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This is a very common question--and a very good one! We're working on getting a more organized FAQ done. In the meantime, here are some thoughts and tips based on letters we've gotten over the last ten years.
The first section is general information, including links to other resources. The second section is specific to high school clubs. And the third deals with some issues regarding learning disabilities. And of course don't miss our Parents Page for more ideas. --Duif
Again, do check with your national federation, as they'll have more ideas.
(I recommend that all coaches and students learn to read chess notation. It's easier than you think, and it will enable you to use books and record games. I have taught algebraic notation to students beginning in second grade without any difficulties, and some younger children as well. Once your students can read chess notation they can do more than just play--they can explore an entire world of chess literature from magazines to biographies. For more information, see our article on learning to read chess notation.)
Bain's CHESS TACTICS FOR STUDENTS. The classic used by many coaches. It's easy to photocopy the pages for individual worksheets, or to set up positions for children to solve. You can also buy these as individual workbooks in a student and teacher edition. Try a used book site like Alibris or the used section at Barnes and Noble for this.
If you want to do formal lessons, it's hard to do better than GM Alburt's COMPREHENSIVE CHESS COURSE, VOLUMES I AND II. (These are also sold as a combined volume). This is based on the old Russian chess schools, and is a series of formal lesson plans for lessons with beginning students. Includes exercises. In one of my clubs we did one group lesson from this book each week. It only took about 15 minutes, but gave an excellent structure to the "education" part of the club. My own experience is that this is the book best suited to a group lesson in a classroom setting.
If you want to do group lessons, though, you will need a large demo board (the kind that hangs on the wall), which may be out of your budget unless you make your own. You can buy a basic demo board for about $50. You may be able to make one for about $20, but it can take several hours of work.
When you give your group lesson, point out one small element of it, such as pins, forks, castling queenside, opposition, etc. Then when the kids go into their game playing time, ask them to simply raise their hand anytime they see this element occur in their game (for either side). Then go over and observe the element. This is a very rewarding way to tie the theoretical aspects of the group lesson into the practical aspects of game play, and doesn't disrupt other games in progress. I think this would be distracting for kids at a higher level, but it works very well for beginners. |
Fred Wilson's 101 Questions on How to Play Chess is a very inexpensive small book that answers many questions about tournament chess.
There are dozens of other great chess books for coaches with more advanced students, including Silman's The Amateur's Mind and Weermantry's LESSONS OF A CHESS COACH but these are more for those coaching kids who have already been playing national tournaments for a year or more. the following are helpful web links that deal with the issues of starting a club 1. Excellent practical basic instructions for starting a school club http://www.rockfordchess.org/clubs/starting.htm 2. The Canadian Chess Federation has a number of scholastic resources. They also carry the least expensive demo boards I've ever seen, although they're somewhat smaller than the $49 boards you see everywhere. This is also where you can find information about Canadian tournaments. http://www.chess.ca/schools.htm 3. Official USCF guide. Lots of good ideas. Also available in Spanish. http://www.uschess.org/scholastic/sc-guide2.html 4. This is the plan one club used to get started in a school. It's a bit like a business plan for a small business. I think this may be more complex than what many small clubs need, but it's worth taking a look at if you want to think of your club as more like a sports team, and especially if you want to do fund-raising similar to that done by football or soccer teams. http://www.okschess.org/starting/plan.htm For information on chess magazines, see the Tips for High School Clubs section.If you are looking for advanced instructional materials, there are literally hundred of sites with problems and articles. Many of the teachers listed in our International Directory of Chess Teachers have their own sites, for example. But if we started listing them here, we'd have a list of many pages! See our own links page for a list of sites that have lists of sites, such as the Pittsburgh Chess Library and Stephen Pribut's excellent internet chess FAQ.
A NOTE ABOUT EQUIPMENT FOR SCHOOL CLUBS
A personal equipment recommendation, from someone who's run scholastic clubs on very small budgets...
(First, if you're not sure what a "standard" chess set is, see our article on chess sets for tournament use.)
