"Lauren was highly recommended to us by my sister in law who learned to play chess from Lauren. Lauren taught private chess lessons to my kids (ages 7 and 9) for a school year which helped them become better chess players and learn new strategies. My children stated what they liked best about Lauren's lessons were finding the traps and checking the games they would play. Personally I thought the weekly chess puzzles Lauren assigned as homework to the kids were very helpful in advancing their chess skills as well as reviewing chess games they played outside of private lesson time. I would wholeheartedly recommend Lauren as a chess teacher for anyone wanting to learn chess. She is patient, kind, and a wonderful person. Thank you, Lauren!"

"I just wanted thank you again for the lesson. I took your advice and played a slower time and thought out my moves. My rating went from 1047 to 1206 in a week (79 percent win percentage. I was around 45-49 percent). I will definitely be back!"

"Lauren taught a Chess workshop for our Middle school. Beginners to Intermediate level all learned something new and found joy practicing with each other. Lauren was kind, patient, and encouraging."

"I highly recommend Lauren as a chess coach for adult beginner/intermediate level students. She is an excellent teacher who is able to communicate complex strategies and tactics in a way that is easy for me (older) to understand. Her wealth of knowledge and experience in the game is evident in every lesson and she is able to tailor lessons to my level and needs. She is particularly great at working with adult students, as she seems to understand the challenges that come with learning and training as an adult. She is encouraging and supportive and always willing to answer any questions. I highly recommend her as a coach for any adult looking to improve their chess game.”

"Lauren was the first real chess teacher I had. I had learned how to play from my dad, and I had done summer camps and after school programs, but without her help, I would not be anywhere near where I am right now. I started with Lauren when I was around 7-8 and have never had to consider switching teachers. She has taught me everything from the basics of chess like how to perform checkmates to more advanced tactics like opening and endgame position drills, and is a perfect chess teacher for people in a very wide range of starting points. However, Lauren’s methods of teaching have helped me learn more than just chess tactics. She has taught me various important life skills like decision-making, and has been crucial to my growth as a person as well as a chess player. I cannot thank her enough for teaching me all these years.”

“The chess class I had before working with Lauren was too easy. With Lauren, my skills are improving. My biggest chess accomplishment is beating someone rated over 1600 at the 2019 California state championship, where I tied with three others for first place. Others should hire Lauren because she’s good at tactics, puzzles and analyzing games.”

"Lauren is great: patient, friendly, punctual, and most importantly, she knows what she is doing and is good at explaining it. I really enjoy studying chess with her.”

Lauren is an amazing chess teacher and has been teaching my daughter for the past two years. Her lessons emphasize an integral part of chess: thinking about your opponent's potential moves and not moving brashly. She is great at giving advice to the student and making sure they fully understand the concept being taught.

Lauren's books, "Queen for a Day" and "50 Poison Pieces" are both excellent guides for beginner players, particularly children who often move without thinking ahead. Unlike other puzzle books that only give answers and no explanation, Lauren's books offer multiple potential moves for the player to consider in which some moves are good and some bad. Lauren explains the reasoning for why a move is good or bad, which is something that is very useful to beginners and which is rarely found in traditional chess puzzle books.

Lauren is kind-hearted, patient and good-natured which is fantastic for teaching a difficult game. Lauren works hard to encourage girls to play chess and also helps organize chess events for all players. She often tells us about chess events in our community and my daughter had the chance to meet the real-life Queen of Katwe when Phiona Mutesi was in the Bay Area. My daughter looks forward to her chess lessons with Lauren every week!

Improving your tactical ability is the quickest way to get better at chess. It is best, if you solve a series of puzzles at one time, in order to improve your skill. Puzzles of two moves or longer can significantly enhance your ability to visualize results without having to move the pieces.The puzzle site at ChessByLauren is ideal for this purpose. I think it is a very effective chess teaching tool.

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to review your new puzzle website. I feel it clearly shows how much energy you have given this project, and that your heart and soul is in to chess and developing the young minds. The vast amount of puzzles available on the website is impressive, and having them categorized into 7 different groups helps the user select which area they want to train and improve. Congratulations on an amazing job, and best of luck for the future developments.

When Lauren Goodkind requested I review her puzzle site, I said to myself: “Really, another puzzle site? Don’t we have enough of them on the web.” However, since I have known Lauren for a while and I have always appreciated her contributions to the chess community, I decided to at least look at her puzzles. I was pleasantly surprised. I found that her puzzles did provide a uniqueness I had not encountered. I decided that these puzzles would work extremely well for the students in my chess program. Not only would they help them build board vision, something most young players have problems with, but understand why one choice was far better than the other. What I liked best about Lauren’s approach is that after a choice is made she explains why one answer is superior to the other. So often puzzle programs simply let you wonder why your move was not good or they run a computer analysis that provides the best answer(s) without explanation. Lauren understands that young beginning players need more direct guidance with simple short explanations.

I wish I had a program like this when I was first learning chess! If you are a novice or early beginner, the puzzles on Lauren's website will be highly beneficial. Lauren takes you step by step through five fundamental concepts: unprotected piece, fork, checkmate, stalemate, and skewer/pin, using repetition to reinforce critical ideas that will help students recognize how to avoid common chess errors. The explanations are quite helpful: whether the student picks the correct move or not, he/she will understand WHY one option works and the other doesn't. Students conclude their learning by completing the "random" category, in which a variety of positions are presented without clues (just like in a real chess game), leaving it up to the student to discover the underlying theme in the position. These puzzles are elementary by design and are therefore suitable for students who have just learned how to play or who have just a little bit of chess experience. Players rated up to about 400-500 USCF will find these exercises helpful. Of particular value is the section on stalemate, which often confounds newcomers. A little practice with the diagrams will serve to clarify this concept. The time spent mastering Lauren's puzzles will reap rewards down the line. Sign up, log in, and start improving today!