"Our lifelong love of playing and teaching chess – combined with our passion for raising confident, happy kids – is at the root of everything we do. Together, we have more than 30 years of experience building child-centric chess education programs."
GM Leonid Kritz
Leonid Kritz is a German chess Grandmaster (GM). He learned the game from his father at the age of four.
In 1999 Leonid became the U16 Junior World Champion. Two years later he received the title of International Master and in 2003, at the age of 19, he became one of the youngest German grandmasters in history.
In 2008 Leonid won the Coca-Cola Chess Scholarship at The University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC), and came to the US to study mathematics and finance. In 2013 he was awarded a graduate chess scholarship at The University of Texas, at Dallas.
Leonid received his chess education by working with some of the world’s leading chess coaches. Among others, he worked closely with the French GM Joseph Dorfman – a former coach of the 13th world champion Garry Kasparov.
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Since his move to the US, Leonid has been teaching kids and juniors, as well as providing educational services via well-known Internet chess platforms, such as ChessBase, Chess.com, ChessLectures and iChess.
Currently, Leonid works full-time as a Portfolio Manager in the quantitative asset management field in Boston, MA. He spends his free time with his family, skiing, playing soccer, teaching his kids mathematics, and doing a lot of other fun things!
Leonid's tournament accomplishments include:
- Winner of over 50 international competitions
- Multiple silver and bronze medals at German championships for men
- German chess champion in categories U15 and U17
- Winner of the strongest at that time chess tournament in the history of the USA - SPICE Cup 2008
- Participant in chess Olympiad and multiple European and world championships, both as an individual and in teams
GM Eugene Perelshteyn
Grandmaster (GM) Eugene Perelshteyn was born in Zhytomir, Ukraine and was taught by his dad, Senior Master, Mike Perelshteyn.
He won multiple bronze and silver medals at Ukraine championships for kids under 10 and 12 years.
Eugene came to the US in 1994 as a strong Candidate Master (about 2100 USCF strength) and won the World Open Expert Section in 1995.
Eugene was lucky to meet GM Roman Dzindzichasvili (former top ten player in the world) and their work together earned him International Master and eventually the Grandmaster title.
Together with GM Lev Alburt he co-authored USCF best-selling opening repertoire books: Chess Openings for White, Explained and Chess Openings for Black, explained
These days Eugene is an active chess coach, and his students range from club level to Grandmasters. He is an established lecturer at Chesskid.com, Chess.com, Chesslecture.com and happily shares his opening knowledge with all students of the game on his website ChessOpeningsExplained.com.
Outside of chess, Eugene enjoys spending time with his family, playing soccer and traveling. Chess travels have taken Eugene to such amazing places as Iceland, Hawaii, and Costa Rica’s rainforest.
Eugene's tournament accomplishments include:
- Represented US in five World Junior Championships
- 2000 US Junior Champion
- Participated in multiple US chess championships
- Captained UMBC Chess Team to five National Titles
- Winner of First Ever SPICE CUP Invitational, organized by GM Susan Polgar
- Winner of multiple strong Open tournaments, including 2006 Foxwoods Open
- 4th Place finish in prestigious Reykjavik Open in 2018.