Find your chess tutor in Ottawa

Take Your Chess Skills to New Levels in Ottawa

Learn and Excel at Chess with the Help of a Private Tutor

One of the oldest and most popular board games, chess is known as the game of strategy. Chess evolved from ancient Indian and Persian variations into the game we know today in Southern Europe in the 15th century. Chess is played between two opponents who both try to remove each other’s King in checkmate. 

Chess involves complicated maneuvering, tactical planning, and defense–where players need to think a few moves ahead. It’s a game that requires focus, skill, and hours of practice over time. No matter what skill level you're currently at, if you're serious about upping your chess game, consider hiring a private tutor. Right now in Ottawa, you can connect with several highly-rated chess tutors from the comfort of your home through the Superprof platform.

Why Should I Learn Chess?

It’s Fun

First and foremost, chess is a game. Both recreational and competitive chess players enjoy playing and truly love the game. Why? Because it never repeats itself, there are never two equal matches, and it’s never boring. It’s easy enough to learn the basic rules of the game–making it accessible and open to all, but extremely hard to master–making it interesting, challenging, and fun! When you start playing chess, the game absorbs you and you forget about everything other than the board. It’s a great mental escape. Chess is also a social activity. Since you’re always playing with another person, it’s a great way to meet people and become a part of a community. Ottawa is a great chess city with many local clubs and tournaments you can join.

It Makes You Smarter

Unlike most board games there's very little luck involved with chess, making it solely based on logic and skill. The more you focus on chess strategy, the more you’ll see overflowing benefits to your general intelligence. 

In fact, playing chess has been proven to:

• Directly contribute to increased academic performance–especially in English and Math.
• Dramatically improve the player’s ability to think rationally, plan ahead, develop patience, and communicate well. 

• Develop aptitudes in recognizing patterns through careful observation and concentration.

It Can Make You Money 

If you become good enough at chess, you can even win large amounts of money in clubs and tournaments. At the highest end of the scale, the world chess championship gives out $1-2 million in prize money! In lesser Canadian and American tournaments, prize money is typically in the five figures range. And at the lower end of the scale, clubs still even offer winners hundreds to thousands of dollars. 

A hobby that’s enjoyable, good for your mind, and can even be lucrative–learning and playing chess is not only a great use of your free time but also a good investment in self improvement. 

How to Get Better at Chess

Practice, Practice, Practice 

To get really good at chess, you have to play, play, and keep playing more chess. Like anything in life, you will get better with repetition. So, take every opportunity you can to play chess, especially with another person. While computer versions and even against yourself are still good practice points, nothing teaches you better than the real experience with another player. Because the more you play, the more you understand. 

For instance, you might not realize that you need to study Rook endgames until you actually blow a Rook endgame in real life. 

Review Your Games 

Every game–whether you win or lose, presents a learning opportunity to both dial down on your accomplishments and to learn from your mistakes. It might be painful, but learning from your mistakes is essential to avoiding them in the future. But, it makes it much harder to remember the lessons you learn if you don’t review soon after the game and keep note for the future. We suggest writing down or keeping a digital record of the moves from every game you play. It’s also helpful to jot down your thought process and strategy as you worked through each move. Over time you’ll have documentation of your growth record and be able to see how much you’ve improved. That progress itself can be very motivating.

Study 

While learning by action is best for a game like chess, studying, reading, and researching is also helpful! By analyzing past games of stronger players, you’re going to be exposed to ideas and maneuvers you would never have discovered yourself. 

When studying, specifically try to learn: 

1. Openings: Learn the basic ideas behind your go-to chess openings and 1-3 variations. 
2. Endgames: Near the end of most games, the board is typically left with kings and a few other pieces. Learning to navigate these scenarios is the crux of winning chess. 
3. Short Term Tactics: For the fastest results, work on move combinations by learning to recognize patterns and opportunities.
4. Long Term Strategy: Work to weaken your opponent piece by piece over the entire game by studying chess strategy and really planning out your attack.

Get a Chess Coach or Private Tutor 

Getting a chess tutor can tremendously accelerate your progress. They’ll bring years of experience to your games together and will be able to coach you on an individual level. As a very strong chess player themselves, your chess tutor will be able to give you: 

1. A Practice Partner: With a tutor, you’ll get a dedicated partner to play all your chess games against. They’ll provide feedback real time throughout the game,  or challenge you with their expert moves. Furthermore, having a go-to practice partner will provide the accountability needed to commit to learning a new skill. There are going to be days when you don't feel like learning or practicing, but your tutor will be right there at your scheduled time to keep you motivated and progressing. 
2. Good Advice: A chess tutor can act as a chess mentor figure for you. They’ll be there to be your sounding board where you can share your difficulties, successes and failures with them.
3. Help With Reviewing Your Games: You can also review your past games with your chess tutor and they’ll provide a more experienced opinion and alternative suggestions. Conducting these “post mortems” after games can be very instructive and enlightening.

Accelerate Your Chess Game Today

Chess is a complex game that takes tons of time to master. If you want to get good at chess fast, hiring a private tutor is the best option. At Superprof, we connect you with local Ottawa chess tutors for sessions either in-person or online. Make chess a priority and take the first step by signing up with a tutor today.