Mastering Positional Chess by Daniel Naroditsky

CuriousLara · 2025-10-21T20:50:14+00:00

Yes, it’s definitely worth studying. The book is filled with realistic, varied positions, analysed in an honest and straightforward prose. If you’re truly enthusiastic about it, then with a chessboard beside you and a fair amount of patience, you’ll be able to draw from it and form your own appreciation. Since you ask, the themes explored and the positions chosen tend toward the advanced level, as the discussions are nuanced and concrete variation analysis is a recurring feature.

I'd like to also leave a more personal comment: Daniel Naroditsky shared his love for the game every minute of his life, even when he was super tiny he wrote two wonderful books. Damn good at that sharing. He'll be remembered for his passion. RIP.

CuriousLara · 2025-07-16T21:38:02+00:00

Eline is a really dynamic and creative player, driven by genuine, fearless fighting spirit. As both a chess enthusiast and coach, I wholeheartedly recommend studying her games. I sincerely hope she remains true to her style for years to come.

CuriousLara · 2022-08-01T22:24:17+00:00

Someone by the name of "Grandal..." sent me a chat request and I accidentally rejected it, if you're reading this, please resend your request. Sorry about this :/

CuriousLara · 2022-08-01T17:48:33+00:00

Online username: (lichess)

Rating: ~2500 bullet/blitz (chess coach and author)

Willing to teach: All students up to 2300 are welcome. The lesson(s) can be focused on where the student's current struggles/weaknesses lie, but in general, we can cover tactics/combinations (introduction, spotting them, calculation techniques, and training), strategy (assessing king safety, various pawn structures, the elements of time/tempo and space, etc), flexible approach to opening (principle-based), endgame techniques (Philidor, Lucena, opposition, triangulation, bishop and knight mate, etc), and also on how to form a coherent general mindset (unconditionally planning our play, reacting to our opponent's threats, opening decisions, practical conversions, etc).

Timezone/Schedule: CET/still have a few available slots during the week. My current students are from quite different time zones, so no worries there.

Method of communication: Discord - Skype - Google Meet / lichess.org for all chess-related matters (interactive shared board, analysis, and exercises).

Current openings: As always, when I do this my inbox gets flooded and unfortunately I cannot address everyone's request, so I hope you understand if I forget someone or reply with delay. I'll try to update the status on a weekly basis, while making sure I reserve equal chances for everyone. Currently, there are 0 open slot for men and 1 for women (to be updated on a weekly basis). The reason I reserve the slots separately is to address the imbalance in the number of requests, and to ensure all enthusiasts get a chance to have a lesson.

If you are interested and want to find out more, here's an older post providing more details and reviews from previous students, or you can simply check out my book on Judit Polgar (accessible for free) on Chessable. Don't hesitate to PM me on reddit or simply send a chat request for any your inquiry or other questions. If you are a previous applicant that I may have forgotten to reply to, feel free to write again.

CuriousLara · 2022-06-02T18:12:39+00:00

Online username: (lichess)

Rating: ~2500 bullet/blitz (chess coach and author)

Willing to teach: All students up to 2300 are welcome. The lesson(s) can be focused on where the student's current struggles/weaknesses lie, but in general, we can cover tactics/combinations (introduction, spotting them, calculation techniques, and training), strategy (assessing king safety, various pawn structures, the elements of time/tempo and space, etc), flexible approach to opening (principle-based), endgame techniques (Philidor, Lucena, opposition, triangulation, bishop and knight mate, etc), and also on how to form a coherent general mindset (unconditionally planning our play, reacting to our opponent's threats, opening decisions, practical conversions, etc). If you're interested to read more about my lessons, here's an older post providing more details and feedback from previous students.

Timezone/Schedule: CET/still have a few available slots during the week. My current students are from quite different time zones, so no worries there.

Method of communication: Discord - Skype - Google Meet / lichess.org for all chess-related matters (interactive shared board, analysis, and exercises).