I do recommend getting nicely weighted plastic chess sets for the club. Scholastic players are even more likely than adults to knock over pieces. If you get the really cheap hollow kind, there will inevitably be at least one game upset each club session. And there's nothing more frustrating to kids than having their games upset in the middle! I found paper boards worked just fine, though. Also, I strongly recommend getting 6 or 12 identical chess sets, as you'll be able to add a second queen or combine pieces. So I would get the typical paper boards at about 50 cents each, but then spend $8 to $12 to get heavy plastic pieces. I found this much better in the long run than trying to find a $5 midweight set at a local discount store.
Many sites, such as IM Jeremy Silman's chess store, have good weighted sets (pieces only, no boards) for about $8 or $9. See http://www.jeremysilman.com/chess.html and look for the links to the chess store. or try GM Ronald Henley's SmartChess store www.wholesalechess.com is supposed to have very good prices when buying multiples, but I have not dealt with them personally. They do have a good reputation. If you don't feel you need weighted pieces, Chess House is a well-established company that carries a nice "club set" which has pieces only for about $6. They're worth checking into. http://www.chesshouse.com/shopdisplayproducts.asp?id=48&cat=Plastic+Chess+Pieces You may be able to get better deals if you buy 10 or 12 sets at a time, or if you check with your national federation. Or you may prefer to go for the laminate or vinyl boards, in which case you'll probably spend more like $15-$20 per set of pieces and board. Of course, it depends how many sets you need! I ran one club using about 30 sets I got at a local discount store for $3 each. They had the black and red cardboard checkerboards and small hollow pieces. But it got us through that year, and we did a bake sale the next year to earn enough money to get nicer sets. Some clubs figure it's just like any other sport, and it's OK to tell the parents they'll need to pay $15 per child for a set. My problem with that was that I really wanted to keep the sets in the club room--the kids just weren't reliable about bringing them back and forth from home. For this reason in my experience elementary school clubs may need to spend more on sets than high school clubs, since in high school the kids can be trusted to bring their own sets. Clocks/timers are an entirely different matter. They're inevitably going to get broken. I tended not to use them for the regular club, but saved them for the tournament teams. For more information on chess clocks, see the Tips for High School Clubs section.Finally, I give each student a steno pad at the start of the year. These can be used both for recording their own games (steno pads are already nicely divided into two columns) and for special projects. Although you can get special chess notebooks that have each line prenumbered, that's really only helpful if you're doing full time control games (eg 30 moves in 30 minutes) and those sheets are not good for regular writing. With the steno pads, they can have a page of, say, notes about Hungary, followed by a game of their own, followed by a game that they're analysing, etc. Every coach has their own system for doing analysis, so this may not work for you. But these days when student backpacks for required materials can go upwards of 15 pounds, I hate to add yet another binder to the mix. The steno pads are small, lightweight, work for both chess games and notes, and can be stored at the club or taken home.
One of the other advantages of the individual steno pads is that if your elementary students are playing an untimed game and have not finished at the end of the club, as long as they have been recording the moves they can stop where they are and resume at the next meeting. This was especially good for ladder games for 4th, 5th, and 6th graders who tend to take ladder play very seriously.
MEDALS, RIBBONS, CERTIFICATES
Oh, yes, kids love these. My philosophy was the more the merrier. We did a lot of computer printed certificates for things like "Most improved" "Game of the Week" "Best Draw with Black" etc. I also used to give out erasers, stickers, tokens, pencils...you don't have to spend a lot, but it is fun.
If you want some really nice inexpensive chess themed medals, I can definitely recommend Crown Awards at www.crownawards.com. Nice chess selection, excellent prices, very professional service. It's common to find chess medals there at under $3 each with shipping, considerably more affordable than a lot of trophies, and the kids seem to like the fact that they can wear them or hang them on the wall.
A NOTE ABOUT BUGHOUSE (A 4 person, 2 board variant)
If you introduce it, you're going to need clocks (which get broken, as mentioned above)--and some of the kids won't want to play anything else. I generally don't recommend introducing it until kids have been in your program for 3 or 4 years.
NEWSLETTERS
Some clubs do these, some don't. I highly recommend doing a monthly newsletter that goes home to parents--but not until your third year, unless you're going to use it to coordinate fundraising and you have a reliable editor. The newsletters always take more time and effort than you expect they will, and it's not clear that the kids themselves get a direct benefit.
