NM Alan Casden - Central Ohio
Alan is the program director and a coach at CCL. He has been playing tournament chess since he was a teenager. In high school, he was ranked among the country's top 25 high school players. While in college, he became a published chess author. Since coming to Ohio, he has won many of the major city championships. For most of his adult life, he has had a chess Masters rating. He has over 30 years of experience running chess clubs, and he has been giving chess lessons for over 40 years. His current focus on chess is directed toward improving the skills of the next generation of chess players.
IM Atanas Kizov - Head Coach
Atanas is an IM from Macedonia who also has one of his GM norms. Atanas is the former Macedonia National Champion. He is an accomplished chess player who is also well known for his his theoretical base and his theoretical knowledge of the openings. He is an extremely hard worker who has a very professional approach to chess. I have received many personal and strong GM recommendations on Atanas of which some of these GM's use him as their second when they compete in matches. His deep understanding of chess is well respected in chess circles. Below is a short recent sample from the list of many accomplishments that he has sent me.
2006: Member of Macedonian chess Team at the Chess Olympiad in Turin,Italy
2007: Captain of Macedonian Chess Men Chess Team at the European Chess Championship in Heraclio, Crete
2008: Captain of Macedonian Chess Men Chess Team at the Chess Olympiad in Dresden, Germany
2009: Captain of Macedonian Chess Men Chess Team at the European Chess Championship in Novi Sad, Serbia
2010: Captain of Macedonian Chess Men Chess Team at the Chess Olympiad in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia
Click here to see recommendations on Atanas
NM Walker Griggs
GM Vlatko Bogdanovski
- I am an experienced grandmaster, having earned my GM title in 1993
- 7-time Macedonian National Champion
- Won many strong tournaments including: Skopje Open 1985, International Open Carole, Italy 1990, Star Dojran 1992
- I have competed in 7 Chess Olympiads and 4 European Team Championships.
- I have a journalist degree and I have worked as a chess commentator during many major chess competitions
- In the last decade, my main activity is training young chess players. {FIDE certified trainer}.
- I work with many of the top Macedonian juniors and I was the team captain of the 2016 Macedonian Women's National Team.
- My coaching experiences includes teams at the Olympiads and numerous of world and European youth chess championships.
- My skills in English are strong.
- My hobby and passion is sports. I appreciate the virtues of sport.
- I believe that my greatest strength is patience.
NM Walker Griggs
IM Zoran Arsovic
Zoran is an IM (almost GM) from Serbia.
Current achievements:
- Recognition of the title International Master.
- First GM norm in Belgrade.
- The second and third GM norm at the Individual European Championship in Plovdiv
In possession of the three norms of Grandmaster, in need of a higher rating for the biggest title.
Playing/coaching activities:
- Very successful and experienced as a trainer.
- Current perennial and successful selector and national coach of the Serbian youth chess team in all categories (under 20).
- Always present at World and European championships as well as the Olympiad and Balkaniad, couching the children towards very good results; e.g. second place in the World’s youth championship under 8-under 18 (under 14 Milan Zajic in Dubai 2013.) and the first place in Balkaniad 1012. with the youth team (under 16).
- Repeatedly helped the strong grandmaster Ivan Ivanisevic (First board Senior Serbian Team) prepare for the duels with the world’s strongest players.
- A perennial coach in Serbia for students who have leading roles (countless first places in youth categories up to 20).
NM Vladimir Kizov - head of CCL's Pre-CCL program
Vladimir is the brother of CCL coach Atanas. He is also a Graduate Professor of History.
He is a trainer in one of the best-organized chess schools in Macedonia and the coach of the youth team chess club Gambit-Asseco SEE, which has been a full participant in the European Club Cup for the past five years.
Highly respected in the Macedonia chess community, Vladimir’s work is mainly focused on developing youth chess. He is a committed and hardworking individual, and most importantly, he loves chess.