Skip to the content
- Free Lessons at the Club. At the Ithaca Chess Club, every Sunday, NM Mike Pastore gives a free chess lesson which is optional: you can join the lesson or keep playing your chess games. The lesson runs from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m., and begins with questions from the club members. After that we work on one and more of these: tactics; how to find good moves; endgames; openings; and chess strategy themes as explained in Judit Polgar’s book Master Your Chess with Judit Polgar, and other top chess books.
- Free Zoom Class Online. Starting this Winter, Mike will offer free online Zoom classes about chess and creativity.
- Paid Private Chess Lessons.
- Lessons for All. Lessons are for children and for adults, and all skill levels.
- Customized. Lessons are never pre-fabricated: they are always customized and personalized to meet the interests and needs of the students.
- Learning is fun. Students learn whenever learning is fun and interesting, and when the challenges are just the right amount: not too simple and not too difficult.
- No weaknesses. Students will be trained to be “complete players”, which means players who have a deep understanding of every essential aspect of chess.
- Creativity. The full name of our chess club is: “The Ithaca Chess Club and Creativity Center.” … A very small yet essential part of each lesson is a dab of creativity enhancement. For example, we might read a short poem, discuss a math problem, learn some words of a foreign language, do concentration and visualization exercises, and more.
- Rates … TBA