Hey guyz I'm opening a chess club in the school I am but I have no experience on it. I'm gonna have 25 people in it and more to come.

What I want to know is about what kind of stuff people do in a real chess club, what kind of things to teach and how it works exactly.

Well I'm gonna show some thing I have in mind:

1st weeks I'm teaching my people the knight check and then rook take. Checkmate in 2 moves. Checkmate in 4 moves. Some basics as you see.

Some more weeks after 1st term ends im gonna start teaching some forks and pins, as to ask them to start guessing opponent's next move and start planning some tactics by themselves.

I started to play chess for real since end of July, so I have 3 pages of matches I played that were very cool checkmates so to work as easy puzzles as I'm and amateur player (I think).


Well i need some advices. Tell me what you agree, disagree, what you want to add, everything, so I let my school proud.

Oh, i almost forgot! Of course im gonna suggest this website to all of them. Very complete website congratz staff ;)

Hey.  I am the sponsor of the Chess Club at my school as well.  Just curious what age level of students you are dealing with?  I have my kids show up and start on their own.  The first thing that we went over was etiquette* i.e., using a conversational voice when you play, shaking their hand after a match, accepting or declining challenges, and resignation if you are behind in material. 

Otherwise, each week we have chosen a piece to focus on.  The first week we focused on Pawns, the second our Knights, the third our Bishops, the fourth our Rooks, and now our Queens.  Of course we have advanced players that do not need to go over certain things.  I have these kids coach their peers.

Another thing that I like to do is work on some "Chess Mazes."  I have a text that focuses on certain pieces at a time, and sets the board in a certain set-up.  The students must complete an objective with a specific piece within a certain amount of moves.  It is very much like the puzzle that is presented on the homepage of this website when you go to it.

Most of the time we just have students play each other and I use a simple rating system.  It is very trivial, and it is more about fun.  I do keep track of their stats like:  Games Played, Games Played White/Black, # of Games Won/Lost, and all of the percentages that go with it.

I hope that this helps.

yeah i agree with that rating and statistic thing. It will make them wanting to be the number 1.

I dont know how you focus in pawns and knights in a hall week. Yeah i know you can show the power of the knight, of bishop etc. but it is a little bit boring, lol.

I'm dealing with pretty amateur players, which don't know anything about chess, only how to move pieces.

Tks for comments and i hope more to come!

Portuguesx2 your country's national chess body should have a scolastic committee as most do and they can assist further, I'd suggest contacting them: http://www.fide.com/info/directory/member-federations?task=country&fid=119

Thanks dude! I hope more suggestions come!

Some students at my school (8th grade students) asked me to start a chess club for them.  I have never been part of a chess club, so I am sure I could do a lot of things better.

One fun thing that I do to make it competitive is that we play for "tags".  Each member is given a numbered token when they join (I use keychain chess pieces).  The goal is to get number 1.  When they play a match, the winner gets the better tag.  I also give out a small prize each week for the person who won the most matches (this encourages then to play members with a lower rank - easier win).

The kids like this and then they get to keep their keychain at the end of the year.

Checkmate in 1-2 moves is fine, but I would hold off on checkmate in 3-4 moves until you've covered forks, pins, skewers, and all the basic tactical motifs.

1 week per piece is too long?? I think you will find lots of fun material if you set your mind on it. For example, there are plenty of tactical positions involving knights for forks, you could see who completes a knight maze the fastest or gets the highest score on Troyis, you could look at the Alekhine's Defense or the Two Knight's Tango, you could look at Knight endgames like Chekhover's wonderful position. The limit is your imagination. :)

yeah thats a good idea i will think in it

Hey portugues.  Where do you get the keychain chess pieces at?  Just curious.  Sounds like a fun idea that I could incorporate with my kids.  I am also thinking about doing a chess tournament with my kids second semester.  Kind of baffled about the pairings and scoring though.

Thanks,

M

Well my school liked the idea so much that they will pay for all the pieces and all i need lol.

A good thing to do when you organize tournament is to write every one's name in a paper. Then cut every name one by one and hide them into a box or something  and mix it and then while you taking the papers you will write who will play against who.