Coaches and Staff
Victor Lopez, Executive Director
Coach Victor founded Learners Chess Academy in 2010 as a summer job/ side project. It has since grown into a large and beloved non-profit organization in our Central NM community. Victor currently serves on the Board of Directors, as the Executive Director, and he regularly coaches in camps and after school programs.
Coach Victor is currently a class B rated chess player.
Having taught chess since he was 12 years old, Victor has cultivated a passion for teaching and coaching chess, reasoning, life, success, and leadership skills while working with kids and young adults.
Starting in 1998, with the help of his previous elementary school Principal, Nikki Dennis, and his mother, Antoinette Sedillo, he started the Bandelier Elementary School Chess Club (see below image). He was in 7th grade at the time. As he continued to lead the Bandelier Chess Club through high school, his team won the AESCL Championship in 2002.
After High School, he attended Occidental College in Los Angeles, California, where he co-founded the college chess club, majored in Urban and Environmental Policy, and played NCAA Division III football and rugby. He graduated from Occidental in 2008. For the next two years, he took on two fellowships as a community organizer. As a community organizer, Victor learned organizing and leadership skills while working to increase civic engagement for underrepresented constituencies in Portland, Oregon, Iowa City, Iowa, and Gainesville, Florida.
Following his fellowships, Victor returned to Albuquerque in November of 2009 to pursue his MBA in social entrepreneurship and work on a start-up nonprofit that sought to reduce poverty by implementing a model of micro-lending to reduce energy consumption and costs in low income households. He also became a substitute teacher and started coaching the Monte Vista Chess Club. As he rediscovered his love for working with children and coaching chess, he started Learners Chess Academy as mainly a summer job. During his second summer of chess camps he decided to pursue Learners full time. He has since built Learners into a successful non-profit organization committed to the mission to improve child literacy in New Mexico by spreading the learning of chess in ways that develop intellect, social skills, life skills, and leadership.
Coach Victor can be reached at learnerschess@gmail.com.
Expert Douglas Thigpen
Coach Doug started working with Learners Chess Academy as a chess camp instructor during the summer of 2012. He continues to coach with us in our after school programs and camps. Doug has coached youth chess in his home town of Ruidoso, NM since he was in high school. He has achieved the prestigious rank of Expert level chess player by obtaining a US Chess rating of over 2000. He is a three time former New Mexico State Champion, and once won the Wyoming State championship as well.Doug also became an Eagle Scout in 2006 and has a long history of volunteer work with Agora Crisis Center. He loves teaching chess and helping kids push their passion for chess towards continual improvement. He has a Bachelors Degree from UNM and he is currently pursing his Masters in Counseling at the Rio Rancho campus of NM Highlands University. Doug coaches in our after school programs, in our camps, and does private lessons.
Christian von Huene
Coach Christian has coached with Learners Chess since 2013. He has coached extensively for all levels in our after school programs and at Winter, Summer, and Spring break chess camps. He is one of New Mexico's strongest chess players. In 2014, he won $1,500 in the Millionaire Chess Open in Las Vegas. Christian enjoys helping kids understand and appreciate the complexities, beauty, and art of chess.
He holds a degree in Russian language from UNM.
Outside chess, he is an avid student of Foreign Policy but still finds time to build and tweak Linux systems. He also takes great interest in classical literature and fig tree cultivation.
Jason Coleman
Coach Jason has worked with Learners for the past two years as a coach in our after school programs and as a coach at summer chess camp. He has 19 years of experience as a camp counselor and youth program director. He has worked as a chess coach with the Chess Wizards program in Portland, Oregon.
He has also taught leadership, outdoor education, and science programs for kids.
Sam Gates
Coach Sam love to read books, play soccer, bridge, and of course, CHESS! He is a class C strength chess player.
Sam is also a farmer with at Arretche Farm and sells produce at the local farmers markets.
When not coaching or working on the farm, Sam keeps busy with his web development company, Viridian Technologies (you can visit his website here).
Ryan Gallegos
Ryan is a coach for Learners Chess Academy' after school programs. ?He has volunteered with Learners Chess throughout High School and now, in his freshman year of college, he is a second year head coach at Learners chess. He has an array of interests to include chess and other strategic games, soccer, tennis, track and field and snowboarding. He is a former flute and guitar student with the New Mexico School of Music; a State and Regional Science Fair winner. He offers vacation pet sitting and yard work services as well as computer setup to include hard drive formatting and software installation. A fun fact about Ryan: as a sixth grader, he offered a lively performance in the school’s talent show as he solved the Rubik’s Cube to the music of “In the Hall of the Mountain King” in less than one minute! Back then - he enjoyed teaching other students the strategy behind solving the Rubik’s Cube; today, he enjoys working with other youth to explore strategies in chess.
Laura Swanson
Laura is in her first year coaching with Learners Chess as an assistant coach in three of our clubs. She also helps out around the office. Laura is also a students at UNM studying Philosophy and Spanish, she works at Bookworks books store in the North Valley, and she is a musician, She loves to play chess with friends and family. Favorite part of coaching is helping new players learn the rules and encouraging them to play with confidence.
Calvin Cox
Calvin is in his first year with Learners Chess. Besides chess he likes to play soccer and tell stories. He volunteers regularly at his church. He learned chess from his father when he was young and he believes coaching chess is an opportunity to positively influence students while playing a game and teaching critical thinking.
Jack West
Jack is in his first year of coaching with Learners Chess. He owns and operates his own farm, Peas and Harmony Farm, and he sells produce at the local farmers markets. He also teaches soccer, gardening, and various other after school program activities for kids. Justin Gomez
Coach Justin is a class A rated chess player. He works with our SAFE after school chess programs in Rio Rancho and a handful of our regular Learners after school programs.
Brianna John
Past Coaches
Mitchell Olson
Coach Mitchell has been with Learners Chess for four years as a coach. He enjoys teaching and inspiring the spark of learning that children experience when they learn chess. Coach Mitchell is a local artist, community activist, and he currently lives and contributes to an intentional community called the Hive near CNM.
Jayda Patterson
Coach Jayda has worked with Learners since Fall of 2013. She has a passion for learning, teaching, working with kids, and giving back.
Coach Kyle Henke
Coach Kyle is a student at UNM majoring in Math and Economics. His passions include baseball, football, and chess! He loves to play and coach chess. He believes that teaching kids chess will make the world a better place, as it will teach them to think and analyze.
Scout Veitch
Scout has 27 years experience as a high school math teacher, most recently at Eldorado High School and South Valley Academy. For the past 16 years Scout has been a chess club sponsor, coach, tournament organizer and director. Chess students of Scout's include former youth and overall state champions as well as current chess organizers and activists, including recently recognized National Chess organizer of the Year, Chad Schneider. He is also the former President of the New Mexico Chess Organization.
Additionally, Scout has also taught at the college level and he has also served in both the Navy and Air Force.
Scout has coached for our after school programs and in our camps. He had the original inspiration and led the charge of our first ever Chess Carnival. Currently, he consults with us about programming and tournament organizing, he , gives guest lectures, while he also fills in as a substitute coach from time to time.
