GM Matthew Wadsworth

Welcome - my name is Matthew Wadsworth, and I am a 25 year old grandmaster from the United Kingdom. I graduated from the University of Cambridge in 2022 and worked full-time within chess from 2022-2026 as both an active player and coach. In 2025, I became the most recent Grandmaster from England, and my current FIDE rating of 2516 puts me at #8 in the country.

I have been coaching since 2019 and have worked with over 60 individual students and multiple groups in that time. The experience gained from this has allowed me to develop a huge amount in this time, firstly as a coach but secondly as a player.

I learnt to play chess when I was four years old, when my dad taught me the moves. After joining my local club in Maidenhead and playing several local tournaments, I moved up quite quickly to national age group tournaments. I was lucky enough to be picked for England to play at the 2007 World Youth Chess Championship, and have been privileged to play for my country many times at age group level. Two of my proudest achievements from my earlier years were finishing 5th in the under 12 World Championship in 2012, and becoming under 18 British Champion in 2015.

The next step in my chess career was to push towards the FIDE titles. I crossed the 2300 barrier in 2016 to qualify for the FM title, and soon after achieved my first IM norm in the 2015/16 4NCL season. I spent the next couple of years on the hunt for my remaining IM norms, which I achieved at the 2017 Xtracon Open in Denmark and the 2018 Polar Capital Open in Jersey. I finally broke 2400 in May 2019 to secure the IM title, and made my first GM norm in the 2018-19 4NCL season. By this point, I was studying Economics at the University of Cambridge, which afforded me the opportunity to play in multiple Varsity Matches. In the 2019 edition of this match, I got to play the former Women's World Champion Hou Yifan and managed to draw with black, at that point my best single-game result.

After the 2022 British Championship, in which I finished 5th= with chances to place even higher, I decided to commit to chess full-time in the hopes of reaching GM. Since then, I have combined an active playing schedule with coaching, finding that the one has tended to benefit the other. Since 2022, I have played events in a dozen European countries, with standout performances in the 2022 HIT Open in Slovenia (1st outright), the 2024 British Championships (3rd= and my second GM norm), the 2025 Roquetas Open in Spain (2nd= and my final GM norm), the 2025 Bad Woerishofen Open in Germany (1st=, during which I reached 2500 to qualify for the GM title), and the 2026 Isle of Wight Masters (1st=).

My chess career so far would never have happened without the support of my parents, for which I am forever grateful. Moreover, my coaches throughout the years, principally Andrew Martin, Nick Pert and Glenn Flear, have been instrumental in showing me the path to chess improvement, as well as providing my excellent examples on which to model my own coaching.

I first started officially coaching in 2019, while a student at university. This took place online, and continued throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. I have gained significant experience since then, and currently have regular sessions with students across a massive range of both age and ability. I would estimate that my students have been split about 50/50 between children and adults, with a range in strength from beginner to FM-level (although most have been in the 1600-2000 FIDE range).

I also have experience coaching in groups, most notably the Cambridge University Chess Club from 2024-26.

The majority of my coaching still takes place online, although I am equally comfortable with in-person sessions. I am always happy to discuss tailoring my coaching format to meet the specific needs of the student.

I have been involved in academic mentoring at various points throughout my life, and have been able to see the parallels between learning both in school and over the chessboard. These parallels have only been strengthened by my time at university, in which self-discipline and independent study are paramount. More recently, I have had experience in chess commentary and writing articles for various English chess magazines. In both cases, the importance of clearly conveying information is crucial, and I have been able to use this to great effect in my coaching.

There are parts of my opening repertoire that I have been playing for almost 15 years and would consider myself an expert in, for example the English Opening with White and the French Defence with Black. Over the last few years, my repertoire has broadened considerably, and I will be able to offer expertise no matter your opening repertoire. Coaches often emphasise the importance of opening play, but I believe that the greater gains are to be found in other areas. I would regard calculation as the single most important skill to develop for any aspiring player to develop. A good calculation process benefits your play in all stages of the game, from early in the opening to technical, late-stage endgames.

It is generally endgame play that offers the greatest scope for improvement, and I have often found that focusing on this area produces the greatest positive effect for my students; it is also the area of my own game in which I feel I have improved the most in recent years.

I have generally kept to a schedule of weekly, 1-hour lessons with my students, although this can obviously vary depending on the needs and priorities of the student. For each lesson, having a clear theme and lesson objective is key in order to maximise the effectiveness of the sessions. For each student, I will propose a few goals to achieve over a ~2 month timeframe during our sessions. These goals are tailored to the student and will depend both on what the student wants, as well as what I feel are the most important areas that require improvement. Every couple of months, we will assess our progress and propose a new set of goals to work towards.

I am keen to hear feedback from my students, and am always looking for ways to improve my own coaching process in order to achieve the best possible outcomes for my students.