Our InstructorsOur Instructors

Get to know the TCAMA Instructors.
Chris Torres
President
Chris Torres is a nationally renowned scholastic chess coach working in both Bakersfield and the San Francisco Bay Area. His classes have attracted players of strengths ranging from rank beginners to world champions. A chess professional since 1998, Chris is widely recognized as one of the main driving forces behind the explosion in popularity and sudden rise in quality of scholastic chess in California. Currently, Chris Torres has the ranking of candidate master and serves as the President of the Torres Chess and Music Academy. Mr. Torres’ hobbies include playing classical guitar and getting his students to appear on the national top 100 chess rating lists.
Website: http://www.members.aol.com/chesslessons
Tans Hylkema
Guitar virtuoso and accomplished performer, Tans Hylkema studied fine arts at Reed College and Civil Engineering at Evergreen College. His enjoyment of chess began at the age of 5. He has taught guitar since 2000, and taught chess since 2006.
It is beyond coincidence that chess and music produce child prodigies with a much greater frequency than that of other intellectual pursuits. While there is no theoretical necessity to explain why this should be so, I am quite comfortable in stating that chess and music ameliorate the rapidly maturing frontal lobe of the child's brain by providing the adequate challenge that it requires to achieve its fullest potential.
— Chris Torres
charitychess.com
Contact
The Torres Chess & Music Academy
Chris Torres
(209) 234-2862
chesslessons@aol.com
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