FM Jack Puccini - Professional Chess Coach
Discover the Secrets of Optimal Chess Training
About Me
Hi! I’m Fide Master (FM) Jack Puccini from Melbourne, Australia. I bring more than a decade of coaching experience, having taught players ranging from complete beginners to advanced experts.
I believe that chess is fundamentally a game of skill, rather than knowledge. Accordingly, my coaching method starts with a detailed analysis of a student’s games and includes specific tasks and puzzles to identify any skills gaps. Based on these assessments, we then focus our lessons on targeted skill development, supplemented by personalized homework assignments to strengthen these areas.
Some of my chess playing and coaching achievements include:
- Fide Rating: 2342
- Top 15 Rated Players in Australia (Both FIDE and ACF Ratings)
- Former Australian Blitz Champion
- Coached junior players to both State and National Championship level
What My Students Say
I started learning from Jack in 2021, which was an absolute game-changer for my chess journey. His expertise in providing individually tailored study plans, developing theoretical and practical skills, truly elevated my game.
Jack’s focus on understanding the deeper ideas behind each move let me to ‘find my own way’ in in the middlegame. His emphasis on calculation helped me outwork my opponents in complex positions.
Jack understands the challenges faced by an adult-improver and was able to keep me motivated despite my busy personal life. I can confidently say my progress under Jack’s guidance exceeded my expectations, and I unreservedly recommend him to anyone looking to take their chess skills to the next level.
– James Fazzolari, 35, father of twins (1705 FIDE)
FM Jack Puccini has been an excellent chess coach for my son, Adidev. Jack has a deep understanding of chess and is very patient while teaching young children.
His explanations of concepts and chess theory are clear and accessible. Adidev, who has been Jack’s student since the age of 7, eagerly looks forward to his chess lessons.
Thanks to Jack’s guidance, Adidev’s chess game and rating have steadily improved, and he is now FIDE-rated across all three formats of the game.
– Dr Shivanand Sheth, Father of Adidev
Jack is an excellent coach. As an adult learning, I was struggling to break out of the beginner ranks. Jack was able to help me analyse my games and gave insight into how to improve.
Over the past year and a half I went from my ~800 plateau to 1400 rated.
More importantly, I continue to enjoy the game and always look forward to our lessons.
Highly recommended.
– John Duane
What My Students Say
I started learning from Jack in 2021, which was an absolute game-changer for my chess journey. His expertise in providing individually tailored study plans, developing theoretical and practical skills, truly elevated my game.
Jack’s focus on understanding the deeper ideas behind each move let me to ‘find my own way’ in in the middlegame. His emphasis on calculation helped me outwork my opponents in complex positions.
Jack understands the challenges faced by an adult-improver and was able to keep me motivated despite my busy personal life. I can confidently say my progress under Jack’s guidance exceeded my expectations, and I unreservedly recommend him to anyone looking to take their chess skills to the next level.
– James Fazzolari, 35, father of twins (1705 FIDE).
FM Jack Puccini has been an excellent chess coach for my son, Adidev. Jack has a deep understanding of chess and is very patient while teaching young children.
His explanations of concepts and chess theory are clear and accessible. Adidev, who has been Jack’s student since the age of 7, eagerly looks forward to his chess lessons.
Thanks to Jack’s guidance, Adidev’s chess game and rating have steadily improved, and he is now FIDE-rated across all three formats of the game.
– Dr Shivanand Sheth, Father of Adidev
Jack is an excellent coach. As an adult learning, I was struggling to break out of the beginner ranks. Jack was able to help me analyse my games and gave insight into how to improve.
Over the past year and a half I went from my ~800 plateau to 1400 rated.
More importantly, I continue to enjoy the game and always look forward to our lessons.
Highly recommended.
– John Duane
Coaching the Saturday morning junior class at Melbourne Chess Club, where I trained hundreds of young players over several years.
How My Coaching Works
Introduction: Private chess coaching with me is conducted online, making it convenient and accessible no matter where you are located. Each session is tailored to fit the individual’s needs and typically lasts one hour. To gain the most from coaching, I recommend scheduling at least one lesson per week.
Specialized Services: For those preparing for specific tournaments, I offer dedicated preparation services. Please contact me directly to discuss how we can tailor a training program to meet your competitive goals.
Pricing: My rate is $60 AUD per hour.
Learn More: To get a deeper insight into what you can expect during our session, visit the coaching page below.
My Chess Articles
Here you can find my writings on all things chess! I’m specifically interested in what might be called more meta-chess topics, such as how we make decisions as we play, the utility of different principles and training modalities, how we can best improve etc… Occasionally, you may also find articles on ‘actual chess’, such trending opening ideas and more.
The Axiom System – Part 4: Justification in Chess
Principles, Justification and Evaluation — perhaps the most mistreated trio in all of chess. In the previous article, I suggested that in unknown positions, the
The Axiom System – Part 3: How Do We Make Decisions
In the previous article, I explored the idea of starting from scratch to develop a framework for understanding practical chess, anchoring our approach in the
Cheating: Trust and Traitors in Chess
How can we simultaneously tackle the two heads of the cheating beast — detection and trust? Seemingly every chess player nowadays is familiar with the
The Axiom System – Part 2: Typical Arguments in Chess
In my previous article in this series, I highlighted that many of the answers provided by modern chess culture, while appearing sage and wise, are
The Axiom System – Part 1 – Introduction
An adult newcomer to chess might find themselves simultaneously impressed yet overwhelmed by the game’s extensive literature, rich knowledge base, and specialized terminology. A game
Want to Improve at Chess?
I also run a chess YouTube channel where I post (occasionally…) videos related to chess and chess improvement. You can check out the video below to learn how to improve your chess tactics!
