HOW I CONDUCT MY LESSONS

Here are recently asked questions of a chess student inquiring for my lessons.

1. What site do you prefer we play on?

2. Do you offer video chat while we play?

3. Could you describe the actual experience while we play in the hour session?

4. I am looking to learn not only the better moves, but why those moves were the better choices. Is that something you provide?

5. How would i pay you? And could you provide some type of contract/ and or receipt of the service?

So here are my answers to each of these questions to him.  I showed it here so that anyone wanting to inquire about my lessons would have a very good idea how i go about my lessons.

1. What site do you prefer we play on?  I would recommend we use
chess.com as you are already a member of that site.  But for analyzing
games, i would recommend downloading Babaschess.com free software and
creating a username for that site in FICS (
http://www.freechess.org/Register/ ).  Another option here is a paid
site called Internet Chess Club or ICC but you could get their 30 day
free trial here:
https://store.chessclub.com/rewardsref/index/refer/id/ChessOptimist7/

2. Do you offer video chat while we play?  Yes, i do use Skype voice
conversation and if you want it with video it would be fine as well,
although i need to fix my lighting here.  In my experience, it would
be better to use only voice conversation without videos for the reason
that the focus is usually better without the video.  Some of my
students don't want voice conversation with Skype so we use only chat
in chess.com and the other chess sites i mentioned.  But definitely
using Skype with voice and video if preferred is an option.

3. Could you describe the actual experience while we play in the hour session?Option a. We could play a game or two ( probably a 15 to 30 minute per
player games ) in chess.com ( or Babaschess, ICC ) and then analyze
that game together for me to explain all the ideas, principles and
variations in those particular games we played.  Then as part of that
lesson, i would send you via email a complete analysis of that lesson
with full details for you to review every time and remember the
important ideas and principles taught in that lesson--for FREE!
Here's an example of how i analyzed one of my student's game:
http://learnchessbychessoptimist.blogspot.com/2013/02/normal-0-false-false-false.html

Option b.  I let you play another player in chess.com ( Babaschess or
ICC ) while we have conversation in Skype and i guide you throughout
the game, asking you questions, teaching you what ideas are present in
every move and the principles behind them, suggestions on how to
continue and in a sense guiding your thought processes all the time.
This helps you correct wrong ideas about certain positions as well as
learn better strategies about how to prepare attacks and create
winning ideas, etc...After that game ( or those games if you want to
play a lot of faster games ), we could pick one of those games to
analyse together in either Babaschess or ICC ), i will also send a
full analysis of that particular game via email for FREE as part of
our lesson.

Option c. We could fully analyse together a game you played online or
over the board, and you could choose which game you want us to analyse
together in Babaschess or ICC.  This time, you won't be playing any
games but we would spend the whole hour analysing a particular game or
two for you to fully grasp all the ideas and principles present in
those particular games--thus giving you an overall deeper
understanding of the game.  Again, after that lesson i would be
sending you a FREE fully analysed game via your email as part of that
lesson.

Option d.  If you don't feel like playing, you could watch me play a
30 minute game or a few fater games for you to follow while i'm
playing.  What i do here is explain to you what is my thought
processes, how i think about every move that i make, what ideas and
principles i use to choose my moves, what strategic plans i think is
good in each battle and give you a clear idea how an expert thinks.
This is also very helpful and a good option.  Then i also send you the
full analysis of that or those games with all the ideas and principles
that i showed via your email.

Option e. Training games-We will play for the whole hour, and you could 
ask questions at any time.  It could be one or two standard games or several
fast games.  After each games, i could give you tips and insights.  I will pick
one or two games to fully analyze and send to you via email.  I can send it
in pgn form as a new option now, but it's part of our lesson so it would be
FREE for you- Game Analysis in pgn

4. I am looking to learn not only the better moves, but why those
moves were the better choices. Is that something you provide?

Definitely yes!  This is where my style of teaching comes into play,
as i really focus on teaching my students the important ideas and
principles in chess rather than mere memorization of variations.  When
you learn the principles and ideas i will teach you it becomes a part
of you, and you could apply them effectively in your own games.  You
could already guess clearly how i do it with the answers i gave you in
your number 3 question.

5. How would i pay you? And could you provide some type of contract/
and or receipt of the service?First of all, here are the options of payments you can make: paypal,
western union, solidtrustpay and bank to bank.  For bank to bank, i
could give you the details of how you could send it including my bank
swift code.  For contract or receipt, i don't do that for now but if
you want, we could have it this way--you could pay only after every
lesson has been finished.  That way, there won't be any risks involved
whatsoever on your part.

Hope this answers all of your questions.  If you still have some
questions left, don't hesitate to ask me.  We could have a short demo
class if you want, for you to have an idea how we would be making our
lessons.  You just tell me the dates we could meet for that demo class
and i will meet you there.

Take care,

Paolo