FM Esshan Wadhawan

Hi, Esshan Wadhawan this side from Delhi.
I started playing chess relatively late, at the age of 11. After four years of active tournament play, I reached a peak rating of 1983. However, due to COVID-19 and increasing academic commitments, I had to step away from serious chess in 2019.
In Mid 2022, I started working as a coach, and by the end of 2023, I started working with IM Daeevik (17 years old), particularly in openings. That process reignited the passion I once had for the game, so much so that I decided to put my final year of graduation on hold and return to chess professionally.
I resumed my tournament career in mid-2024 and, over the next 1.5 year, increased my rating from 1920 to 2320 at K=20, earning the FM title along the way.
From building opening repertoires and studying countless middlegame books to learning theoretical endgames, I've spent a great deal of time experimenting with different approaches and figuring out what actually works in practice and what doesn't.
Right now, my goal is to achieve the IM title while helping ambitious young players improve their game and climb the rating ladder.

Some of my major achievements include:
- Winning multiple State Championships
- Increasing my rating from 1920 to 2320 at K=20 in just 20 months
- Finishing 4th at the Western Asian Chess Championship and 5th at the Commonwealth Chess Championship
- Defeated multiple IMs and GMs over the past year, including a number of convincing wins around move 30 only
My playing style was initially very aggressive and dynamic. While this often helped me score wins against strong opponents, it also led to unnecessary risks and inconsistency. Over the past year, I've worked extensively on my positional understanding and strategic play, which helped bring greater stability to my game and played a key role in my rating climb.

My most notable work has been with IM Daaevik, particularly in opening preparation for National and World Cadet tournaments. Alongside, the final round of the National Under-13 Championship, where opening preparation helped him secure a relatively comfortable win, which earned him 2nd place overall.
This experience proved invaluable in helping me understand the importance of psychology, playing style, and tailoring preparation to the individual factors that are often key in serious events such as National Championships and other major tournaments.
I started coaching professionally in 2024. When working with younger players (typically aged 8–15), I place a strong emphasis on simplicity and design both my lessons and study material around that principle.
Some of my students' notable achievements include:
- Winning Bronze Medal at the ASEAN Championship
- Representing their countries at Asian and World Championships in respective age categories
- Winning multiple State Championships
- A 10 year old student increasing their rating from 1570 to nearly 1850 in just four months, along with many other similar stories
In addition to coaching, I also work as a second for IMs and other professional players, assisting with specialized tournament preparation.

I'm currently accepting limited students at 30$/hr. You can reach out to me via Lichess inbox or Whatsapp @+91-9625628685 with details about the student(s) playing level, age, goals, and any specific areas they would like to work on.

Opening Preparation:
Over the years, I've gained a lot of experience here, both as a coach and player. When it comes to openings, I don't believe there's a one-size-fits-all approach. It depends largely on the player's style, future goals, and the time available for study.

Planning and Strategy:
As a self-taught player, this is an area I've struggled a lot. Not knowing how to proceed is one of the most common struggles for improving players, often leading to stagnant growth and eventually losing interest in the game.
Instead of learning 8-step methods to evaluate a position, which are near impossible to apply during an over-the-board game, I focus on teaching simple principles aimed at finding the next move as quickly as possible, while making an active attempt to improve our position with every passing move.

Practical Recommendations:
Being an active tournament player myself, I place a lot of emphasis on practical tournament situations. This includes topics such as how to convert winning positions, managing time trouble, dealing with anxiety before crucial rounds, among other situations that players regularly face in tournaments.

My teaching approach is based on keeping things simple yet systematic. Having gone through countless thinking systems in an attempt to solve the problem of "cluelessness" or "what do I do here?", I've come to realize that most are not practical for over-the-board play. Chess is simply too complex for a system to work universally.
Instead, it's better to prioritize specific areas of the game, often based on the student's strengths and weaknesses. This is usually followed by teaching some basic theory on how to proceed. It's not intended to be a complete or perfect system, but rather a guideline that helps with assessing positions and calculations. This is then reinforced through multiple examples, relying on pattern recognition to help develop intuition for the concept.
Regarding opening preparation, the aim is to build a repertoire based on sound openings that suit the player's style while keeping room for future expansion. When it comes to tournament preparation, especially for National and International Championships, it's important to understand the opponent's playing style and habits, and prepare openings that specifically aim to bring them out of their comfort zone. Having successfully applied this approach both in my own practice and with my students, I can confidently say that it tends to have a much greater impact than simply trying to surprise an opponent with an early novelty.
All of my sessions are interactive. This helps bridge the gap between a student's evaluation and the correct solution, while keeping lessons engaging and ensuring active participation throughout.
Besides I provide a personalized training schedule to each student, as per their needs and time available.
My goal is to provide a supportive learning environment where students can enjoy the game of chess and can freely express their ideas and thoughts.