REVIEWS

Dan is not just a great chess trainer, but he is also able to enrich the chess training by sprinkling in fascinating anecdotes during his lessons (not necessary only about chess itself, just ask him e.g. about his passion for logic puzzles). I thoroughly enjoyed my time learning from Dan and would highly recommend him to anyone looking to improve their chess skills while also having a fun and engaging experience. In essence, the above motto "Chess is fun" really fits.

Dan is a great coach in many ways. He is patient and also pushes you to reach higher and higher. However, I believe the factor that sets Dan apart from the rest of the coaches is his incredible insight and experience. One example is his extensive knowledge of openings -- and he doesn't just have the different lines memorized. He understands the basic concepts and history of the opening, allowing you to understand the position with more depth.

Every game that we analyze together, he can explain his thought process clearly and make it tangible to me. This is also why I think just looking at the strength of a coach is not the most important aspect. Sure, there might be GM coaches who are stronger players than Dan. But are they better at teaching? Not necessarily. I think Dan's experience and insight more than compensate, and this is also why I recommend you to take his lessons.

Had my first lesson with Dan and was very pleased with the amount I learned and Dan's great approach. Can't wait for my second lesson.

Dan is a very very good Chess Coach. He has fantastic theoretical knowledge on all aspects of the game. He easily identifies my game's weak points and helped structure the thought process needed during a chess game. Over the time he coached me I have seen my performance jump considerably being able to take on our club top players (1800-2000) now where before I would only compete on the mid range levels (1400-1800). Would definitely recommend taking his classes.

A lot of online chess teachers are just regular players making a bit of money on the side. Dan is the opposite. He is an extremely diligent, professional chess coach who takes pride in seeing his students develop over time. The lessons are extremely well structured and personalised. When I first took lessons with him over 15 years ago, Dan was already one of the best reviewed coaches on ICC --- he has only got better with years of experience. I could not recommend him more highly.

I approached Dan in early 2018 as an inactive 1540 ELO player. I started to play tournaments actively 6 months later and reached 1800 ELO over 18 months. As an adult player with a full-time job, this improvement wouldn't have been possible without Dan's help.
Dan has helped me to improve mostly in the following domains:
1. Opening preparation. Dan has a vast knowledge of openings, not only the most trendy ones, but also the evolution of opening theory in the past decades. I built my whole repertoire from scratch. Knowing the typical plans and ideas behind each opening makes this process a lot easier.
2. Game analysis and middlegame strategy. The most valuable thing I get from Dan is not his knowledge, but his thinking process. He doesn't only show me what is the right move, but also the right plan and ho he's able to find it, and what I probably missed from the position. This has a long term benefit that it helped me develop unconsciously a "sense of good moves". Now I still struggle to find the best move in many difficult positions, but I tend to play fewer "bad moves" since I have a better feeling of what a good plan looks like.
3. Endgame theory. I had a very weak knowledge of endgame theory and wasn't motivated to learn it at all. Dan showed me the beauty of chess through interesting endgame puzzles and really comprehensive theories.
Apart from his knowledge, Dan also has an outstanding teaching style:
2. Unlike many other coaches, Dan definitely hates using engine during his lessons. What you learn from Dan is not the best computerish move in a position that even Carlsen fails to find, but the most logical strong move based on a master's 30+ years experience, that every human player can achieve with training.
3. Dan has a busy schedule with his students, yet he's super well organized, always punctual, and always tunes his coaching program to fit the needs of each individual.
4. Dan is a rigorous and strict coach, he pushed me to reach my potentials. At the same time he's so encouraging, he makes me believe that I can always make improvement on something and become stronger and stronger. It was a big pleasure to play tournaments after tournaments and show my games to Dan in the pre-Covid times.
Dan is such an experienced and passionate coach who can definitely help every serious player make an improvement.

I think I taught you too much, you have started to beat me every now and then in fast games. 🙂

Dan has helped me improve many 100's of ELO. He has an incredible in-depth knowledge of typical patterns, strategies and plans for a wide range of openings, middlegames and endings.
He is patient, but pushes you to remember what you have learned. As a 50 year old player who is throwing themselves into chess study, I am pretty sure Dan is the only person who can see me through to Master level and beyond.

If you really want to improve, and you are willing to put in the work, I don't think you will find a better coach. Dan is knowledgeable, enthusiastic, and honest in his criticism.

