Meet the UNC student who runs his own online chess tutoring service

At six years old, Priyav Chandna loved to watch his older brother take private chess lessons at their home in Botswana, a nation situated in Southern Africa. 

Instead of playing with toys, Chandna was observing, learning and memorizing the moves alongside his sibling. His parents decided to enroll him in private lessons, too. 

That launched his passion for the game. Chandna is now the founder of an online chess academy that enrolls 90 students and employs 11 coaches. 

Chandna began with local tournaments and worked up to eventually representing Botswana in the national tournament and becoming a two-time champion before he turned 14. 

When his family moved to the United States, he continued pursuing his passion, going on to be state champion in New Mexico during high school and runner-up in N.C. on three occasions while attending East Chapel Hill High School. 

“Chess is very easy to learn, but difficult to master,” Chandna said. “It takes a lifetime to master. It’s always a challenge to learn more and be better.”

After years of playing, Chandna decided to take a step back from playing to try his hand at coaching.

The summer after he graduated high school, Chandna created MyChessTutor, an online coaching service that gives personalized chess lessons using a two-dimensional chessboard and video conference tools to give real time feedback and individual diagnostics to students. 

Chandna started locally, reaching out to potential students around Chapel Hill and contacting people he had met at tournaments. 

Building up clientele was a process – he had to give lessons for very cheap, he said. But Chandna was discovering that he had a knack for teaching and his students were responding and improving rapidly. 

“There’s a lot of intricacies and subtleties with chess, so it’s a challenge and a big fulfillment of the soul to keep improving,” Chandna said. 

One of his students described Chandna as “one of the best coaches in the world” and “very understanding." They said they are now able to beat high-level players at bigger tournaments because of the academy. 

Soon, MyChessTutor took off and drew students of all demographics. 

“Our youngest student is five years old, and right now, our oldest is 79,” Chandna said. “So across the spectrum. We work with complete beginners all the way to people competing at state level.”

As the company grew in numbers – drawing pupils who included doctors, tech professionals and CEOS – the business needed more attention, Chandna said. 

As a sophomore business major at UNC, Chandna said balancing the rigor of school with a start-up business became too grueling. So after his first semester sophomore year, he took a semester off from UNC to focus on the managerial aspects of his company and focusing on growing the business and fixing efficiency issues, which meant hiring coaches to help him teach.

Daniel Guel, the first additional coach Chandna hired, said he took the job because he saw an opportunity to get involved with a startup, while also polishing his own chess skills through teaching. An 18-year old from Waco, Texas, Guel has competed in tournaments across the state. 

“I do genuinely enjoy watching my students’ progress,” Guel said. “Seeing them get to some certain rating and being excited about it or seeing them play a tournament or achieve something is fulfilling as a coach.” 

The academy is growing constantly. Chandna said every month the academy grows by 10 percent, and he projects MyChessTutor will enroll 200 students by the end of the year. 

Chandna will return to UNC next semester, but said he is enjoying growing the academy and dabbling in other business projects. He said he has an affinity for education and hopes to continue his entrepreneurial endeavors by eventually creating other business projects dedicated to teaching and learning. 

“This is something I love,” Chandna said.  “I feel that this semester can really launch my career and really accelerate my progress in life.” 

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