Long Island Instructor National Expert Xilin Chen grew up in Brooklyn and has been playing tournaments since 2017 when he won first place in the 2017 Chess in the Schools Mark Levine Challenge JH-HS Novice section. Xilin’s playing career highlights include winning first place in the 14th Annual Foxwoods Open U-2000 section, tying for first …
New York Instructor developed his passion for chess as part of the Heichal Hatorah team in Teaneck, New Jersey and took private lessons with Premier Chess CEO National Master Evan Rabin. Since then, he has played in several rated tournaments and has a peak rating of 1607. Uli is currently a member of Yeshiva University Chess …
New Jersey Instructor National Expert Titoluwanimi Rapheal has been teaching chess for almost 10 years in his native country Nigeria, where our 43d Podcast Guest National Master Kola Adayemi grew up. He is rated 1892 FIDE. Some of his playing highlights include winning second place in the U-2100 section at the 2023 New State Chess …
Assistant Philadelphia Instructor Shodibek Pulatov co-founded Pulatov Brother’s Empowerment Inc. with his older brother Shakhrizod Pulatov. While at Lower Moreland Township High School, his Chess Team won 5th place at Pennsylvania State Chess Tournament. He is now studying at Penn State Abington.
Philadelphia Instructor Shakhrizod Pulatov hails from Uzbekistan, where chess is widespread. He has had multiple First-Place Finishes in Regional and City-Wide Tournaments in Uzbekistan and placed 5th with the Lower Moreland High School Chess Team at Pennsylvania State Chess Tournament. On May 14, 2022, he tied for first place in the Council Rock South Scholastic Tournament. …
Westchester/Southern Connecticut instructor Eraldo Gjoni is a great player and teacher, who hails from Albania. In 2018, Eraldo won clear first place in the Brooklyn Classical Championship U-1600 section. National Master Evan Rabin happened to win first place in the U-2200 section of the same event. We are lucky to have him on board to teach school …
Philadelphia Instructor Jeffrey Kunnel was born and raised in the City of Brotherly Love, which hosts the World Open, one of the most prestigious annual tournaents, highlighted in Podcast Episode 197 with Grandmaster Joel Benjamin and Expert Harold Scott, authors of Winning the World Open. Some of his playing career highliughts include tying for 1st place U-1700 …
Staten Island Instructor Myx Lee learned chess as a child from our 142nd Podcast Guest Senior Master Jerald Times. Her mother Olawa Gibson happens to be the Director of Teaching at our close partner New American Academy and our 227th Podcast Guest. She has been playing chess since she was a child and currently helps …
Central New Jersey Instructor Gianangelo Dichio has been playing chess for many years and is one of the leaders of the Stevens Institute of Technology Chess Club. He has been teaching chess in elementary schools in Central and North New Jersey for over 2 years. When not playing or teaching chess, he is studying math and …
Manhattan/Jersey City Instructor Ben Chai is an accomplished chess coach, who is fluent in English, fluent conversational in Spanish and Japanese and conversational in French, German and Hebrew. One of his top students Charles Pratt gained 600 rating points in a 7-month period! Ben won 1st place at tournaments, including The 53rd Annual Continental Open U-1300 …
