Streamer/Youtuber Offers Chess Lessons

I am very glad that I reached out to Chess.com teacher Mr. Kestony, as my local chess school’s online timing didn’t work for me.

I am a 40-year old mother of two, who didn’t even have much idea about the basic moves in chess. I wanted to learn a new skill, so that I could play with my 12-year old daughter now and with my son when he is old enough.

Though my profile is not that of a typical student who sign ups for an online chess class, Mr Kestony was very patient with me and did an excellent job in guiding me through the basics. Looking forward to the day when I will have acquired enough skill to beat my husband in a game of chess

Kestony takes the time to understand where I am at in my game and then tailors his teaching to build up my game. I like his style of teaching. I highly recommend his coaching lessons.

Kestony is a great coach. Each lesson he teaches you a new concept based on your own needs and has a huge database of resources to teach from. Look forward to lessons each week. 

Mr. Kestony is a great coach that will help you improve in whatever aspect of chess you need. He is quite flexible with lesson times which works well for me. Clearly an experienced coach and it has been an absolute pleasure so far. Highly recommend.

I really agree with all these excellent reviews. I have worked with Kestony for a few months, and I can highly recommend him as a chess coach. He has a well-organised and patient style, structured to my particular strengths and weaknesses. He works hard, and we often chat about particular games I have played during the week. I look forward to each lesson. You will become a better player!

I saw Kestony's video on YouTube about playing black vs the London and was very impressed, so I reached out to him to start lessons.  I was around 1650 at the time (a couple months ago) and told him my goal was to get over 1700.  Well, I just hit a new high rating of 1736 so I am VERY pleased with the results!   Kestony is very knowledgable and has a thorough understanding not only of chess, but also how to teach chess.  I highly recommend Kestony to anyone who is looking to improve their chess game.

I have been having lessons with Kestony for three months after seeing his instructional videos on YouTube.  I am relatively new to the game and up until then I had been relying on lessons and analysis from chess.com to improve. My sessions are concise with good examples to explain the concepts and we often review review mistakes from my games so I'm learning not just what was wrong but why. He's really personable and I'm really enjoying. 750 to 1050 so far ...

Ah, everyone is finding the diamond. Soon he will be to famous. He already is. He is a special coach that is for certain.  

I have been taking lessons with Kestony for 3 months and my rating has improved from 800s to around 1250. He’s a really great teacher and a super nice person. He is very organized, really clear at explaining, and also very patient if you don’t understand something. He is super passionate about chess and about teaching. I am a musician and have been taking (violin) lessons most of my life, and I know great teacher when I see them! I I highly recommend Kestony to anyone trying to find an amazing teacher! 

I would highly recommend Kestony to anyone wanting to improve his/her chess game. Kestony is very personable, and he tailors advice and topics to any level. He is also good about giving you a healthy (but friendly!) push at times to help you meet your goals. He can also provide materials (including so many great videos) that complimentary to lessons, to provide for extra practice. 

Kestony is an exceptional coach.  Our lesson is my favorite time of the week.  In just a month my rating has increased 250+, but more than that, he excels at teaching me how to learn.  I'd taken lessons in the past, but Kestony is teaching me how to look at the game in a new light.  He patiently teaches you the "why" instead of just the "how".  This approach works great as you don't have to rely on memory.  I'm really happy I trusted the other reviewers and started taking lessons with Kestony, don't hesitate!  

I highly recommend Kestony.  He's knowledgeable, kind and fun.  He makes chess highly enjoyable!

Kestony is an excellent chess coach, he helps you identify the weakness in your play and tells you how to mend them.

Kestony is an outstanding coach. He has a system of teaching, is well prepared, communicates well, gives interesting homework assignments, and is a pleasure to interact with. In addition to the lesson itself, he is very responsive to questions that I ask him by email between lessons. I couldn’t recommend him more highly.

Kestony is very bright, a clear communicator, and he is patient with this total newbie. I have anxiety about playing humans so in addition to explaining "why" some moves and ideas are better than others, he is helping me enjoy playing. I have a long way to go but for sure his coaching is a highlight of my week. 

I have been studying with Kestony for 3 months now. It's a wonderful experience. I now understand the difference between being taught by a real coach vs a very good player who coaches on the side. Kestony has a methodology and a library of exercises that a regular good player is very unlikely to be able to develop. He zooms in very quickly on your weak points and dynamically changes the course of the class to go deeper on these issues. Your classes end up being a combination of broad fundamental concepts and surgical focus on your weak points.

Another aspect that I value with Kestony is that he understands that I don't have ambitions to play in tournaments and that I just do this for the love of the game. Kestony is able to tune his class to that context and never makes me feel like he's getting frustrated with me. I get frustrated with myself, but Kestony doesn't That's important to me.

I've been working with Kestony for a few months now and my game has improved tremendously. My ranking on chess.com has gone up about 200 points but more than that, my knowledge of chess has improved tremendously. He is well organized, knows how to teach even beginners like me and, not to be dismissed, he's a nice guy who is very patient. I'm in my 60's and we have regular conversations about life apart from chess. And here's one of the most important things--after a lesson, I suddenly feel like I have chess superpowers. After one lesson, I went on to win 10 matches in a row which is unheard of for me. I highly recommend Kestony as a teacher. You won't be sorry you gave him a try. 

I've been working with Kestony for three months. Here is my take as an intermediate adult learner:

- Very professional and clearly enjoys teaching. Brings energy and thoughtfulness to every lesson.

- Has vast sources of material and lesson plans. If you have a question about X, he'll guide you to where to look.

- Aside from structured lessons, he is also willing to mix it up at the student's request. I had a scheduled match and we spent one session just going over prep against the opponent.

- For those unsure of whether a coach is useful, I recommend trying it out. An engine won't give you attacking ideas, improving moves, or plans. It will simply give you one move at a time (and you don't know exactly why it's even good). Let me give an example of what I'm able to articulate now, after my lessons with Kestony: My opponent played a move that was clearly bad based on our lessons (it created a backwards pawn and weak squares), but the engine thought it was OK. During the game, my opponent could not fix the weakness or get compensation for it. I'm not sure what the engine had in mind, and my opponent certainly didn't! He lost the pawn and the game.

- Importantly, Kestony is also a nice guy and easy to work with. I always look forward to our sessions. After each session, I get excited to play and feel like I can beat anyone I get paired with.

I am a beginner and have been having sessions with Kestony for a few months now.  

Before having sessions with Kestony I watched training videos and spent hours on YouTube learning cheap opening tricks which has developed many bad habits.

Working with Kestony has helped me to understand the principles of chess. Between sessions I have a tendency to revert back to aggressive chess but after each session I have more focus, discipline and confidence.

Kestony is not only a great chess coach, he has a friendly, professional approach to coaching and I look forward to our sessions.

Kestony has the ability to accelerate your learning and I would not hesitate to recommend anyone to give him a try.

I am confident that I will keep improving with Kestony’s help. Without his help I am confident I would see very little improvement!

In short- great guy, great coach and I highly recommend some “Kestony medicine”.