Squarology

by IM Daniel Tapia

Lessons

I’ve been teaching for a long time and I’ve changed my methods and philosophies over the years to arrive where I am now. But to get a good idea of who I am as a chess teacher I’ll have to give you some background information on who I am as a chess player.

I gained 1000 points my first year playing chess(at the age of 14) and I became an expert the following year. After only three years I had won a national championship (11th grade National Champion in the USA) and I did this while becoming an AP scholar and playing a sport for my high school every season of every year past freshman.

When I was 18 in my first international tournament, the World Open, I beat three International Masters consecutively and became a FIDE master while doing so. A year later I won the Charlotte Open and in the same year, 2005, I left the USA to study and live in Colombia. I won a chess scholarship due to my chess laurels and began studying advertising. I left chess to live my life. While I was studying advertising and working as an English instructor in Bogotá, I played in a tournament after not having played for more than a year, not even a single blitz game on the internet and I won the tournament and the title of International Master title with 7.5 out of 9. I believe I am the only North Carolina high school champion to ever become an International Master. And I'm pretty sure I'll be the first one to become a Grandmaster :D

I charge $30 an hour and $80 for four separate hours. See my videos on method for more information. Any questions or concerns can be sent my way, my e-mail address is squarology @ gmail dot com

Video Lessons

In addition to offering traditional online lessons I also offer personalized videos which can be the topic of your choosing. You could send me some of your games from a specific tournament or a couple of games in one opening where you can’t seem to pinpoint where you’re going wrong.

If you want to see a commissioned video lesson I made for one of my students, check out the video on the right. With his permission I've made the video public. If you commission me to make a video I won't share it with anyone else. I'll put it on YouTube and make it private and I'll also send you a download link so you can download it and have it forever, to watch whenever you'd like.

They’re the same price as traditional online lessons ($30 for one video and $80 for four videos) but to me there are some clear advantages. They can be played over and over as many times as you like and no time is wasted in the video which lasts at least one hour.

If you need something special to be done then I am happy to listen. Any questions or concerns can be sent my way, my e-mail address is squarology @ gmail dot com

Reviews

Right now, I’m using a few books to guide me while I get in shape for a big tournament in December. I’m revamping my entire game to see everything in a new light. It might seem a little weird to only have reviews for opening books but the reason is I am trying to play a lot and I’m analyzing my own games so it doesn’t make that much sense to consult books when I can go over my own games with a super computer.

I’ll get a few reviews up once I can go over the material in some detail. I don’t want to make any rash reviews.