to improve in the ancient game and take their chess to the next level.

In January, 2010, Valeri Lilov was officially invited to the ChessBase headquarters in Hamburg, Germany to record his first two DVDs on the Sicilian Kan and Queen’s Gambit Accepted. This marked the beginning of a long collaboration between ChessBase and IM Valeri Lilov which ultimately resulted in over 15 DVDs being produced and a number of other instructive chess training materials being distributed to the countless chess enthusiasts around the globe.

Upon the purchase of one private online lesson, you are entitled to receive a free special personalized chess training program, which will outline the topics that you most need to study, as well as the training methods and materials, which will deliver greatest results in terms of improvement over a short period of time. Tiger Lilov’s online course also includes free thematic homework assignments, which are given upon the completion of each chess lesson on a given topic and helps students measure to what degree they have understood the material. Though optional, the homework assignments are a great way for IM Valeri Lilov to keep track of his students’ improvement and provide them with the opportunity to test their new knowledge and skills as they progress further! The Tiger’s lessons are indeed the best personalized chess training on the internet! With his innovative approach and originality, IM Valeri Lilov has crafted a fool-proof system for coaching chess players of various levels effectively, which made him one of the top chess trainers online!

A Personalized Approach to Training...

On this page, as well as on TigerLilov.com, I offer a number of services that my students use to boast their chess training and improve their general playing strength. For each of my new students, I prepare a free personalized chess training program which serves as the main guide for me on how and what to teach this student at any given point, so that s/he improves visibly and steadily over the course of our training. This personalized training program is based on my student’s chess background, sample games, strengths and weaknesses, as well as style and level of play, chess psychology, and learning preferences among many others. When new students enrol to take online lessons with me, I first collect and analyze all the information and sample games they submit via e-mail before I build their personalized training programs and make important decisions on the course of study we are to take, so that we observe the best results and highest performance over the board.

There IS such thing as free training...

While my students work on their personalized training programs with me, they are entitled and often swarmed with a number of free services and complementary training materials I am always happy to provide for free. Being quite ambitious myself, I believe in achieving the desired results rather than performing my job alone. When I teach a student that aspires to improve and does so much to achieve their dream of becoming a master, I want to help them get closer to their goal faster. Here are some of the services I do for free every day:
Free Personalized Chess Training Programs for anyone interested in training with me.
Free Opening Repertoire Screenings.
Free Bonus Lectures and Training Videos sent by request or whenever I believe a student needs to work more on a given area.
Free Recent Games Reviews and Analyses via e-mail.
Free Thematic Homework Assignments after every lesson.
Free Bonus Lectures and Training Videos sent by request or whenever I believe a student needs to work more on a given area.
Free 24/7 Online Support (Skype, E-mail, & Chess.com) for anyone having questions on their chess training and practice, upcoming tournaments and tough matches, recent games and training exercises, or anything chess-related that I can help my students with.
Free Complementary Training Materials to each of my regular students depending on their training program needs and objectives.

Training Focused on Problem Areas...

I am happy to provide training to anyone based on their problem areas in chess. Here is only a short list of the most common topics I cover with my students:
Building (or Improving) a Complete Opening Repertoire for White and Black based on Student’s Personal Style of Play and Strengths and Weaknesses.
Creating an Opening Outline for Smooth Piece Development in Unfamiliar Openings.
Improving Planning and Evaluation Skills for Better Middlegame Play.
Mastering Piece Coordination Allowing our Pieces to Interact Successfully and Support our Plan.
Understanding Middlegame Strategy and Developing a Positional "Sense".
Preparing and Leading a Successful Attack.
Using Prophylaxis and Prevention of Opponent’s Plans and Threats.
Rediscovering Defense as a Powerful Tool for Saving Hopeless Games.
Improving Tactical Vision and Calculation Ability.
Boasting Positional Play and Developing the Right Habits for Quiet Positions.
Understanding Theoretical and Practical Endgames.
Correctly Prioritizing Important Chess Principles during a Practical Chess Game.