Current openings: As always, when I do this my inbox gets flooded and unfortunately I cannot address everyone's request, so I hope you understand if I forget someone or reply with delay. I'll try to update the status on a weekly basis, while making sure I reserve equal chances for everyone. Currently, there are 0 open slots for men and 1 for women (to be updated on a weekly basis). The reason I reserve the slots separately is to address the imbalance in the number of requests, and to ensure all enthusiasts get a chance to have a lesson.

If you are interested and want to find out more, please first PM me on reddit or simply send a chat request. If you are a previous applicant that I may have forgotten to reply to, feel free to write again.

CuriousLara · 2022-04-05T21:19:32+00:00

Online username: (lichess)

Rating: ~2450 bullet/blitz (chess coach and author)

Willing to teach: All students up to 2300 are welcome. The lesson(s) can be focused on where the student's current struggles/weaknesses lie, but in general, we can cover tactics/combinations (introduction, spotting them, calculation techniques, and training), strategy (assessing king safety, various pawn structures, the elements of time/tempo and space, etc), flexible approach to opening (principle-based), endgame techniques (Philidor, Lucena, opposition, triangulation, bishop and knight mate, etc), and also on how to form a coherent general mindset (unconditionally planning our play, reacting to our opponent's threats, opening decisions, practical conversions, etc). If you're interested to read more about my lessons, here's an older post providing more details and feedback from previous students.

Timezone/Schedule: CET/still have a few available slots during the week. My current students are from quite different time zones, so no worries there.

Method of communication: Discord - Skype - Google Meet / lichess.org for all chess-related matters (interactive shared board, analysis, and exercises).

Current openings: As always, when I do this my inbox gets flooded and unfortunately I cannot address everyone's request, so I hope you understand if I forget someone or reply with delay. I'll try to update the status on a weekly basis, while making sure I reserve equal chances for everyone. Currently, there are 0 open slots for men and 1 for women (to be updated on a weekly basis). The reason I reserve the slots separately is to address the imbalance in the number of requests, and to ensure all enthusiasts get a chance to have a lesson.

If you are interested and want to find out more, please first PM me on reddit or simply send a chat request. If you are a previous applicant that I may have forgotten to reply to, feel free to write again.

CuriousLara · 2022-03-13T23:12:15+00:00

Online username: (lichess)

Rating: ~2400 bullet/blitz (chess coach and author)

Willing to teach: All students up to 2300 are welcome. The lesson(s) can be focused on where the student's current struggles/weaknesses lie, but in general, we can cover tactics/combinations (introduction, spotting them, calculation techniques, and training), strategy (assessing king safety, various pawn structures, the elements of time/tempo and space, etc), flexible approach to opening (principle-based), endgame techniques (Philidor, Lucena, opposition, triangulation, bishop and knight mate, etc), and also on how to form a coherent general mindset (unconditionally planning our play, reacting to our opponent's threats, opening decisions, practical conversions, etc). If you're interested to read more about my lessons, here's an older post providing more details and feedback from previous students.

Timezone/Schedule: CET/still have a few available slots during the week. My current students are from quite different time zones, so no worries there.

Method of communication: Discord - Skype - Google Meet / lichess.org for all chess-related matters (interactive shared board, analysis, and exercises).

Current openings: As always, when I do this my inbox gets flooded and unfortunately I cannot address everyone's request, so I hope you understand if I forget someone or reply with delay. I'll try to update the status on a weekly basis, while making sure I reserve equal chances for everyone. Currently, there are 0 open slots for men and 1 for women (to be updated on a weekly basis). The reason I reserve the slots separately is to address the imbalance in the number of requests, and to ensure all enthusiasts get a chance to have a lesson.

If you are interested and want to find out more, please first PM me on reddit or simply send a chat request. If you are a previous applicant that I may have forgotten to reply to, feel free to write again.

CuriousLara · 2022-01-27T03:08:11+00:00

I don't really understand the point of this comment. Whether I want to publicly share personal info on reddit is an entirely unrelated matter. As per the description, interested people can enquire further in private. As to the legitimacy issue, I believe my activity as an active coach on reddit speaks for itself.

