International Master Explains How To Get The Most Out Of Coaching

IM Alex Astaneh Lopez earned his international master title in 2011, but he is more than just a great chess player. Alex coached the Irish junior team in the 2010 World Youth Championships and has helped countless individuals improve their chess as well. Since 2023, he has also become a successful Chessable author, further imparting his chess knowledge to an even broader student base. Now, he is the Chess.com Coach of the Month for October 2024!

In a series of thoughtful answers, Alex recently shared with Chess.com his first chess experiences, his approach to coaching, the best chess advice he's ever received, and more—and you can read all about it below. 

Interested in lessons? Contact Alex on his Chess.com profile!

At what age were you introduced to chess, and who introduced you?

I started playing chess at age seven, just after my family moved to Ireland. I had always liked games as a kid, but as a Spanish kid, the ones that were popular in Ireland like Gaelic football and hurling were way too intimidating. Chess was a safer outlet for my competitiveness!

As for who taught me, I learned from Mr. Moroney, who built a strong chess tradition in the school over a period of several decades. He was fantastic, having all the qualities you could wish for in a children's teacher. Patient, kind, and made the lessons fun. One of the people I'll always be grateful to.

What is your first vivid memory from chess?

One of my earliest chess memories is not so pleasant, but ended up being a pivotal moment. I remember I had built up a rivalry with a friend and classmate. However, no matter how hard I tried, he always seemed to get the best of me. Then, in one game, I finally thought I was going to get my first win against him as he blundered his queen and we were down to an endgame with just one pawn left for each side. Being beginners, and in my excitement, I gave him a check, and then jumped out of my seat when he captured my queen with his one remaining pawn! The game was a draw, but it stung far worse than any loss.

After that, I went home and immediately decided I had to up my game, and asked my mum to buy me my first chess book. That proved a lot of fun, and over the coming months I devoured as many books as I could get my hands on, and this is how my journey as a "serious" chess player began!

Which coaches were helpful to you in your chess career, and what was the most useful knowledge they imparted to you?

I’ve only really had one coach in my career. But I’m fortunate that he was not just a coach, but also quickly became a good friend with whom I am still in touch to this day.

It’s hard to point to one piece of advice as standing out above the rest. That said, two pieces of advice come to mind: the first is that I should play a sharp opening repertoire. The second is that he encouraged the most ambitious players in the club to bond not just over chess, but as friends.

The first piece, on openings, proved really important as it made chess fun and exciting. It also gave me the opportunity to develop my tactical and calculation skills from a young age. In my opinion, it’s easier to develop positional understanding when you’re older than it is to develop calculation, visualization, and that kind of thing. So I’m glad that he forced me to "grab the bull by the horns" and threw me into the deep end with sharp openings from the get-go.

The second advice, on friendship, proved important in many ways. I feel a lot of my chess improvement over the years has come from going to tournaments with friends, showing each other our games, analyzing blindfold with them whenever we didn’t have a board at hand, etc. It was only years later that I realized what a positive impact my coach had and what an effort he made to encourage a convivial atmosphere where everyone was trying to push each other’s level up.

What is your favorite or best game you ever played?

The truth is, I don’t really have a favorite or best game. I’m not sure why that is, but when I reflect on my games I tend to think more in terms of favorite tournaments. By that I mean, the tournaments that are most memorable and that I am on the whole very happy with how I played. With this in mind, I’d like to show one of my wins in the 2018 Irish Championship, as this was a tournament where on the whole I felt I played some of the best chess of my career.

How would you describe your approach to chess coaching?

I would say my approach is a mix of flexible and systematic. On the one hand, I think it’s important as a coach to adapt to each individual student’s relationship to chess. So whenever I begin working with a new student, I try to take a few lessons to review their games and get a good feeling for how they think about chess. This not only helps me to develop a long-term training plan, it also fosters a good connection between us. To me, that’s very important, since we’re going to be spending a lot of time in each other’s company—and if that isn’t fun, then the relationship isn’t going to last.

At the same time, I also like to think about ways of working systematically. Since I coach hobby players, they often lack an effective framework with which to study chess. So, after a few lessons reviewing their games, we begin mapping out a more structured routine and make sure to cover all the fundamentals, like endgames, calculation, positional play, etc.

What do you consider your responsibility as a coach and which responsibilities fall on your student?

As a coach, my responsibility is to create a solid framework for improvement and communicate it to the student over time. This means a bunch of things, like choosing wisely what to spend our limited time on working, or guiding them to working intelligently outside of class.

The student’s responsibility is to share any doubts and concerns, and to apply themselves consistently. At the end of the day, coaching only makes up a small percentage of the total study time, so for big improvement it’s crucial that the student puts in the work.

What is a piece of advice that you give your students that you think more chess players could benefit from?

Learn to solve your own problems. I joke with my students that I try my best to put myself out of a job. What I mean by this is that, let’s say I have some doubt in an opening. Rather than trying to find a book or course to solve my doubts, I’ll just open up a chess board and a strong engine and figure out the solution for myself. A lot of my students feel like they have to wait until the next class for the coach to solve a problem for them. Chess is a really complex game, so becoming self-sufficient is crucial, because you’ll never have enough time with any coach to be able to address all the challenges you face at the board.

What is your favorite teaching game that users might not have seen?

I really like this game, in which Jose Capablanca demonstrates excellent strategic understanding and endgame technique. It shows a lot of important positional motifs, and it’s the only game that is analyzed in two separate chapters of my first strategy course on Chessable, The Positional Chess Patterns Manual.

What is the puzzle you give students that tells you the most about how they think?

Do you prefer to teach online or offline? What do you think is different about teaching online?

I enjoy both. Teaching in person is nice in the sense that it’s easier to foster a human connection, and it also lends itself better to working in groups.

However, I mostly teach online, and this offers a whole host of other benefits. On a personal note, it offers both student and coach the freedom to work from anywhere in the world. From the point of view of chess, it allows us to tap into technologies that streamline the process. It’s easy to consult things like chess databases, strong engines, websites like Chessable, etc. It also allows us to play moves and analyze variations much faster, which all comes together to help make fast progress.

What do you consider the most valuable training tool that the internet provides?

I think it’s the ability to play as many games as you want against players of your strength, and even much stronger. When I started chess, it was common to have to wait a couple of months between competitive games. Nowadays, you can just fire up the computer and face tough opposition within seconds! I think this has made a huge impact in raising the general level of chess play, and is a key reason behind the rise of so many teenage grandmasters.

Which under-appreciated chess book should every chess player read?

The Soviet Chess Primer by Ilya Maizelis.