? Could some one share their experience with personal coaching as envisaged
? in this site?

I have signed up for the personal coaching. The example given is a very good indication of what to expect. I paid my first two months in advance and sent of three of my games. A week later an IM sent back my games with his comments which were useful.

I always analyse my games using Fritz and check my openings books. This will pick up any tactical blunders and show if I went wrong in the opening but sometimes there are middle game strategic issues where it is useful to have guidance from a stronger player. In particular there was a game where I got a good position out of the opening but only drew the game and thought I could have done better. The IM advised how I could have improved my play and taken advantage of my pressure.

He also asked if there were any openings I had problems with and suggested I send in some games on this opening in the next month. This I did and was given useful advice on how to play against this opening.

The odd thing is I have not been contacted about sending in payment and games for the next months coaching - initially the coaching was to be for a six month period. I believe having six games analysed has been sufficient for me. There are only some games for which analyses by top level players is useful. At my level many games are decided by blunders and therefore there is not much point in sending in these games for analyses, unless there are particular aspects earlier in the game which you would appreciate help with. When sending in my games in the annotations I would ask questions on the particular moves where I thought I could have played better.

I hope this helps.

I've been extremely happy with my personal coaching so far. I'm graded around 1800 and playing regular over the board club and tournament games and I've been at this plateau for years.

I spent some time analysing recent games before sending them. This was very valuable since I did it without Fritz running in the background and without consulting my library (until after). I sent the games which I felt I understood least and that has so far meant draws and losses.

I've been fortunate that my coach is Richard Palliser, a stong IM and a player with a good and growing reputation as an author and analyst. His annotations were a revalation, despite or perhaps because of the time I had spent studying the games myself. The reason, because Fritz cannot remove my misconceptions and locate the places where my thinking is faulty. Richard has also pointed out the things I do well, made study suggestions, indicated openings which may suit my style better than what I've been playing and indicated areas where I was worrying needlessly.

This is an area in which you definitely get out very much what you put in. Keep the chess engine off until after you have completed your analysis which probably means at least as long as you spent playing the game. I would also advise not going back and correcting your analysis. Your coach can tell a lot from the things you missed and the analysis you performed incorrectly.

If you are still throwing pieces away in most of your games, you are probably better off studying tactics. If on the other hand you seriously want to improve (and especially if you have hit a plateau) this is about the only method which I believe stands a chance of producing significant results. I think it is going to require patience on my part, my bad habits and misconceptions have had many years to develop and become ingrained and it will take time and effort to change.