As a busy organisation, our staff have commitments which regularly take them to events up and down the length of the country. When that happens, we have a number of staff that we call upon to help out. You can read their profiles here.
Agnieszka Milewska IA
Coach (Beginners and Novices)
Our youngest and newest members love working with Agnieszka (Aga for short), who never loses her enthusiasm for teaching those all important basic tactics and strategies (scholar’s mate, anyone?)
Make no mistake, though. Aga is an experienced and strong player, having represented both Poland and England, and in addition has FIDE International Arbiter qualification and the National Instructor title for her teaching.
Besides helping at Richmond Juniors, Aga is very busy during the week as a member of the senior management team of the well-known and highly respected Chess in Schools (CSC) charity.
Aga is also the current ECF Director of Women’s Chess, and can be approached for all queries relating to chess for women and girls in England.
Update: Sep. 2022 Aga has been appointed Councillor on the European Chess Union’s Women’s Commission
Darren Durkin
Coach (Intermediates)
Darren works with young children with great joy and loves to introduce them to chess for the first time. Besides helping out at Richmond Juniors from time to time, he has his own large program of schools in which he and his staff teach, in the Wimbledon, Kingston and Epsom area.
Joseph Williams
Coach (Beginners & Novices)
A former Richmond Junior, himself, Joseph is delighted to help out from time to time.
Mark Josse CM
Coach (Advanced)
A former Richmond Junior himself, Mark is a strong club and county player, with the title of Candidate Master conferred by FIDE, Mark has lots of experience in teaching chess. He has been working with Richmond Juniors since Autumn Term 2018 and is most often to be seen in the Advanced Group.
Besides chess, Mark is also coaches rugby.
Coach (Beginners & Novices)
Vincent Sagues
Coach (Intermediates)
Vincent learned chess as a school boy in his native France. Now living in London, he volunteered to teach chess at a local chess, then began working with Chess in Schools & Communities, with whom he now been working for four years, and is their Regional Co-ordinator for South East London and responsible for its London recruitment.
He is delighted to help out from time to time at Richmond Juniors, normally with either the Intermediate or Advanced Groups.
Robert Eames FM
Coach (Intermediates)
Preferring to be known as Bob, and a recipient of the FIDE Master (FM) playing title, he has a vast experience in both playing and teaching chess. He has taken on many students on a one-to-one chess basis for the last 35 years, and has also worked with Chess in Schools. He was one of the main staff at Richmond Juniors for several years, but he now has other commitments at the weekend, and helps out mainly when we are short staffed. He likes nothing better than a long queue of excited children lining up for his analysis of their games.
Zoran Koneski
Coach (Advanced)
A sommelier and wine trader by profession, with a client list including many of London’s most desirable hotels and restaurants, Zoran plays chess when not entertaining the world’s glitterati.
Zoran learned to play chess at the age of six; from an early stage, he was fortunate to work with several highly accomplished players, including Grandmasters (GMs) and International Masters (IMs), which gave him a strong perspective on the game, witnessed by his 2200 rating.
He teaches chess in schools for the charity, Chess in Schools and Communities, has a number of private students, and helps out, too, at Richmond Juniors, when we are short-staffed.