Free Chess lessons for Beginners and Intermediates

Welcome to my blog. I’m Paul Onwueme a professional chess instructor and coach with an above average knowledge of chess theory and practical chess play. I don’t have a FIDE rating but my playing strength is in the region of 2000+ based on my performance at local tournaments in Nigeria against rated players.

I started teaching chess professionally in 2008 with the Candy Kids Chess Academy in Lagos before relocating to Abuja in 2011. After a 2 year break I resumed teaching chess in 2013 with the Pio Chess Academy which is my business venture. I currently employ 2 part time chess instructors and run my chess in schools project in 6 schools in Abuja. At the moment 3 of my schools are among the best ranked schools for chess in Abuja with brilliant individual players and talents discovered.

My Services

I teach chess professionally both privately at homes of some of my clients and in various schools in Abuja, that notwithstanding I also train personally by analyzing grandmaster games and building up a solid base of chess positional and tactical knowledge which I intend to share with my readers on my blog. My teaching style emphasizes clear and practical lessons with puzzles and case studies of grandmaster games. All of these have a way of impacting the playing strength of my students and so far is working for me as well.

So if you want to grow in your playing abilities and become the strong chess player you have been wishing for a while – assuming you are an intermediate player – I’m only too happy to teach you and show you how to improve your play in tournaments.

This blog is divided into 3 sections namely; tutorials, coaching and recommendations. You’ll get free chess lessons from the tutorial segment to improve your knowledge of the game while the coaching aspect is designed to help you achieve improved tournament results and performances. The recommendations are books, chess software and advanced training classes I suggest to my readers, so depending on what you wish to get out of this blog feel free to navigate and grow in knowledge.

To your success and mine

Yours Sincerely,

Paul Onwueme

Chess Lessons/Tutorials you’ll get out of this blog

1. What are Open lines?
2. Active Pieces Versus Passive Pieces
3. Passed Pawns
4. King Safety
5. Pawn Play
6. Weak squares
7. Good Squares
8. Pawn Structures
9. Space
10. How to Attack
11. How to defend
12. Common Chess Tactics
13. How to select Candidate Moves
14. How to Analyse Chess positions
15. How to visualize a chess board
16. How to play with your bishops
17. How to play with your knights
18. How to play with your rooks
19. Outposts
20. How to play the Endgame in Chess
21. How to create and exert pressure in a chess game
22. How and when to exchange chess pieces
23. How to carry out combinations
24. Sacrifice
25. How to improve your position
26. How to carry out a mating attack
27. How to calculate chess variations
28. How to play the chess openings
29. What is counter play?
30. Middle game strategy
31. The art of planning in chess

Some Chess Coaching Tips and Insights to look out for

1. How to improve your chess games
2. How to plan
3. Common causes of blunders in chess games