Coach Content: Viktor Neustroev – Chessable Blog

Viktor Neustroev’s journey in chess began before he became a coach. It started in his hometown of Novosibirsk, Russia. He is one of the best junior players in his region. But it wasn’t until 2013, when her daughter Alisa was four years old, that she discovered a passion for teaching.

Neustroev was coaching a small group of children and brought Alisa. At first, he just observed. But, soon, he became one of his strongest students. At the age of eight, she won the girls under 9 championship in Siberia, a great regional title.

Since then, Neustroev has been training students of all ages and levels, nurturing skills and love for the game. The achievements of his students are remarkable: Hong Kong brothers who got the National U9 Title, a young English school player in the 2025 FIDE World Schools Team Championship, and many others hit special milestones. For him, coaching is not just about victories and titles; It’s about helping players set goals, develop healthy habits, and overall experience the joy of development.

Now based in Buenos Aires, Viktor takes his teaching to a global stage as a content host, sharing his knowledge with chess lovers across the continents. And as a chessable author, he brings the same insight and care to his courses as he does to his longtime students.

In this interview, he shares helpful advice for chess players:

What is your chess coaching philosophy?

My coaching philosophy rests on two pillars: happiness and individuality. First, students must genuinely enjoy learning and playing—fueling curiosity and development. Second, each player needs a customized approach.

I run workshops, group lessons, and create recorded video courses to cover universal basics. But before I start with an individual student, I study their new games to determine strengths and weaknesses. From there, I build a personal training plan – then refine it regularly based on new games and measurable progress.

Making the most of the process is important. Many players want to improve but are reluctant to compete for fear of rating losses. That’s a common trap. I encourage students to play, take risks, and treat results as feedback: Play games, accept rating swings. Progress follows when we pair consistent practice with true game analysis and a positive, growth-oriented mindset.

For example a player has only 3 hours a week for chess training. How do they spend their time?

With 3 hours per week, focus on the highest impact activity:

1 hour – tactics.

Do such puzzles that match your rating, not random ones. Each one should take ~ 3-10 minutes. Organize them into a tactical motif so that you can recognize the tactical aspects of a position, not just calculate. I describe this concept in my course Train your tactical vision.

1 hour – Play 1-2 Serious Games.

Bullet Avoidance / Blitz. Choose a longer time control (at least 15 + 10) so that you can think properly about actions, plans, and time management. Your brain needs to work at a full capacity. This is how great chess players are.

1 hour – analyze your games.

Start without an engine. Identify critical moments, where things go wrong. Suggests a better move and calculate it. When the whole game is analyzed, then check a machine to confirm or correct your conclusions. Use database or model game if needed.

What is the biggest factor for improvement for players under 1200 (chess.com)? Under 2000?

Players with less than 1200 should work more on tactics, trying to improve their calculation skills. Do they need to know the basic principles – piece development, control center, and planning? Yes, of course, it is even more important to focus on their decision-making process: how to find the candidate to act, what to expect from their opponent, and how to evaluate the positions that may arise in order to choose the right action.

As for players under 2000, the general approach to study should be different. Of course, at any level a chess player must continue to work on tactics. However, this is where open awareness and middulame planning play a key role. To improve the latter, I recommend analyzing the GMS games played in the openings of your repertoire. This is how you can find out about custom plans; After all, once you have reached a similar position in your own game, you tend to remember some common plans, so your task is to choose the one that suits your position.

What is your preferred way to develop openings? What is the chess opening method that you try to teach your students?

Work with a coach or study a structured online course. Memorizing the moves is not enough. Instead, I explain the logic behind the moves: the main goals, what each piece does, and what is expected from the opponent. Remembering even part of this logic creates “anchors” in memory, so if a student forgets the exact move order, they still recognize the key positions and can reconstruct the correct sequence.

What is your preferred way to progress in the endgame?

The main positions of the theoretical studies are necessary. However, endgames are primarily about planning and calculation. What helped me personally was working with a Master: We set a position from a book, play it twice (once with white and compare the games with the model to find out why our plans didn’t last long.

With my students, we often analyze standard endgames – and we also study their own endgames from recent games. Recently, I conducted a series of group lessons dedicated to the Endgame Technique. I focused on common ideas and concepts on different scales of the material, and it seemed to help: many students shared real progress in the last stage. Their play became more and more important.

Is there anything else you’d like to share with aspiring chess developers?

My general advice is to make a training plan. Follow this plan and adjust it regularly. How to make such a plan? Check where you struggle: is it open, wrong plans, or wrong plans? If you can’t do it yourself, ask a coach. And, of course, always work on your calculation skills.

Corsters in CHESPLESS BY FM VIKTOR NEUSTOV

To date, Neustroev has created six courses, with half focusing on openings and the other half on tactics and calculation skills.

Check out his Author page!