What's New On ChessKid? Hour of Chess Kickoff!
The #CairnsCup
February has run its course with some incredible happenings occurring in the ChessKid orbit this month, not the least of which was Carissa Yip's jaw-dropping performance in the Cairns Cup. Carissa is a longtime ChessKid contributor (check out her articles and videos on the site).
Naturally, we were rooting for her! Although Yip started the event with four straight losses, the 16-year-old prodigy quickly flipped the script with three wins and two draws in the final five rounds, ultimately defeating Women's World Champion GM Ju Wenjun.
Hour of Chess Week: It's Finally Here!
Yesterday marked the beginning of one of our favorite national holidays, Hour of Chess Week! Our sixth rendition of the event is running February 24th-28th, and we're hoping this will be the biggest rendition yet. This past fall we had more than 150 schools participated; this time, we're shooting for more than 200!
How It Works
- When: Schools pick any hour 8 a.m.-5 p.m. local time during the chosen week
- Where: School. Kids can use any device to play Fast Chess or Solve Puzzles, (teacher or coach's decision which one) for one hour. Existing ChessKid users can now also choose to host a live tournament in their online club!
- Prizes: All schools that signed up with their planned time of participation will be registered in a drawing to win one year free of ChessKid Gold Membership access for every kid in their school.
- Social Media Competition: In addition, ChessKid will give away three more prize packages of 20 gold memberships chosen from among all programs (school or homeschool) who share a photo of their chess class and tag ChessKidcom on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram!
Gearing Up for the Australia Fundraiser
ChessKid's very own FunMasterMike was lucky enough to be the invited guest at the 2020 Australian Junior Chess Championships in the Gold Coast of Queensland, Australia, where he met with more than 300 of the country's most talented ChessKids. After his January journey to the land down under, we promised we would return and fundraise to help offset the devastating impact of this year's forest fires. On Saturday, March 21 we will be hosting a live Beat FunMasterMike episode/fundraiser from Chess.com/TV. It will be 9AM in QLD (Queensland) and 10AM in NSW (New South Wales).
Last but not least, happy belated Valentine's Day to all the chess lovers out there 
ChessKid.com is the scholastic extension of Chess.com, and is #1 chess website for kids! Safe, fun and educational - ChessKid has a curriculum (both written and interactive on the site) to help take kids from beginner to "serious tournament player" level. This account is used to publish updates and articles about ChessKid.com and the special events held on this site.