Coach

What does a chess coach do?

A chess coach looks at your games with you, shows your mistakes and how to avoid them. Any Engine can show you a mistake, but a good coach explains why it is a mistake. And he or she can choose the right openings with you. Maybe you'll also get training material.

The coach will most likeley cost a amount of money, but 100 useless books, DVDs and some online accounts cost a lot of money too and you also waste too much time on learning the wrong stuff.

Usually coaches will do more than that. They will help you pick, learn and understand opening lines. Teach you how to approach positions and how to calculate them. Its not about showing you what you are doing wrong, but to help you get a understand of every aspect of the game.

Honestly, if you're not going to put in a lot of effort by yourself coach is not gonna help you much. The usefulness of a coach is proportional to the time you are devoting to the chess by yourself.

Yeah, listening to coaches and reading books is somewhat over-rated. Of course everything sounds good and reasonable what they tell you but you have to experience it yourself. Tons of practical play are needed, a coach can help a bit but that isn't all what you need.

What if I only want help on one opening

Get information - practise - get information - practise ...

ad infinitum!

If you only want help with one opening you are better off with an engine and an opening book :) #6.

A coach is someone who tells you what you don't want to hear, and has you see what you don't want to see, so you can be who you always known you can be.

Free Lesson For Advanced Players: www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFXMID7ZvZw

Basically coaches in chess do the same what coaches do in other sports or what teachers do at school/university, they are there to help you improve a lot faster