OnlineChessLessons.net … HOT!
Websites and blogs come and go. While the winds of change render some sites passe’, other seize a niche and develop a healthy following. One such site is Online Chess Lessons (onlinechesslessons.net). The site has only been in existence since January, but has wide following and has amassed a large cache of instructional videos.
The story of how Online Chess Lessons got started sounds a lot like stories we’ve heard before. Freddy Lansky, the webmaster of the company, tells of a period when he and NM William Stewart lived in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Both Freddy and Will rubbed shoulders with web entrepreneurs and subsequently worked for different Internet companies. It was this experience that spurred idea to start an online company.
During our time we spent many hours just banging heads trying to figure out how to dollars over the internet by starting our own business ourselves. In the mean time William was teaching chess online to one or two clients here and there through clients which he found by advertising on craigslist. I noticed that without some kind of webpage it was tough to look legitimate. So I offered to make him a simple website so he would look more legitimate. As more and more clients picked up, we decided to go ahead and redo the website and attract people to the site by making tons of articles and videos. As our site has continued to grow, our part-time side-project has turned into both of our full-time jobs.
Since the launch onlinechesslessons.net has blossomed into a popular website offering a large resource of instructional videos including the chess variant “Bughouse”. They are assisted by FM Kazim Gulamali who does some of the game commentary of top games.
FM Kazim Gulamali (VABORIS on ICC).
“We are now in the process of translating the whole website and have started up a Spanish YouTube as well. Our ambition is to have one of the biggest chess websites and YouTube channels on the internet in both English and Spanish,” stated Freddy.
Eventually the site will offer full service including subscriptions, an online store and additional Spanish language content, certainly an ambitious undertaking.