Coach Travis
Coach Travis
Travis has been teaching chess professionally for over 13 years! He taught his first private chess lesson in the summer of 2012, and taught chess in his first school in the spring of 2013. This started a long career of coaching chess for Travis. He has worked for several chess companies starting in 2013, first Chess4Life, then Orlov Chess Academy and Chessmates for 10 years, and finally Excel with Chess in 2024 and 2025. Travis achieved a peak U.S. Chess rating of 1961 in the year 2016, without any help from a particular coach! He is currently rated 1910 in U.S. Chess, and seeks to break the 2000 threshold in just a couple more years, from traveling to and competing in high-stakes tournaments!
Travis is grateful to have a wide variety of experiences both teaching and playing chess. Since 2012, he has met and worked with dozens if not hundreds of chess coaches and players within the greater Seattle chess community. He has also had dozens of private lesson students, and has taught chess at nearly 100 different schools! From his experiences, Travis learned not only how to teach chess and work with kids effectively, but also how to run (and not to run) a chess business!
You may contact Coach Travis regarding private chess lessons or other inquiries via ThisIsTravisJOlson@gmail.com .
Why did Travis ultimately choose a career in chess? To understand that, we have to go back to the beginning. To read more, visit our Blog page.
Coach Slava
Coach Slava
Slava has been actively playing chess for the last 5 years. He has actively volunteered in the Mukilteo area, and has 1.5 years of chess teaching experience. Slava is passionate about the game chess, so he hopes to inspire kids and keep them interested in the game, so that it may help them later in life.
Slava moved from Seattle, Washington up to Mukilteo during his 8th grade year. At Harbour Pointe Middle School, he learned how to play chess, and in 10th grade Slava began actively participating in local and scholastic tournaments around Washington.
Slava is also the president of the Kamiak High School chess club (Go Knights!), the same club that Coach Travis attended many years ago, where his chess journey kicked off.
In February and March of 2025, Kamiak competed in the High School State Team Championship in Stanwood, against chess juggernauts such as Lakeside School, Interlake High School, Tesla Stem, Garfield, Redmond, and several other schools. Despite the strong 50-team field, Slava led the Kamiak Chess Team to an impressive 8th place!
In May of 2025, Slava organized the first ever trip to Supernationals for the Kamiak Chess Team, all the way across the country in Orlando, Florida! The 5-player roster was bigger than what most schools from Washington State could field. The team did very well, scoring 3rd place in the U1600 section!
Slava holds a FIDE rating of 1852, and a U.S. Chess rating of 1564. In the summer of 2025, Slava competed internationally in France's Nice International Open, in which he had the 3rd highest performance rating of any player! You may see Slava at the Seattle Chess Club or at a Snohomish County chess tournament.
You may contact Coach Slava regarding private chess lessons via SlavaShinkarev62@gmail.com .