WHO AM I?

I was born on June 21^th 1989, on a dairy farm in the outskirts of Maribor, a small town Šentilj in Slovenia. The farm life left a big mark on my childhood, as I had many opportunities for sports and activities in nature outside. Moreover, I can even say it influenced my life’s path, as one of those sports activities – skiing soon led to an injury that luckily did not leave me a lifetime scar, but did, however, led me to my first moves on the chessboard at the age of six. After a broken leg and many chess games with my father, a passion was born. Since then no other sport or activity was able to tear me away from the black and white squares. 

A few years and chess games later, in the year 1998, I played at a tournament (Regional Championship) for the first time and ended up in 4^th place. An amazing coach Mr. Ljubisa Krstic saw my remarkable achievement and invited me to join a chess association in my hometown, ŽŠK Maribor – the most successful chess club in Slovenia.

He soon recognized my potential and offered to serve as my personal trainer. Under his wing and coaching guidance, I won the Regional Tournament already the next year and qualified for the National Youth Championship as well. There I finished in 2^nd place. The same year came European Championship with 25^th place.

I was an active player from 1998 to 2012, and after my youth career in chess and several National titles later, I became a FIDE master in the year 2008. The same year I also won my first IM norm. But while I achieved all of that, I was also giving my first lessons at my hometown chess club ŽŠK Maribor in Slovenia. There I had a great privilege to work with a grandmaster, Senior Trainer, author of many chess books, and the man who helped Karpov and Kasparov become World Champions, as well as FIDE’s Trainer’s Chairman Adrian Mikhalchishin. Mr. Mikhalchishin helped me realize teaching chess and promoting the value of the game is my life’s calling.

Soon after, I devoted myself full-time to teaching chess. In the last 12 years, I have been working with many talented students on an individual and group class level. I started in Slovenian elementary schools and recently worked in Shanghai, China, where I moved in 2017. Since then I have also trained many students via online lessons, which gave me the privilege to work with children and adults from the USA, Hong Kong, and many other parts of the world.

If you are looking for someone to help you or your child improve the skills of the game of chess, don’t hesitate to contact me via the online form or get in touch on LinkedIn.