The CCL Chess School

Chess, Community and Learning

 

Chess lessons and more, for players of all strengths and ages.

The Coaches

NM Alan Casden - Central Ohio

Alan

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

Walker Griggs is a national master and a former CCL student. He began taking lessons with CCL at 12, and by 15 achieved the title of Master. He has won numerous open tournaments in Ohio and the greater U.S. and has faced off against and beaten or drawn over 10 grandmasters. Walker is also a two-time Ohio Chess Champion.

He captained the chess team at Oberlin College, where he played a key role in hosting the 2015 Pan-American Intercollegiate Chess Championships while earning a B.A. in Russian and Biology. Later, he continued his academic pursuits in graduate school at the University of Southern California, studying Slavic Languages and Literatures.

Now working as an IT Engineer, Walker still has a deep passion for chess and he loves making and solving puzzles of all kinds.

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 journalism degree and was a chess commentator during many major competitions.
  • In the last decade, my main activity has been 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 include teams at the Olympiads and numerous 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

 

Bio:
Walker Griggs is a national master. He has been teaching chess in some capacity for over 12 years. He spends his days as an IT Engineer. He is fluent in Russian and loves making and solving puzzles.

IM Zoran Arsovic

Zoran is an IM (almost GM) from Serbia.Zoran

Current achievements:

  1. Recognition of the title International Master.
  2. First GM norm in Belgrade.
  3. 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 Serbian youth chess team coach 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).
- I repeatedly helped the strong grandmaster Ivan Ivanisevic (first board senior Serbian team) prepare for the duels with the world’s strongest players.
- A perennial Serbia coach for students with 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.

Vladimir's work is highly respected in the Macedonia chess community, which mainly focuses on developing youth chess. He is a committed, hardworking individual, and most importantly, he loves chess.

Jacob Eismann

Formerly a CCL student, Jacob Eismann has been playing competitive chess for almost 20 years, starting at the age of 7. He graduated from Columbus Academy, then went on to earn a Finance degree at the University of Kentucky, where he was also a member of the UK Swim Team from 2019-2022. Jacob is now a Product Manager for a large, international software company, and lives in Columbus, Ohio. When not playing chess (or working), he also plays soccer, video games, and continues to swim competitively.