Private Coaching
Dark Horse Chess run a well-renowned private coaching program, with our students consistently exhibiting substantial improvements in their chess skills and achieving sensational tournament results.
Private Coaching Results
Our private coaching program uses well-tested strategies that have a strong record of success.
In recent Australian Junior Chess Championships, students coached by Dark Horse won:
Some of our students have even represented Australia in the World Youth Chess Championships!
Dark Horse Chess have a strong tradition of excellent performance in the annual Australian Junior Chess Championships. In 2018, students coached by us took out the Australian Girls Champion Title (Cassandra Lim), U16 Girls Title (Jody Middleton), and U14 Title (Kayson Wang), and in 2017 we took the top title of Australian Junior Champion (Ray Yang).
Other notable results include taking out 6 of 12 national titles (half!) in the 2015 Australian Junior Chess Championships!
Private Coaching Information
We typically recommend a weekly 1-hour class, however, we are flexible to the needs and timetables of the children and their parents.
We also offer online coaching for students who live outside of Melbourne or are not able to travel to a coach’s house – this is an increasingly popular option!
Fees
Our fees for an individual private coaching session are:
- 1-Hour session: From $70
- 45 minute session: From $60
- 30 minute session: From $50
Some of our coaches maintain their own schedule of fees. Please also contact us for prices for a group-of-two class.
FAQ
As a general rule, we recommend a 45-minute weekly class for children under the age of 9, and 1-hour weekly class for children aged 9+.
Some of our coaches work from their home, some will visit you, and some coach at third party locations.
We also offer sessions via the Internet, which is most suitable for advanced players or those who live outside of Melbourne.
Private coaching offers the chance for an individually tailored learning program, with students showing quicker improvement compared to only attending group coaching.
A paper by Dr Peter Dauvergne of the University of Sydney suggests that playing and studying chess can raise IQ scores, strengthen problem-solving skills, foster creative thinking, and enhance abilities at reading, memory, spoken language and mathematics. Click here to view Dr Dauvergne’s paper.
There’s absolutely no commitment to continue, you can try out chess sessions to see if it is a good fit, and discontinue the lessons at any time.