Oh, do be aware that many school districts have very strict policies on the use of children's names/photos on Websites, so don't publish a club newsletter online without checking into necessary permissions first.
SPECIAL EVENTS
Nothing beats a simul for a great end of the year event. Just make sure you get a lot of parent helpers in--one for each 6 kids is a minimum. You can make the simul part of a party, invite the parents, have refreshments. Just be aware that some parents will want to play, too, and your guest may not want to take on adults if he/she is already playing 20 kids. Note that some of the teachers in the International Directory of Chess Teachers on this site list simuls as a specialty, so you may find one locally. Some ask a per board fee, others will do it for a reduced cost if they can give out their flyers to advertise their individual lessons.
CHESS KIDS is an excellent PBS documentary available on DVD about kids who play tournament chess. It lasts about 50 minutes, so it fits nicely into a club meeting. This is also a good video for a parents' night.
Josh Waitzkin's CHESS STARTS HERE is an instructional chess video of some value. The kids do seem to like it, especially the ones under 10 years old, but it doesn't really go into much detail. However, it's a good one to have in your coach's bag for days when, say, you have a cold but don't want to skip the group lesson. This is a good one to have playing in the background at a parents' night.
SEARCHING FOR BOBBY FISCHER is actually a bit dark for an elementary club. It's good for middle school and up, or as a family movie where you can talk about the nuances afterwards.
CHESS FEVER is a fun Russia silent picture made with then world champion Jose Raul Capablanca. Silly, with a Chaplinesque feel, but also a good background film for a special event.
Most other good chess videos are too advanced for non tournament players, or aimed at older audiences.
OUTSIDE TOURNAMENTS/FIELD TRIPS/ETC
Short answer great fun, lots of work, save those for year 2 or 3 of your club. One thing to keep in mind--chess events work more like swim meets than team sports, because kids finish their individual games at all different times and have relatively long waits in between active play. So a chess team needs many more chaperones than, say, a soccer team. You also need to plan snacks and interim activities.
RATINGS
Almost all chessplayers love to follow their rating. You can get an unofficial rating from many different chess software programs, including Chessmaster. You can get a club-only rating from some clubs, including internet clubs. Or you can get a national rating.
Note that ratings are numerical, like 1100 or 2653. The chess world also uses titles like "Grandmaster" to mark lifetime achievements. See our article on the difference between titles and ratings.
The information in the next box is for coaches who want to calculate ratings for their own club using a formula similar to that used by the national organizations, or who want to matter understand the math behind most rating formulas.
| Calculating Your Own Club Ratings By Hand |
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Many scholastic clubs calculate their own "club ratings." This may be because they don't want to get paid memberships in the national organization for each beginning student. Or it may be a matter of timeliness--national ratings commonly take 6 weeks or more to get published, where if you do your own club ratings you can publish changes every week. The remainder of this section is suggestions for those who want to calculate their own club ratings by hand. It will also help you understand the math behind the national ratings. If you don't want to do these calculations by hand, skip to the next section for information on club software or ladder methods. You can use the simplest version of the official rating formula if you like. The ratings difference is a "handicap" based on 4% of the difference in ratings plus a win bonus of 16 points, capped at a minimum of 2 and a maximum of 30. To explain...Say I play someone who is exactly the same rating as I am, and we draw. Then neither of our ratings should change. Neither of us gets the 16 "win points" because there was no win. And the 4% handicap points are not used because we have the same rating. Now assume that I play a friend who is rated 400 points higher than I am! We still draw. This is an accomplishment for me, right? And the rating formula will show it. There are still no win points--no one got a win. But --I-- get 8 points just for being brave enough to play him. And he loses 8 points as his "handicap" against me. Now suppose my friend and I play a second game. This time we get the expected result--he wins. I lose 16 points for losing the game. BUT--I still get the 8 points for being brave enough to play him. So my total loss is only 8 points. He gets the full 16 points for the win. BUT he also still loses the original 8 handicap points. So I lose 8 points, and he wins 8 points. We play again. This time he gets distracted, and loses. Now I get the 16 win points! Plus I get my 8 points for "playing up" against someone with a higher rating. End result I get 24 points, and he loses 24 points. The whole idea is that if two people with exactly the same rating play each other and draw, there should be no change in ratings. And the stronger your opponent, the more points you win for beating him. The actual rating formula is slightly more complicated, with a few other factors thrown in, but this one will get you within a point or two of the official calculation. The main thing to communicate to kids is that the stronger your opponent, the more rating points you get for EITHER winning or drawing. |