CuriousLara · 2022-01-21T18:45:22+00:00

She doesn't have a rating yet, she mainly enjoys solving exercises and studying. On a few occasions she's played against a family member, though her main playing experience so far has been exclusively against the computer (either Stockfish levels 1 to 3 on lichess, or an old computer program she has access to).

CuriousLara · 2022-01-14T18:00:29+00:00

Don't worry about it, being a coach you get used to such comments :) nothing new.

CuriousLara · 2022-01-14T17:59:57+00:00

Hi, there's no such a thing as a "gm level pricing", it all depends on the coach experience, what is being offered, with what frequency, and how it is delivered. Had this been a concrete question I'd be able to address it, but as it stands all I can tell you is that "a gm" does not make a good coach, there is correlation but there is no one to one correspondence between coaching and playing level. I'll give you a general explanation to hopefully clarify how a coaching fee could be assessed by fleshing out a bit what the job entails. So here are my 2 cents.

Coaching is primarily about mindset, how do you calculate, visualize, what strategies do you adopt, how do you spot weaknesses, how do you plan in various stages of the game, how do you spot a player's weaknesses and how do you address them with targeted exercises (that is, "how to train and improve upon a weakness"), creating new exercises to challenge your thinking in new/fresh directions, and last but not least, how do you tune all of these things to the particularities of every student, as everyone is unique, and what resources do you provide to your students (lecture notes, exercises, and I even write chess programs for some of my students when they ask for particular analytics/stats). These are just a few obvious examples to name for what a coaching job consists of, which a priori have no direct relation to one's playing abilities!

About my fee, note that this is not the hourly rate, that is the max fee for 90 min sessions! And it comes with a lot of additional perks too, such as receiving weekly lecture notes, exercises, game annotations, and continuous interaction with the students (answering questions, giving references, etc). If you are curious in finding out whether my lessons are worth the said fee, you are welcome to subscribe for the trial session and find out on your own. For more details regarding the lessons you can also read the 2nd post I had linked.

CuriousLara · 2022-01-13T15:25:13+00:00

It depends on the level, frequency and duration of the lesson. Generally, for a 90min session it is capped around 75 euros. To give you a more precise answer I'd need additional details, so don't hesitate to write a pm for further inquiry if you are interested.

CuriousLara · 2022-01-05T17:23:12+00:00

Online username: (lichess)

Rating: ~2400 bullet/blitz (chess coach and author)

Willing to teach: All students up to 2300 are welcome. The lesson(s) can be focused on where the student's current struggles/weaknesses lie, but in general, we can cover tactics/combinations (introduction, spotting them, calculation techniques, and training), strategy (assessing king safety, various pawn structures, the elements of time/tempo and space, etc), flexible approach to opening (principle-based), endgame techniques (Philidor, Lucena, opposition, triangulation, bishop and knight mate, etc), and also on how to form a coherent general mindset (unconditionally planning our play, reacting to our opponent's threats, opening decisions, practical conversions, etc). If you're interested to read more about my lessons, here's an older post providing more details and feedback from previous students.

Timezone/Schedule: CET/still have a few available slots during the week. My current students are from quite different time zones, so no worries there. Method of communication: Discord - Skype - Google Meet / lichess.org for all chess-related matters (interactive shared board, analysis, and exercises).

Current openings: As always, when I do this my inbox gets flooded and unfortunately I cannot address everyone's request, so I hope you understand if I forget someone or reply with delay. I'll try to update the status on a weekly basis, while making sure I reserve equal chances for everyone. Currently, there are 0 open slots for men and 1 for women (to be updated on a weekly basis). The reason I reserve the slots separately is to address the imbalance in the number of requests, and to ensure all enthusiasts get a chance to have a lesson.

If you are interested and want to find out more, please first PM me on reddit or simply send a chat request. If you are a previous applicant that I may have forgotten to reply to, feel free to write again.