My daughter has taken the class for over 19 months. Dan totally brings her chess to the next level with his solid approach. Each class starts with deep game analysis, move by move based. All the missed chances from both sides in the opening, middlegame and endgame are explained, not only with variations but also in the crystal clear human understandable ideas, which can be easily digested by the student and replicated in future games. From his many years of teaching experience, Dan has prepared a systematic course, covering major attacking themes, middlegame and endgame strategy. Many questions are asked during class, and most of them are simply 20% above the student's capabilities, requiring deep thinking and calculation. This significantly improves the student overall in terms of chess skills, reflected in their own OTB games. Moreover, his English is at native speaker level. Strong recommended.

Dan very clearly explains the key ideas and concepts to become a better player. I am very happy with the results of taking lessons with this excellent teacher.

I have been taking lessons with Dan for about 7 months. During that time, I've gone from struggling in the 1000-1100 range to having multiple 1800+ performance ratings. He helped me to correctly identify my key weaknesses and provided recommendations and information on how to efficiently address them, including fixing my flawed thinking process as well as my method for practicing tactics. He does not sugar-coat feedback, but is patient when working to solve problems. If you are serious about wanting to improve and are willing to put in the work, you will be hard pressed to find a better coach to help you.

Couldn't ask for anything more. Extremely focused on making me a better overall player.

As an intermediate player (mid 1800 rating online) I have learned an immense amount from Mr. Vasiesiu in spite of only having taken a few lessons thus far. His emphasis on fixing one's thought process is proving far more beneficial than mindlessly chipping away at theory for hours. Highly recommended.

Dan is an excellent teacher from what I have already gathered in the 6 lessons I have had. He is diligent, thorough and offers great insight into the game. I have seen a great improvement in my chess already and would highly recommend him to anybody thinking about improving their game.

Dan is extremely good at what he does, his chess knowledge is superb and his teaching style is very methodical and easy to follow. Very recommended.

Dan is an excellent coach who is tactically sharp for his skill level, and he has plenty of experience and knowledge of openings and middlegame plans. This means that he can provide very solid game review in real time in human language while playing through your games with you, without seeming at all like the process would benefit from computer analysis. He also has very well planned endgame lessons for building a strong base of ability in playing with the pieces from the basics. Dan has an uncanny ability to be patient with your calculation and give you just the level of hint or idea that you need to get the solution, in some cases challenging your perhaps correct solution with a reply that you didn't consider in yoru variation analysis but is critical to its correctness. This method of studying endgames that just beyond your capacity of what you could study on your own in difficulty level, but with a sufficient level of stimulative guidance has been prove to be a very valuable deep practice in learning in general and in improving calculation and endgame skill specifically.

I started playing chess seriously in my 40s, which means I'm faced with a great deal of challenge for getting the game significantly under my belt.
I've tried a number of chess teachers, and their general approach devolves to "bring me your games, I'll tell you what you did wrong". That's a pretty lousy structure for teaching - it's like telling someone to go and try to do math, then teaching them based on their errors.
Dr. Dan Vasiesiu has an actual curriculum and system for thinking about what's happening on the board. He's talked to and studied the basic processes of thinking that other masters use and has built a structured and pro-active system of teaching that can actually be LEARNED. He has affected my appreciation of the game tremendously and is a superior instructor.

There are those with great skill and knowledge of chess and there are those about whom it could be said they are great teachers. I spent 20 years in the 1400s and within a year I was over 1600 and I am in my 60s. He took my student and helped him become the highest FIDE rated player under age 14.

Thanks. The player you are talking about is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_M._Burke.

Dan is the the best chess teacher I have ever had online! He is very helpful and knowledgeable with his lessons. They are well worth the price because he is very solid and trust me - I wouldn't give this review if I didn't believe in him!

I've been following Dan's lessons for over a month and could not be happier.
He possesses great knowledge of chess, chess interfaces and various dedicated chess softwares and websites, a combination which makes his lessons extremely interesting, and gives you all the tools to do your "homework" afterwards; he is also a good communicator, entertaining and reliable.
We are focusing mainly on improving my thought process and calculation skills, while also constantly analyzing my games. Beside the tactical analysis, the thing I like the most is how he's always able to spot interesting themes out of every phase of the game, and give extremely practical advice on how to handle a specific opening, or how/why you should aim for a maneuver in the middlegame, or why you should reach a certain structure in a rook endgame and so on ...
In conclusion, I've rarely been so motivated to study, improve and play tournaments again, which, in the end, is one of the best things one can hope from a teacher.

