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Chess Lessons

Individual lessons cover a structured curriculum that takes a student from Beginning to Intermediate and Advanced levels of play. Current affiliated instructors listed on the About page.

Current Lesson Availability with NM Jordan Groff (as of 5/28/25):

Lightly shaded lesson blocks are already taken by current students and dark shaded blocks are otherwise unavailable. Unshaded lesson blocks are available for either online or in-person lessons (at 1227 Whitney Ave, Hamden, CT). Please email info@playmorechess.com to reserve a time. Lessons are reserved and purchased in sets of four (monthly).

Please note that Coach Jordan is very involved in the Summer Chess Program (Jun 23-Aug 1) so will not have new lesson times available 9am-3pm on those days.

Lesson Availability: Individual lessons are available throughout the year, purchased month-to-month. Please email info@PlayMoreChess.com to confirm availability and reserve an available time slot.

Description: Students have one lesson a week, either 60 minutes or 45 minutes in length. Each week chess topics are reviewed and new topics are learned and assigned for the week ahead. Students usually move forward with one or two new topics each week, though the topics and pace are customized based on the goals of the student.

Additional Lesson Information:
Lessons are purchased in advance, four lessons at a time, on a month-to-month basis. A lesson time-slot is guaranteed as long as monthly payments are current. If student has a schedule conflict, a set of four lessons can be extended to include a fifth week lesson as long as instructor is told in advance (no extensions for no-show lesson).

Curriculum Choices: Play More Chess Academy lessons students, with guidance from their instructor, choose a book to guide their studies based on their interest and goals for chess improvement. PMCA has over 160 books available to choose from but students in the past have frequently chosen from one of the following:

 

Everyone's First Chess Workbook by Peter Giannatos. 352pgs.
Learn Chess Tactics by John Nunn. Written by a renowned grandmaster noted for his devasting tactical ability. 160pgs.
Chess Tactics Workbook (5th ed) by Al Woolum. This is a best selling chess tactics workbook with over 25,000 copies sold. It takes the student from the basic fundamentals to checkmate. It covers basic tactical elements through more advanced tactical concepts and into mating attacks and combinations. 133 pages with 870 diagrams.
Evaluate Like a Grandmaster by GM Eugene Perelshteyn & FM Nate Solon.
How to Reassess Your Chess by IM Jeremy Silman. It takes intermediate and advanced students beyond tactics to include more positional understandings and is organized primarily around types of imbalances found in chess games 658pgs.
Winning Chess Openings by Yasser Seirawan. An introduction to the moves, strategies, and philosophy of chess openings from one of the world's top chess players. 257pgs.
Chess4Life Workbook(s) - These books are mostly used in Scholastic classes but can also be selected for use in individual lessons. Sample topics listed on the Classes page.