About myself
I was part of the 'Fischer boom' and began tournament play in 1973. My current USCF rating is 2409. I have earned the national titles of senior master and life master as well as the international title of FIDE master. Although I am not presently an active tournament player, I have defeated national champions of the USSR and the USA in tournament play and have finished as high as 4th place in the US Open.
As a teacher I work with both adults and children and am available for group and individual instruction. Many of my students have made excellent progress. So far five have reached the master level, including one young player who went from under 1100 to over 2200.
I also own own and operate Lindsay Chess Supplies, selling a large selection of books, sets and other equipment.
734 434 6122 home
734 434 6123 off
fplindsay@aol.com
Lesson plans
The lesson plan will vary for each student. Factors that I take into account:
playing level
existing knowledge
age
strengths, weaknesses and preferences
progress
Topics that I expect to emphasize with every student:
tactics
endgames
how to analyze variations
planning
Expectations
My teaching style is based on asking questions during class time. This requires quite a lot of participation from my students. I understand that there may be times when a student is not up to this, (most likely due to tiredness), and we can spend the class time on a lecture. While I have no problem teaching this way, I do not believe that a lecture format takes full advantage of the potential of individual instruction.
Students are encouraged to bring in questions. I am always willing to answer questions, or go over games, whether or not they directly relate to the planned topic.
How much should my students expect to improve? Lessons will help, but most of their improvement will be related to the time and effort they spend on the game. While some lessons can lead to immediate improvement, there is generally some lag time between learning a skill or technique and being able to use it effectively in a game. At the very least, I can promise my students will learn something useful every lesson.
Most importantly, I expect my students to enjoy playing chess.
Homework
I will regularly assign homework, either in the form of a handout or by e-mail. I prefer that my students write out their answers. The difficulty of the work will vary quite a bit, both from question to question and from assignment to assignment. I very rarely expect my students to answer every problem correctly. I do expect them to try every problem and write out an answer, even if it just an explanation of why their best tries are incorrect. I do not recommend spending too much time on any one problem. It is better to skip an especially difficult problem, (after writing a tentative answer), and come back to it later.
I encourage my students to ask if they have any questions about what the homework calls for. If every problem seems either very easy or very difficult it is reasonable to assume there has been a misunderstanding. This is especially true once I have gotten a good feel for the student's level.
Further activities
Besides lessons and homework these activities will always be useful:
playing serious games - tournaments or matches
analyzing games, especially one's own
studying good instructional books
solving puzzles
Aside from recommemding appropriate books I can also give advice about how to get the most from other chess activities, such as playing against computers and playing fast games.