Coach Of The Month: IM Szidonia Vajda

IM Szidonia Vajda is an accomplished player and coach, holding the international master and woman grandmaster titles as well as two Hungarian women's championships. She has represented Hungary at multiple Olympiads and is now sharing her knowledge with a number of lucky students on Chess.com. 

It's not every day that you're able to get one-on-one instruction from someone who's faced legends of the game like GMs Viswanathan Anand, Alexandra Kosteniuk, Hou Yifan, Nihal Sarin, Nana Dzagnidze, and more. Enjoy insights into the life of a successful chess coach, a review of some of her best games, and tips for chess improvement.

Readers seeking private instruction can contact Vajda via her Chess.com profile.

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

I started playing chess around the age of eight. My father and mother also played chess, and together with my two younger brothers, we started to prepare following the Polgar pattern (based on Laszlo Polgar's book, Raise A Genius). Playing chess was a tradition in the family; my grandfather, who lived on a farm, often went to play chess with the village priest.

What is your first vivid memory of chess?

My first vivid experience was reaching the national under-10 final after winning the semifinal. I remember my sweaty palms as I checkmated a strong opponent. That was when I realized that I would become a chess player. After that, I started training more seriously.

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

I have had many coaches and training partners over the years. Working with GM Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu helped me a lot in my younger years. I was a very tactical player—maybe too much—for a long time, but it was enough to play successfully.

In my younger years, I worked with GM Constantin Ionescu for a couple of years, who repeatedly insisted that I also learn strategy. He wasn't even satisfied with my under-20 World Cup bronze medal because he thought I could have won it!

Then around 2000, I started working with GM Jozsef Horvath, with whom the work went very well; we were always thinking about where we could find some exciting ideas in the openings. The most important thing I learned from him is that you can beat anyone. We worked together for maybe 15 years with minor interruptions.

I have played chess with quite a few grandmasters, but in recent years I have started to notice that I am no longer interested in training and competing for myself. I have always been thinking about how I will pass on the knowledge to my students, so to this day I try to gain as much experience and collect as much information as possible.

What is your favorite or best game you ever played?

My winning game against GM Humpy Koneru at the 2004 Olympiad, where I won a gold medal on the second board:

How would you describe your approach to chess coaching?

My first question is always: what is your training goal? I competed actively for many years and gained a lot of experience in important competitions. Since the birth of my children, competitive chess has fallen into the background, but I still enjoy passing on my knowledge.

I also really like to analyze, so working with students has become more and more critical. I am motivated when the student develops, and I see that this gives them more pleasure in playing chess. I constantly adapt to the student's needs, but if I see significant gaps in some areas, I gently add strategy and endgame, depending on who the student is and what their goals are.

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

The coach's most significant task is to encourage the student to work independently and to appropriately guide them in the area they need to improve on. Having worked with many trainers, I know what has been effective for me. Mostly, I pass on what has worked for me, what I have learned over the years, and how to work on and fix mistakes. As a coach, I always tell you that you can't get away with just calculation, so you must practice a lot. I always try to tell you the connections between different moves and ideas, and what to pay attention to.

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

It's straightforward: do the best you can, and take the chance if you get it. During the game, please don't get annoyed that the opening didn't come out as we wanted, or that we messed something up. We should always accept the given situation and make the most of it. In other words, emotions must be excluded entirely during the game to be able to act calmly.

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

This nice game against GM Mariya Muzychuk, where I won with Black.

What is a puzzle you like to show to your students?

I like this example because Black's position looks solid initially, but is strategically bad. We can break it with a nice rook sacrifice...

Do you prefer to teach online or offline? 

You can make better progress with children who are complete beginners, and personal contact is really essential for them.

The advantage of online education is that you can progress faster, all the information is at hand, you don't have to flip through books and set up the pieces, and overcoming physical distance is a lot easier. You can introduce chess to excited people all over the world.

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

I think Puzzle Rush is an excellent tool on Chess.com. You get more complex and challenging puzzles after starting with the simplest ones, and you can compete with others. So it's fun to do, and at the same time, it's pretty useful.

Also, you can play training games, where you can practice new openings and prepare well for any over-the-board tournament.

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

Alexander Alekhine's Best Games was one of my favorite books as a kid. His games are clearly understandable and it's fun to go through them. I still have pleasant memories when thinking about his games. He was (and still is) a significant influence on me. 🙂

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