A data-driven, deep dive into Lichess Coaches

[update 23/4/24]: I've rescraped the webpage using scrapy, and uploaded the dataset to kaggle here: Chess coaches bio (Lichess) | Kaggle. You can also find the code for analysis here: kane9530/lichess_web_scraping (github.com)

Eager to level up your chess game and wondering how much it might cost to hire a grandmaster coach on Lichess?

This straightforward guide, based on data from the Lichess coach page as of 15th July 2023, offers valuable insights into the pool of 1,502 lichess coaches.

English-Speaking Coaches on Lichess

If you're primarily an English speaker, you're in good company on Lichess. Out of 1,502 coaches, 997 have listed English as a language of proficiency, while 502 did not. This suggests that around two-thirds of Lichess coaches are comfortable teaching in English. However, if a coach has not listed English, it doesn't mean they can't speak English, rather, they might prefer instructing in a different language.

Figure 1: Number of coaches that speak English. The height of each bar reflects the number of coaches, which is written on the top of the bar.

Which countries do the Lichess Coaches come from?

The United States tops the list with 127 Lichess coaches, followed closely by Russia with 115. Cuba and Ukraine share the third spot, each with 77 coaches, while India rounds out the top five with 75 coaches. Remember, these locations are self-reported by the coaches, so they might not accurately represent their nationalities.

Figure 2: Top countries with the most number of lichess coaches. The height of the bar represents the total number of coaches from each country, whereas the colors of each bar distinguishes the countries from one another. Countries are ordered from the most (left) to least (right) number of coaches, and only the top 20 countries are shown.

What is the Average $ for a Lichess Coach?

Coaching rates on Lichess differ greatly based on experience, skill level, and availability. I surveyed the hourly rates of 986 coaches out of the initial pool of 1502 coaches, as these are the coaches that listed their hourly rates on the Lichess webpage.

Grandmasters (GMs) charge the highest median hourly rate, $50. Interestingly, untitled players follow closely behind, asking for a median rate of $32.5. The latter might be due to coaches registering before Lichess required a FIDE title.

Next in line are Woman Grandmasters (WGMs) and International Masters (IMs), charging a median hourly rate of $30. Woman International Masters (WIMs), FIDE Masters (FMs), and National Masters (NMs) all charge a median hourly rate of $25, while Candidate Masters (CMs) ask for the lowest median rate of $20/hour.

Figure 3: Distribution of coaching per-hourly coaching rates (in USD) on lichess. Each boxplot depicts the spread of hourly rates in USD for each FIDE category. Each black dot is the hourly USD rate of a specific coach in the category. The bold black line in each boxplot indicates the median (average) hourly rate. The number of coaches considered within each FIDE category is labelled above the title.

High-end Coaches on Lichess

At the top end of the scale, GMs Avetik Grigoryan and Luke McShane command a hefty hourly charge of $300/hour. GM Grigoryan, renowned for founding the popular ChessMood platform, is a strong player whose peak rating reached 2622 in November 2011. GM McShane, recognized as the world's most formidable amateur player, is a prominent British GM who attained a peak FIDE rating of 2713 in July 2012. Among the WGMs, WGM Sabina Foisor stands out for charging a high hourly rate of $120/hour, significantly above the next two WGMs who charge around $50/hour. WGM Foisor was the former US Woman's chess champion in 2017 and also streams on lichess.

Plot is too small? Right click and open the figure below in a new tab to view the plot in greater detail.

Figure 4: Top most expensive coaches on lichess, split by FIDE title. Coaches are grouped according to their FIDE title. The names of the top 10 most expensive coaches in each category (or all of them if there are fewer than 10 coaches in the category) are listed in each plot, ordered in increasing per-hourly rates. For example, of the 244 IMs analysed, the most expensive coaches are IMs Michael Song and Sam Collins. There are only two bars in the WNM category as only 2 coaches have the WNM title.

The Most Affordable Coaches on Lichess

If you're looking for more budget-friendly options, GMs Daviti Lomsadze, Evgeniy Podolchenko, and Mousavi Seyed Khalil offer sessions at just $20/hour, aligning with the median rates of a CM coach on Lichess. Across other categories, certain coaches offer incredibly low coaching rates. For instance, WFM Gozel Mattaganova charges 100 TL/hour, equivalent to roughly $3.7/hour. FM Charlie Galofre charges $25 for a 10-hour block, which averages to $2.5/hour. A Russian IM, known by the Lichess handle Goodwilll, charges 250 Russian Rubles per hour, equating to around $2.7/hour.

Plot is too small? Right click and open the figure below in a new tab to view the plot in greater detail.

Figure 5: Top most affordable coaches on lichess, split by FIDE title. Similar to Figure 4, the names of the top 10 most affordable coaches in each category (or all of them if there are fewer than 10 coaches in the category) are listed in each plot, ordered in increasing per-hourly rates.

Want a Coach Named Mikhail?

Perhaps you're a fan of Mikhail Tal and wish to learn from a coach sharing the same name, hoping to receive wisdom from a potential reincarnation of your chess idol. In that case, here is a list of seven Mikhails, along with their reported FIDE ratings - three are FMs, one is an IM, and the remaining three are GMs. Enjoy!

Figure 6: Coaches named Mikhail. The names and titles of all 7 coaches are listed on the vertical axis, ordered from lowest to highest FIDE rating from top to bottom of the plot. The FIDE rating of each coach is labelled with a red dot.

A Few Disclaimers

The initial set started with 1,502 coaches, but this doesn't cover all the coaches on Lichess. Due to my webpage scraping methodology, coaches without a specified location, or those that set a non-existent location like "Lichess", "Pirate", "Earth", and "Rainbow" were excluded. This is because they cannot be searched using the countries filter on the Lichess coaches page.

In addition, there may have been some errors in determining the coach's hourly rates. The hourly rate field is free-text, posing a challenge in calculating the per-hourly USD rate. Instead of manually converting the rates to per-hourly USD, I relied on the chatgpt-3.5-turbo LLM model from OpenAI to infer the hourly rate, and its predictions aren't devoid of errors.

Lastly, I urge all readers to remember that a lesson's price doesn't necessarily reflect its quality. Factors such as the coach's playing experience, coaching methodology, teaching style, personality and other criteria should influence your decision in selecting the ideal coach for you.

I hope this article equips you with valuable insights about the chess coaches on Lichess.

Thank you for reading, and comment below if you have further questions.

Happy chess-ing!