“I would recommend any player master level and below to take advantage of GM Pontus years of experience, coaching abilities, and clear explanation of each phase of chess.”
(Glenn Bady US Master)
“He explains with great skills in his easy manner why a position is favorable instead of books that just say – and here white is better, and went on to win.” (Henrik Karlsson Sweden)
“His rating went up rapidly by about 300 points in last few months. My 4th grader plays in the high school section nowadays!!” (Suchetha Ravishankar USA/India)
Trainer experience
I have more than 20 years of trainer experience and enjoy to help ambitious students, young as old improve their chess. The level of my students are everything from beginners to International masters. My trainings suit all levels of players since every training is customized after the student and their level.
How does it work?
We first start with setting up a goal for the training and then I analyze the students strong and weak parts of his or her game by looking at past games. After that a training plan for improvement is set up and executed. What the plan contains might differ a lot depending on the level of the student but for example if someone has a bad opening repertoire we construct a new opening repertoire that suites their playing style, if someone is weak tactically we train combinations by learning and practicing the different combination themes and so on..
Pedagogical skills
My pedagogical skills are very well developed since apart from chess I am an educated language teacher in Spanish and English and holds a huge linguistic interest. Therefore I can hold the classes in many languages like English, Spanish, German, French, Swedish or Chinese.
Comments from students
[expand title=”Glenn Bady US Master”]
I just had my weekly affordable training with GM Pontus and he was explaining to me how to determine a critical position in the middle game. Extremely instructive and valuable information for a master level player and below. GM Pontus gave me a clear explanation of the proper thought pattern one needs to have to execute a series of ideals (not moves) during the game. We meet on Skype and the broadcast is excellent. I would recommend any player master level and below to take advantage GM Pontus years of experience, coaching abilities, and clear explanation of each phase of chess. Oh! and if you are playing in the WORLD OPEN and planing to win your section, BIG MONEY, I suggest you start lessons immediately and your playing strength will definitely improve over 200 points!
[/expand][expand title=”Suchetha Ravishankar USA/India (Chess Mom)”]
When i asked my 9 year old son why he likes Pontus’ training, the answer was “he teaches me new stuff that i don’t know”. Ever since we started skype training with Pontus, my son has developed an increased interest for chess and he started winning tournaments. He was placed in top position in most of the tournaments he played including State and National level. His rating went up rapidly by about 300 points in last few months. My 4th grader plays in the high school section nowadays!! Pontus explains concepts in a calm but interesting way, engaging the student through questions, making him guess the best move and by explaining pros and cons of each move. We love training sessions with Pontus, highly recommended!
[/expand][expand title=”Henrik Nordolum Norway (ELO 1636)”]
I started taking private lessons last summer, since then I have improved my rating and understanding considerably. My STD-FIDE rating have gone from 1433 to 1614, and will hopefully grow even more. I feel the lessons with Pontus has given me a good understanding of the game and the dynamics. I absolutely recommend to get Pontus as coach, and I look forward to improve my game even more with him in the future.
[/expand][expand title=”Henrik Karlsson Sweden (ELO 1685)”]
Pontus has excellent skills in teaching his students, to put it plain: “He is a great teacher that makes the students put in the extra effort to learn and improve their play!”.
First he starts by analyzing your past games and then comes up with a plan to improve your skills, in my case the first step was to construct an opening repertoire. Pontus started by explaining the main goals of the openings and the plans behind them. (He explains with great skills in his easy manner why a position is favorable instead of books that just says “and here white is better, and went on to win.”)
Every week one of the highlights is my lessons with Pontus that I look forward to from the end of the last lesson.
I myself have improved my play from being bashed by players around 1500 to keeping at least an even play with players around 1800-2000. I have gotten a much deeper understanding of the thoughts behind the game in just nine months, and I feel that in the near future I will advance my rating to at least 2000.
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Why do I need a trainer?
[expand title=”Why do you actually need a trainer?”]
Questions & Answers with GM Pontus Carlsson
Interviewer Dr. Daaim Shabaz www.thechessdrum.com
Why do I need a trainer with all available literature online and in bookstores?
Well the answer is easy. All literature available makes it even more difficult to navigate and to find the right books to read and to construct the right opening repertoire for both scoring points and improving the level of your play. Thus you need help to find your right path for improvement. It is better to learn from an experienced player and trainer who has taken the same journey from a beginner to a grandmaster.
OK… it sounds good, but what is the extent of your teaching experience?
Being both an experienced grandmaster and an educated teacher with 20 years of coaching and training experience I have developed an instructive and pedagogical way of teaching and explaining chess to my pupils.
Can you clarify what a typical training session is like?
In the trainings we will structure and sharpen your opening repertoire, practice tactics and endgames, improve your positional and strategic skills by analysing and going through instructive grandmaster games as well as analysing your own played games, which is a very important method on the road for improvement. My experience also tells me that it is very difficult for club players to improve only by checking their games with Fritz, Rybka or Houdini since than no one explains why white has an advantage of 0.31 pawns or which plans that should be preferred in this type of positions. Rather the opposite it can be very easy for club players to draw wrong conclusions from checking the games with the help of Fritz or other engines.[/expand]
It all sounds very interesting how do I contact you for more information?
If you are interested in trainings and to improve your rating and chess skills you are welcome to contact me by email at pcarlssonchess@gmail.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pontus.carlsson.547
Twitter: https://twitter.com/GMCarlsson
Skype: pintuz24