Dan is a top notch player and instructor. In a heartbeat, he spotted my weaknesses and designed a tailored program to address them. In just over 5 sessions I was able to learn more from him than I did in 5 years by myself. I am not talking about abstract chess knowledge, but knowledge of how to handle such and such positions, what my natural inclinations are, and how to apply the information in my study and over the board. Although hard to believe, I have just finished a tournament where I started with my 1906 FIDE rating and nailed second place with a performance of 2177. They say the proof is in the pudding. I could not agree more!

Dan is a great teacher. His approach is very concrete and he made me appreciate the concrete character of the game. Our weekly lessons are always a highlight of the week. In less than a year, my online rating increased by almost 200 points, and - even more important - my understanding of the game improved massively. Usually we analyze one or two games, which helps with my repertoire, but also my thought process. We also play games and analyze them together. Didactically, Dan does a great job, listening and commenting in a clear way. He keeps me motivated!

Before starting to comment, I'd like to point ou tthat I have worked with Dan for just over 4 months in 2013. Right after 4 months of training I went to play in 2 tournaments, Vlissingen Open in the Netherlands and Izmir Open in Turkey. I have gained exactly 111 ELO points in two tournaments and won the 1600-1800 category prize in Vlissingen while I only had an ELO of 1601 (the lowest in the category).
I worked with some FMs and IMs in the past but none of them contributed so greatly to my vision of the game. Dan will teach you how to look at the board, what to make of it, how to form an opinion. It's almost as a philosophy class. Everything will start to make sense, even if it's chaos going on. Dan is not a tactics trainer robot or audio e-book like some others, Dan is a person with a very deep understanding of chess and the surroundings and has the excellent rationale and communication skills to transfer knowledge. I can vouch for him with my eyes closed.

I've been working with Dan for about two years now, and cannot praise his abilities as a teacher enough. Dan distinguished himself from all of the other coaches I've worked with (including some superstars) in that he proposes a highly organized approach to rebuilding your chess thought process. yes, he provides assistance with calculation and tactics (which he can smell from far away with his eyes closed). Yes, he can share and explain his mind-bogglingly detailed knowledge of opening theory. Yes, he has an uncanny ability to notice and correct your subtle positional errors and fix your endgame play. But first and foremost, he will help you start thinking better, and all else follows. In the last two years, I've managed to improve my results by nearly 600 rating points with Dan's help, and I hope to push that, and my enjoyment of the game, even further in the coming year. In any case, I'm getting ready for my 113th lesson with Dan right now and still look forward to each meeting.

I've been taking lessons with Dan for a while now and I've found him to be an excellent teacher. He has an extremely broad knowledge of openings and the ideas and middlegame plans and structures they lead to as well as an extensive knowledge of endgame positions which he is able to organize and explain really well. He is a patient teacher and a good communicator with a great sense of humor and he is completely fluent in English. I've learned a lot from Dan and I highly recommend him as a chess teacher.

When I was looking for a teacher, I wanted three things: (1) someone knowledgeable about chess; (2) someone who knew how to teach; and (3) someone who could communicate excellently in English. It is not easy finding someone who satisfies all three criteria, but in my experience, fi one of those goes missing, lessons can be frustrating. Dan V. fits the bill completely. I'm in the teaching business myself and I recognize excellence in teaching when I see it: Dan is an excellent instructor. I have learned an enormous amount from him, look forward to all our lessons, and recommend him in the highest terms without reservations.

Dan has all the qualities one could want in a chess coach: knowledge, patience, passion, clarity, humor, reliability, and experience. Not only has my chess improved, but my appreciation and overall enjoyment of the game is at an all-time high. His lessons on strategy and thinking in chess have been positively influenced my non-chess world. Remarkable man, extraordinary teacher.

Dan has many strengths: an encyclopedic knowledge of openings and endgame positions, an innate understanding of middlegame plans and positional considerations, a natural ability for tactics and a special fondness for attacking positions and taking the initiative. But he is also able to clearly and patiently communicate and convey an understanding of all of these both to beginners and advanced players. Combine this with good humor, friendliness, and impeccable English, and it's a terrific combination. Very highly recommended.

Thanks Dave!It's 2024 and we're still going strong. 🙂

Dan has been coaching me five years on and off. During that time, we have gone over countless games and positions, and his instruction has always been clear and patient with an emphasis on repeatable themes, e.g. lines in a particular opening, middlegame ideas such as tactics, strong and weak squares, strong and weak diagonals and files, and color complexes. While patient, Dan is not an "easy" instructor and will expect you to study and apply what you have learned in games. After all, learning is not possible without practice both by way of study and actual play. All in all, highly recommended. The only qualification is that he does not annotate your games; that's up to you. Otherwise, I cannot imagine a better chess instructor.