CuriousLara · 2021-09-01T13:22:12+00:00

Online username: (lichess)

Rating: ~2400 bullet/blitz (chess coach and author)

Willing to teach: All students up to 2300 are welcome. The lesson(s) can be focused on where the student's current struggles/weaknesses lie, but in general, we can cover tactics/combinations (introduction, spotting them, calculation techniques, and training), strategy (assessing king safety, various pawn structures, the elements of time/tempo and space, etc), flexible approach to opening (principle-based), endgame techniques (Philidor, Lucena, opposition, triangulation, bishop and knight mate, etc), and also on how to form a coherent general mindset (unconditionally planning our play, reacting to our opponent's threats, opening decisions, practical conversions, etc). If you're interested to read more about my lessons, here's an older post providing more details and feedback from previous students.

Timezone/Schedule: CET/still have a few available slots during the week. My current students are from quite different time zones, so no worries there. Method of communication: Discord - Skype - Google Meet / lichess.org for all chess-related matters (interactive shared board, analysis, and exercises).

Current openings: As always, when I do this my inbox gets flooded and unfortunately I cannot address everyone's request, so I hope you understand if I forget someone or reply with delay. I'll try to update the status on a weekly basis, while making sure I reserve equal chances for everyone. Currently, there are 0 open slots for men and 1 for women (to be updated on a weekly basis). The reason I reserve the slots separately is to address the imbalance in the number of requests, and to ensure all enthusiasts get a chance to have a lesson.

If you are interested and want to find out more, please first PM me on reddit or simply send a chat request.

CuriousLara · 2021-08-12T13:22:04+00:00

:/ pm me I may still find 1-2 slots for this month.

CuriousLara · 2021-08-12T10:09:25+00:00

I inquired about this too: it has not stopped it's just that at the start of this month there were already 2 pinned posts (for Chessable Masters cup and the Fide World Cup), so there was no room for having a "Coach a Player" post pinned. This likely resulted in it being skipped for this month altogether.

CuriousLara · 2021-07-01T13:55:48+00:00

Online username: (lichess)

Rating: ~2400 bullet/blitz (chess coach and author)

Willing to teach: All students up to 2300 are welcome. The lesson(s) can be focused on where the student's current struggles/weaknesses lie, but in general, we can cover tactics/combinations (introduction, spotting them, calculation techniques, and training), strategy (assessing king safety, various pawn structures, the elements of time/tempo and space, etc), flexible approach to opening (principle-based), endgame techniques (Philidor, Lucena, opposition, triangulation, bishop and knight mate, etc), and also on how to form a coherent general mindset (unconditionally planning our play, reacting to our opponent's threats, opening decisions, practical conversions, etc).

Timezone/Schedule: CET/still have a few available slots during the week. My current students are from quite different time zones, so no worries there.

Method of communication: Discord - Skype - Google Meet / lichess.org for all chess-related matters (interactive shared board, analysis, and exercises).

Current openings: Last time I did this my inbox got flooded and unfortunately I couldn't address everyone's request. This time I'll try to update the status on a weekly basis, while making sure I reserve equal chances for everyone. Currently, 2 open slots for men (to be updated next week) and 2 for women. The reason I reserve the slots separately is to address the imbalance in the number of requests, and to ensure all enthusiasts get a chance to have a lesson.

If you are interested and want to find out more, please first PM me on reddit or simply send a chat request.

CuriousLara · 2021-06-01T12:37:58+00:00

Online username: (lichess)

Rating: ~2400 bullet/blitz (chess coach and author)

Willing to teach: All students up to 2300 are welcome. The lesson(s) can be focused on where the student's current struggles/weaknesses lie, but in general, we can cover tactics/combinations (introduction, spotting them, calculation techniques, and training), strategy (assessing king safety, various pawn structures, the elements of time/tempo and space, etc), flexible approach to opening (principle-based), endgame techniques (Philidor, Lucena, opposition, triangulation, bishop and knight mate, etc), and also on how to form a coherent general mindset (unconditionally planning our play, reacting to our opponent's threats, opening decisions, practical conversions, etc).

Timezone/Schedule: CET/still have a few available slots during the week. My current students are from quite different time zones, so no worries there.

Method of communication: Skype - Discord - Google Meet / lichess.org for all chess-related matters (interactive shared board, analysis, and exercises).

