Anyone know about free online chess training, or instructor willing to help out fellow chess players. I live in Richmond, VA and back to playing chess BIG time. I love the game but dont have much $$ to pay for lessons. Any ideas or suggestions would help out.
Thanks,
Scott
I don’t know about free online training, but there is free stuff out there. On Chessworld.net there is some free information/instruction available. The instruction may be bare basic [it has been a while since I looked at any of this]. I think you can get some classic games with analysis. There is also analysis of player’s games I think.
As I recall chesstactics.com is a list of 199 problems. Also many sites have free daily problems.
Finally chessvideos.tv is a good place for openings.
Please note that some or all of this information may be out of date. I have not been to most of those sites in over a year.
Larry S. Cohen
I think the best online resource for improving players is Dan Heisman’s articles on Chess Cafe. The column is called “Novice Nook” but the instruction is good for anyone up to 1800.
Here is an index to all of the articles http://home.comcast.net/~danheisman/Articles/Novice_Nook_Links.htm
The Virginia State Championship is being held in Richmond over the 3 day weekend. It is at the Hilton Garden Inn - Insbrook in Glen Allen. You can get all of the details on the “Clubs and Tournaments” link on this web page. If you aren’t planning to play, you could stop by and meet some local players.
There is also a tournament in Hanover County on Dec. 1st.
I live near Mechanicsville on the weekends. We could get together for a game some time.
-Bob Nolan
Contact Rusty Potter, a Virginia master, if you are interested in lessons. There are probably other masters or other players who would be helpful; you can find them at your state championship this weekend.
If you really want to improve, don’t be cheap. Support the chess teachers in your area. You will be surprised how much they will help you out. The state of Virginia is becoming an important center of chess in the US. I have really enjoyed playing in the high quality tournaments in your state.
Thanks for all the info and I’ll see about getting to “Virginia State Championship” because i really didnt know nothing about it. Funny thing its basicly around the corner from my house. lol I’ll drag the wife out and let her shop while i’ll watch the championship.
I am going to look online and for that GM you told me about to see what he charges for lessions. Also have 2 other people i meet online to play OTB its just getting everyone together 
. If you live in this area please hit me up on my alt email : chessinrichmond@gmail.com . I am also trying to setup a online chess club in the mean time.
thanks,
Scott
You may be also be interested in ideachess.com not to mention other sites you can find by yourself
Good luck 
If you are going to be helping encourage others besides yourself to learn and play, I wanted to let you know that my site, chessmagnetschool.com, is free for anyone for the first 30 days, and is free indefinitely for anyone who is acting as a “coach” via our site, too. (We state “free to teachers and coaches of at least five students”, but the number five is really on the honor system; our intent is to support those who are helping spread chess and chess learning.)
We created the site to provide a pedagogically sound “learning by doing” method of learning chess from absolute beginner to somewhere in the USCF 1500-1800 range, and designed it to be useful for individuals whose study is self-directed (or even completely unstructured), as well as for those who are helping others. Coaches can be anyone from a facilitator who doesn’t even know how to play chess - or is simply staying one step ahead of his or her students - up to and including experienced anjd expert coaches, for whom the system can act as an automated homework manager, as well as a source of diagnostic information via the reports and charts and graphs.
You can read about the background of those of us who developed the service on our About Us page; our mission is to help spread chess and make it easier to learn and enjoy - and for those who want to go further, to excel.
There are zillions of individual books and online mechanisms for pretty much anything you can imagine relating to chess. Almost every single one of them can be enjoyable and/or helpful.
Thats great! news … I will check out the site. Alot has changed in couple of days and got a bunch of players together to play and learn.