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Coaching, ridiculous fees

I just wanted to ask have you ever taken lessons on lichess and for how much? and what are your thoughts on the 50$ per hour lessons, isn't it a bit unpractical to charge 50$ hr for a chess lesson??
You can watch lectures for free online, and you can analyze your own games. Nobody really needs a coach. The same information they would use is available for free.

"Miss less tactics". That's the only coaching advice most people need.


A good example of this is in this game here you played. You missed mate in 1 not once, not twice, but 3 times in a row.
Just because somebody says they are selling something at a certain price , doesn’t mean there is always someone dumb enough to pay it. Every once in a while someone rated like 1700 will post in this forum offering to coach for a fee - I’d like to meet anyone who would admit to paying for that, because I have all kinds of worthless (to them) shit I could sell them.
This is not an unreasonable rate if the coach is an IM or GM. Of course you do not "need" a coach, but almost all the best players coincidently had coaches at some point.
@lurarose Ok, I see your point, missing less tactics would improve pretty much everyone's game. But how you do that, how do you train? The tennis players would only have to "miss less balls", but they still need coaches to help with specific training.

I agree that a player who is just learning the game doesn't need to pay $50 per hour, that's for sure. But that doesn't mean having a personal teacher wouldn't help...
Really depends on what the coach offers. If you can see that the lessons are well thought-out and prepared, 50$ is okay, because you can assume he spent 1 hour preparing and 1 hour with you.

If the coach says something like: I have looked at your games and this is a topic you need to know because you could have won those games if you were aware of it, lets study it on the example of the games. This is worth. If the coach looks at your games and thinks what opening you could like and teaches you, it is worth.

If the coach watches you solve tactics or plays games with you it is not worth 50$.

A general rule is perhaps to think what is YOUR hour worth to you. Say 15$. Can you achieve what the coach taught you in 3 hours of self study? If yes, its not worth.
I have a couch at the chess school i go to, and trust me you absolutely don't need one. What a coach does, is tells you where to
imrprove, and is basically a second pair of eyes. The only reason i have one, is due to the fact that i get one for free
About a year ago, someone who was stagnant and plateaued at 1800 asked for my help.
After a few lessons (about 5-6 hours total), I had found and showed him a whole side of chess that he wasn't at all aware of.

He's now +2100.

A coach may be effective, but:
-It depends on the coach.
-It depends on which areas need improving.

There is a MASSIVE different between "stating facts", and ensuring that the most relevant facts are impressed on the student in a way that they're not only understood, but recognized and applied the next times that they're at the board.

This is why people like GM Ashley, GM Seirawan, GM Kraai, GM Krush, GM Akobian, IM Tamburro, and many others who have an empathetic-intelligence that they can use as they teach, will always be worth their weight in gold, and why other GMs, such as the vast majority without that same empathetic-intelligence, won't be able to access and appropriately teach their students as well as some of the others.

I know that Lichess wants to protect the members from frauds and has an 'official coach' list; but in my experience, it's the coaches that deserve protection.

The problem with giving free lessons, is that the students won't have a choice but to treat them as though they are free.
As such, the best coaches who would do it for free, no longer really want to, and might charge you at least a cup of coffee here and there.

If your coach can't offer you a plethora of "lightbulb" moments, keep looking.

And Mikhail Botwinnik said:

Chess cannot be taught, it can only be learned.

Think about that, before you make somebody else rich. That's what I say.
But of course if you can afford to spend money on lessons than have a teacher. Maybe even 2 or 3 .

But before you go into debt, check out all free studies on Lichess and all free videos wherever you can find them.

If you are able to lift your rating over 2000 and you get stuck then and if your amibition are still as high as a kite, then consider having a teacher.

@AntiRustWD64
I like what you wrote. Didn't read that before posting here. Totally agree

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