National Master Lior Lapid has been teaching and coaching chess to students of all ages for over 25 years. He has been featured in Chess Life Magazine, Chess Life Online, American Chess Magazine, CNN and NPR, and was a guest speaker at the Second Koltanowski International Conference on Chess and Education. With extensive experience working as head instructor in dozens of school chess clubs and summer chess camps in Colorado, New Mexico, New York, Virginia, Mexico and Israel, Lior’s lifelong passion for chess education is shared with all of his students.. In 2022, Lior was selected to receive the annual Community Champion Award presented by the Colorado I Have a Dream Foundation.
Lior’s teaching style incorporates a lot of storytelling to fully engage children in every lesson. His innovative approach integrates kid-friendly humor with serious learning, with each unique lesson designed to ensure that children have fun while learning chess and higher-order thinking skills.
Lior has coached numerous scholastic state champions in New Mexico and Colorado. He also serves as captain and head coach of Team USA for People with Disabilities and received the 2021 Outstanding Team Achievement Award from the United States Chess Federation for Team USA’s remarkable success in the 2020 Chess Olympiad for People with Disabilities.
Lior has been a successful tournament player. In his school years, he was a 7-time Scholastic Champion of New Mexico (K-6, K-9, and K-12 divisions) as well as a National K-9 Champion in 1997 and K-12 Champion in 2000. He continues to play competitively winning the New Mexico State Championship 3 times and then the Colorado State Championship 5 times. Among his greatest achievements as a player was winning the 2011 Southern Rocky FIDE Open Champion ahead of 2 Grandmasters and 2 International Masters.
Now based in South Florida, Lior has joined the NSCF to teach, help expand our professional development team, and coordinate Florida programs. We are honored and excited to have him join our team.
The National Scholastic Chess Foundation is a 501(c)(3) non-profit educational organization. Donations are tax-deductible. Relevant IRS information is available on request.
