GaryMcNamara

(Some) Student Achievements:

• 2011 NSW U18 Girls Champion 8.5/9
• 2013 City of Sydney U12 Champion 11/11
• (participant) 2013 World Youth Chess Championship U16 Girls 4.5/11
• (participant) 2013 World Youth Chess Championship U12 Open 5/11
• 2016 NSW U12 Girls Champion 9/9
• 2017 Australian U8 Champion =1st win by playoff
• 2017 NSW U18 Girls Champion 5/5 (U12 & U18 consecutively)
• 2017 NSW U12 Girls Champion  8.5/9
• (second for) World Youth Chess Championship U16 Open 5.5/11
• 2018 NSW U18 Girls Champion 4/4 (U12 & U18 consecutively)
• 2019 NSW U18 Reserves Champion 7/9 (open division same winner as the 2016 U12 Girls)
• 2020-2023 assortment of age division prizes to a pair of siblings in their local and state championships in Western Australia

Quick summary of my coaching experience so far:

My first decade as a coach was spent rebuilding my own chess education, reading a couple of hundred chess books, and exploring literature on expertise/learning/skill acquisition. I selected a couple of favourite authors/coaches to serve as models to follow.

In the last few years this has developed into an approach of my own. I have formed a coaching philosophy which merges the best and most useful of what I have gathered along the way plus a number of personal insights.

With new students I insist on covering two key areas:

1. Positional understanding: a study of the chess board and each of the six types of pieces. This aims to improve our use of each chess piece, to better judge their placements individually as well as managing partnerships with other piece types. To increase general harmony and health of our own position and become more effective at disturbing those things in the opponent's position. Along with other positional details.
2. Strategic understanding: a study of the evaluation of positions and nature of statics & dynamics in chess. Learning to appreciate the vastly different needs of these two scenarios and how we must adapt distinctly different mental models and candidates search for each type. We are building a universal foundation to adapt to the needs of the position, regardless of preferred style. We can additionally explore how to push the boundaries with risk management and imbalancing play for decisive results.

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In loving memory to my recently late grandmother Mary Laverty who was always supportive of my passion for chess. Also eternal appreciation to my late childhood mentors Milenko Vujcic and Nermin Jakirlic -- you both played unique roles influencing my growth as a person and chess player. I am still learning from our old conversations.