NM Jordan Groff

I am a National Master living in Hamden, Connecticut. I teach chess with Play More Chess Academy (playmorechess.com) in Hamden. I love chess and hope to inspire you on your journey toward chess improvement!

I try to play 1-2 tournaments a month. Most notably, I won or shared first in the 2023, 2024, and 2025 New Britain Club Championship, a 7 round classical tournament played over the course of 7 weeks. I also played in the 2023 and 2024 US Masters tournament, earning a 2300+ performance rating on both occasions. Since starting to take chess seriously in 2018 I have made steady improvements in my own play, and recently crossed 2300 USCF for the first time in February 2025.

I've taught chess for 6 years to both adults and kids, ranging from total beginners to around 2000 USCF. I have also taught numerous group classes in person, such as "Chess for Beginners", "Chess Tactics and Calculation", "Chess Openings", and "Chess Endgames: Tactics and Strategy." Additionally, I have coached the Hamden Chess Team for the past 2 years, which is designed for kids looking to play in serious tournaments.

The most important part of my lessons is analyzing games played by the student, with a focus on your decision making during the game. What do you spend time thinking about? Are your decisions based on a rational evaluation of the position? How do you react psychologically after a blunder or unexpected move by the opponent? Most likely, patterns of mistakes will emerge and we can decide together what the biggest issues are that are holding you back. Often this may be tactics, calculation, or endgames. I also help students design an organized opening repertoire that they enjoy playing and can build on, which should increase in depth as you move up the rating ladder. I usually schedule weekly lessons in sets of 4 so that we have time to work on all of these aspects of your game.