AFM with over 15 years' worth of mentoring experience. Whatever your level and needs, I can tailor a course that will allow you to maximise your potential.

Alisdair has been a great encouragement for me as I recovered my teenage enthusiasm for chess many years on! He is very adaptable and can reorient his lessons depending on a student's interest and aptitude. He does his homework on each student to address weaknesses and build on strengths, and I was lucky to benefit from his skills through a personal connection. He was kind enough to take me through unfamiliar approaches and teach different lines of attack and defence in a way that I could take in, adapting to my speed and helping with appropriate techniques where I struggled to remember things at first. He made complicated things easy to take in and understand! When it comes to going above-and-beyond, you can't ask more than his willingness to analyse my games with me and sending emails with a detailed breakdown of games from other chess players to help illustrate concepts I was struggling with.

Alisdair helped me by identifying my personality as a chess player, recognising things that were preferences of mine and pinpointing problems (e.g. I'm happier being strategic than aggressive, but was overly risk-averse). I also have a much better understanding of general principles that have improved my game and my confidence.

Alisdair reviewed one of my recent games with me, identifying mistakes and helping me understand their consequences. He not only showed me better alternative moves but also helped me understand them. He finished off by teaching me some endgame techniques and practising them with me. He also matched me up with a player of similar level, whom he also teaches, to play with. Alisdair is patient, easy to understand and has an empowering balance between explaining and guiding you to figure things out yourself, and a great sense of humour to boot. I’ll be sure to be back for more.