If you're not familiar, the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) is one of the largest amateur sports organizations in the U.S., supporting nearly a million athletes across 45 different sports. AAU Chess is its newest addition, a brand new program built to give young chess players the same kind of structured competition, community, and path to bigger events that AAU has offered in sports like basketball and track for decades.
Chess just became an official AAU sport, joining the lineup alongside longstanding programs like basketball and track. The part that matters most for ChessKid families is that kids under 13 now have a dedicated club right here on ChessKid where they will be able to join online tournaments, get the latest AAU Chess news, and find out about in-person events near them as soon as they're announced.
AAU tapped Matt Thomas to build this program from the ground up, and he's a pretty perfect fit. He's spent three decades around the game, captained Team USA at the Chessboxing World Championship (yes, that's chess and boxing, combined), and became the first American to actually win a division there. He's also the guy who helped put together the biggest chessboxing event ever, alongside Chess.com and streamer Ludwig Ahgren back in 2022.
His goal now is to get chess onto the AAU Junior Olympic Games stage by 2027, and build a real, structured path for kids to climb from local play all the way up to that level.
This partnership gives young players a clear, kid-friendly bridge from casual play to organized competition, backed by one of the biggest amateur sports organizations in the country. Kids who join the AAU Chess Club on ChessKid can keep up with tournaments, get event announcements as they drop, and start building a path that could one day lead to the Junior Olympics.
Keep an eye on the AAU Chess Club right here on ChessKid to see what's coming next!