ALTERNATIVES TO DOING ALL THE MATH (INCLUDES CLUB SOFTWARE)
Most school coaches do one of two things. a) get a Club software program that calculates club ratings. These can be very useful, as they'll also calculate pairings in tournaments, and you can keep an individual record of each child over time. Some of these also print award certificates. b) The second alternative is not to use mathematical ratings, but rather simply to use a club ladder where kids move up and down. The problem with the ladder is a child can't see his/her own improvement if the relative ranking stays the same. That is, to go back to our example from the mathematical formula above, if I draw with my friend who is much higher rated, he will still be much higher rated then me--but I will have gone up a bit and he will have gone down a bit. YOu can't see that improvement on a ladder system.I have always found ratings of some kind to be worth the trouble, becaues tracking improvement seems more important with kids than tracking relative standing. But a ladder will work fine if that's all you have time to do.
Club Software If you want to get the software, the two most popular programs in the US are SwissSys and WinTD. Both cost around $100. Both can calculate club ratings, do pairings, keep individual player records, etc. WinTD is perhaps a bit easier to use, while SwissSys has a few more advanced features and so is the more popular program. Both are good. In addition, the USCF recommends the Think Like a King CHESS CLUB MANAGER specifically for scholastic clubs. It costs about the same, and actually has somewhat fewer features than the other two. But it does do pairings, ratings, and keeps individual records. It is also the only one of the three that can print special Awards Certificates for things like "most improved," a scholastic feature that many appreciate. WinTD http://www.estima.com/chess/ SwissSys. This is the software author's page, and is a bit primitive looking, although the software is quite advanced. Most people buy this software through one of the online chess bookstores, where you may be able to get a slight discount. http://www.swisssys.com/ Chess Club Manager. http://www.schoolchess.com/chessclubmanager3.html The USCF's recommended software for clubs through grade 8. Somewhat simpler, can print certificates. If this cost $79 instead of $99, it would definitely be my first choice for scholastic clubs. However, since it costs the same as the other two, I think it's worth considering all three as candidates. But if all three are out of your budget, don't worry--you can get by with a ladder system quite well for the first year if you like.* * *
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The following tips are specific to high school clubs that are just starting up. Please also read the general club information in Section One
Also note that high schools are more likely to seek professional coaching, either weekly, monthly, or for special events. So you can also check The International Directory of Chess Teachers on this site to see if there's a coach near you.
| High School Chess Clubs: | |
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| Clocks | Ratings in High School |
| Internet Play during Club Time | Magazines for your club library |
| PGN Readers and Databases | General Info |
(For basic information on how chess clocks are used during play, see our article on time controls.)
Clocks are expensive ($50 is typical for an inexpensive digital clock) but most high school kids prefer timed games. Even if your club can only afford 2 clocks, you'll find they're "checked out" constantly.
Unlike sets, clocks do NOT need to match. In fact, it can be useful to have one analog and one digital clock if you intend to play tournaments, just so your teams can get used to both. But it's an individual decision. Some clubs buy one new clock each year, and end up with quite a variety.
In my experience, a clock used regularly for blitz play in a high school club will probably only last 2 to 3 years. A clock used by an individual for longer time controls can easily last 5 to 10 years.
Blitz (very fast play) is much harder on clocks both because the timer itself is hit more often and because players tend to hit it with more force during fast games.
A note for the physically disabled: the "button action" varies a great deal from model to model. Some buttons may be very difficult for some people to use during game play. If you have physical challenges (or if, for example, a student will be playing with a grandparent with arthritis), it is a good idea to check a sample of the clock before purchasing.
