About Me

Chess is my greatest passion in life; my goal is for you to fall in love with the game and have as much fun learning as I do. I teach chess full-time to students of all ages and levels with a structured syllabus tailored to your strengths and weaknesses. Meetings start with a fun activity (a chess variant) followed by a lesson on a specific topic, then we'll play a game on Chess.com, analyze it together, and solve puzzles. You can also send me other games to analyze during the lesson, or pick your own topics like how to play a certain opening. I encourage everyone to do puzzles daily, and look at the game review for your games. As one parent put it, "Taran absolutely loves Sean. He is always looking forward to his chess class. Sean knows exactly how to make the session both fun and most importantly educational. I highly recommend Sean for any child who is looking to learn chess."Here are some of my qualifications: President of Riverside Chess Club; ranked in the top 1% globally on Chess.com; recipient of Chess Journalists of America's 2022 Best Online Interview Award; US Chess Certified Club Tournament Director; MS in Agricultural and Applied Economics at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; list of Teachers Ranked as Excellent by Students at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Certificate of Teaching for a Positive Future from the Institute for Humane Education; chess teacher since 2022

Education & Certifications

Tutoring Subjects