Noshan Peiris

What do you think makes you a good coach? 

I enjoyed assisting others to grow and seeing their development. I am passionate about understanding the students’ mindset and teaching them in a way they will understand. This will make sure students are engaged in the class and help to improve their thinking capabilities.

What are your key strengths?

I have good attention to detail and analytical skills; I hope this helps me to understand my students, their weaknesses and their strengths and maintain student interest in the class.

Why do you love Chess?

I love chess because it gives me a reason and causes me to think. Chess helped me a lot to grow in different ways. Concentration is a key aspect I developed from chess. Helping me to focus for long periods of time on one objective is something that I learned and practiced from chess. Chess motivates me to be innovative by thinking of solutions for different problems and is another key reason why I enjoy playing chess.

When/how did you first learn to play?

I started playing chess when I was 10 years old and played at different levels until the age of 17. I had a break for a period and now I am back to playing chess.

Why do you enjoy working with kids?

It always feels energetic and enthusiastic when working with children. It helps to keep aside our day-to-day life pressure and move to the children’s world. While enjoying time with kids, I am glad that I can provide correct directions to the younger generation to become successful in ways that helped me.

What are your main Chess achievements? 

I represented my school chess team for the period I had been playing. I was lucky enough to gain lots of rich experiences by playing in school tournaments and facing competitive challenge.

How do you think Chess helps kids?

Every move you make on the chessboard is solving a problem. Chess helps children with problem-solving skills. This can greatly be beneficial for their social life as well as their educational life. Another main benefit of chess is to helps practice abstract reasoning. Chess helps students to improve their abstract reasoning skills by helping them learn to recognize patterns. Chess helps children to learn how to become calm under pressure.