CHESS MONTHLY, an excellent chess magazine from the London Chess Centre, with many photos and feature articles. (Note that this is a different magazine from British Chess Magazine)
Long before you use the big databases for research, you will probably find that high school kids like to use a "PGN" reader to view chessgames from resources like Chess Today. A PGN (portable game notation) reader is essentially a program that takes a text list of chess moves and displays it with pieces and a board. It does NOT require being live on the Internet to just view a game from your own files. Chessbase provides a free chess reader for Windows called "chessbase light." I think many high school clubs can get very good use out of this, and you can also recommend it to parents. Chessbase Light official download page. Make sure you download it from the official site.
(If your school has a limit on the size of the programs you can install, or if there are families running older ocmputers, you might want to consider a shareware package called CHESSBD/SLICS by Don Fong instead of Chessbase Light (which is a resource intensive program as it also includes the database).. Chessbd is available from Don Fong's homepage at http://www.dfong.com/chessbd/. ) This was my favorite PGN reader for many years until I moved up to Chessbase.
There may well be a point when high school coaches will want to consider getting Chessbase and the Megadatabase of about 2 million games. This is an essential research tool for anyone trying to become a professional player. The starter package is about $200, but there really is no substitute. If after your club has been going for a year or two you feel that you will have students who will want to aim high, it can be worth a club purchase, perhaps as pooled funds from several players. This is the most expensive item I recommend, and it's not for every club.
Whether you get the paid or free version, I think it's worth considering one or two of the Chessbase "magazine" CDs that come out each year. In addition to yet more games, these will include multimedia interviews with top players, which high school players seem to find particularly interesting.
Again, I don't recommend this for beginners or for clubs just starting up, but once your students develop an interest in seeing the games of professional players, the free Chessbase Light reader is very helpful. And if you reach a point where you think you may want to aim for state or national team play, you should be aware of the paid version as a potential budget expense.
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Some children who are both gifted and ADHD have had remarkable success with chess both as an area where they can succeed and as a means of learning to improve focus. Others have found that a distractible child becomes even more distractible under the stresses of individual competition.
Most of the stories published on the Internet are of the great successes, so as a coach, do not be surprised if parents come to you expecting that chess with solve all their child's problems! It is important to stress the very individual nature of each child and of each child's reaction to a chess program to keep from building false hopes. On the other hand, Thom Hartman, author of A DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE, makes an equally excessive statement when he says in his book that the "Hunter" type children "make lousy chessplayers" because of their lack of patience.
The truth is that there are some junior chess champions who have ADHD, and some ADHD kids who simply cannot cope with chess. Neither you nor the parents can predict ahead of time which kids will both enjoy chess and do well at it.
Here is a typical positive newspaper article on chess and ADHD kids.
I want to add that, as a coach, I am particularly concerned by internet reports that chess helps calm kids with "aggressive behaviors." In my experience, just like sports, both tournament and blitz chess can be high adrenaline, high stress activities for some children.
If a kid has problems with anger management, I would not want to take him to a chess tournament without his parents present until he had shown repeatedly that he could manage the situation. But then I would set up the same structure if he wanted to play on the school basketball team.
Chess, like sports, provides a positive outlet for a natural competitive drive, and encourages focus and discipline. But it is not a meditation session. Again, I would simply follow the same guidelines I would use for any competitive sport.
You should also be aware that chess is affiliated loosely with the Olympics in international play, and consequently has adopted a drug testing policy based on that of the Olympics. This means that kids taking stimulant medications may need a doctor's note to pass drug testing in international events. At the time of this writing (February 2005), drug testing was not used in local American or Canadian events. For information on international event policies, see the FIDE site.
There are also a few US school districts that routinely require drug tests of high schoolers participating in ANY extracurricular event, including band and chess clubs. The school should notify you of this policy if it is in place when you become an "official school activity." Again, kids taking stimulant medications may need a doctor's form to participate. If your school district does have this policy, make sure you inform ALL parents, not just those you know have a child on medication.
Some of the teachers in the International Directory of Chess Teachers on this site list working with learning disabled children or adults as a teaching specialty. So you may also want to check the directory to see if there is a teacher with this experience near you.
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Copyright 1996-2005 Jamie Duif Calvin, California.
All rights reserved.
Last update on 04/14/2005