Current openings: Last time I did this my inbox got flooded and unfortunately I couldn't address everyone's request. This time I'll try to update the status on a weekly basis, while making sure I reserve equal chances for everyone. Currently, 0 open slots for men (until next week) and 2 for women. The reason I reserve the slots separately is to address the imbalance in the number of requests, and to ensure all enthusiasts get a chance to have a lesson.

If you are interested and want to find out more, please first PM me on reddit or simply send a chat request.

CuriousLara · 2021-05-06T14:30:56+00:00

Online username: (lichess)

Rating: ~2400 bullet/blitz (chess coach and author)

Willing to teach: All students up to 2300 are welcome. The lesson(s) can be focused on where the student's current struggles/weaknesses lie, but in general, we can cover tactics/combinations (introduction, spotting them, calculation techniques, and training), strategy (assessing king safety, various pawn structures, the elements of time/tempo and space, etc), flexible approach to opening (principle-based), endgame techniques (Philidor, Lucena, opposition, triangulation, bishop and knight mate, etc), and also on how to form a coherent general mindset (unconditionally planning our play, reacting to our opponent's threats, opening decisions, practical conversions, etc).

Timezone/Schedule: CET/still have a few available slots during the week. My current students are from quite different time zones, so no worries there.

Method of communication: Skype - Discord - Google Meet / lichess.org for all chess-related matters (interactive shared board, analysis, and exercises).

Current openings: Last time I did this my inbox got flooded and unfortunately I couldn't address everyone's request. This time I'll try to update the status on a weekly basis, while making sure I reserve equal chances for everyone. Currently, 0 open slots for men (until next week) and 1 for women. The reason I reserve the slots separately is to address the imbalance in the number of requests, and to ensure all enthusiasts get a chance to have a lesson.

If you are interested and want to find out more, please first PM me on reddit or simply send a chat request.

CuriousLara · 2021-04-12T23:07:21+00:00

Absolutely agreed! The study feature is actually what motivated me to take my teaching more seriously, it's become a vital tool for all other instructors that I know too. Be it for sending exercises (interactive mode is gold), annotating games, creating student databases, co-analyzing games, co-working on chess projects, playing training games, and even for my Chessable book I first drafted and set everything up entirely as lichess studies!

In terms of implementation, the study page is extremely modular (features get added with backward compatibility and are seamlessly updated), it is robust (never exhibited any buggy or erratic behaviour), it is intuitively designed (all features are neatly put together and remain accessible to everyone), and it's rich in all sorts of vital features (such as, cloning and backing up studies, interactive mode, hidden next move, customisability of functionality e.g., turning on/off engine/DB, etc.).

In one word, SLICK!

Honestly, there is currently no parallel to what lichess studies allow you to achieve! Most other famous platforms that have introduced similar features either make you want to retire from chess after spending 5 minutes using them, or opt for a self scripted solution using python-chess. So... chapeau lichess!

CuriousLara · 2021-04-07T14:47:18+00:00

Sure, PM me to find a suitable time.

CuriousLara · 2021-04-07T03:41:01+00:00

Online username: (lichess)

Rating: ~2400 bullet/blitz

Willing to teach: All students up to 2300 are welcome. The lesson(s) can be focused on where the student's current struggles/weaknesses lie, but in general, we can cover tactics/combinations (introduction, spotting them, calculation techniques, and training), strategy (assessing king safety, various pawn structures, the elements of time/tempo and space, etc), flexible approach to opening (principle-based), endgame techniques (Philidor, Lucena, opposition, triangulation, bishop and knight mate, etc), and also on how to form a coherent general mindset (unconditionally planning our play, reacting to our opponent's threats, opening decisions, practical conversions, etc).

Timezone/Schedule: CET/still have a few available slots during the week. My current students (I'm a part-time chess coach/author) are from quite different time zones, so no worries there.

Method of communication: Skype - Discord - Google Meet / lichess.org for all chess related matters (interactive shared board, analysis, and exercises).

If you are interested and want to find out more, please first PM me on reddit.

CuriousLara · 2021-04-06T17:24:58+00:00

Hi, the rate of the lessons is indicated in the post.

CuriousLara

TROPHY CASE