About me
Jesper Hall
FIDE Senior Trainer · International Master · Author
FIDE Senior Trainer
Since 2011. One of four in the Nordics — and the only one in Sweden.
Chess in Schools Europe
In charge since 2005. Previously head of Chess in Schools Sweden.
How it started
From championship player to coach for the world.
One day at the Swedish Championship nearly 25 years ago, a young boy came up and asked how to get better at chess. I was about to give the standard answers — join a club, read books, find a coach — when I recognised my own situation at his age. I loved chess, but had no real guidance on how to train. The next day I called the Swedish Chess Federation and asked what the national training structure was. The answer: there wasn't one, but I was welcome to create it.
From that day, my focus shifted from playing to studying how chess is best taught at every level. I've continued that search ever since, working with everything from kindergarten groups and senior amateurs to one-on-one training with leading grandmasters.
Beyond talent development, for the past ten years I've also worked with chess as an educational tool to develop intellectual and social skills — primarily within Chess in Schools. First as head in Sweden, and since 2005 as head for Europe.
Outside chess I've worked as a theatre director and festival producer, and I'm an experienced project lead and public speaker.
Timeline
Highlights.
2001
Author debut & international publication
Träna schack med Jesper Hall (Natur och Kultur) and Chess Training for Budding Champions (Gambit) — translated into German, French and Italian.
2005
Head of Chess in Schools Europe
Building European efforts to use chess as an educational tool.
2011
FIDE Senior Trainer
Appointed as one of four in the Nordics — the only one in Sweden.
Today
15+ books · 9,000+ teachers · 800+ coaches trained
Active as coach, author and lecturer at every level — from kindergarten to the world top.
Beyond chess
Theatre director, festival producer, project manager and public speaker.
Experiences that give my pedagogy breadth — and my stage presence calm.