About Me

Hi! I’m Fide Master (FM) Jack Puccini from Melbourne, Australia, and I’m a chess coach and player. 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

You can learn more about my coaching 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.