Franklin Academy's ChessKid Experiment

During the 2014-15 school year, Franklin Academy in Boynton Beach, Florida set out on an experiment.

Chess had already been implemented across the curriculum for more than 1,000 students, but in order to help all the students improve their chess knowledge and further their at-home resources, a partnership with ChessKid.com was formed. 

Students as young as five years old were given unique usernames and passwords, and even their own special membership cards. 

This past January, kindergarten classrooms were introduced to ChessKid by watching PlayfulSquirrel’s awesome “Magic of Chess” video. 

The first- through third-graders were shown the amazing openings series by FunMasterMike. 

The fourth- and fifth-graders had the privilege of engaging with the copycat series by Jonathan Corbblah.  From there the students were given the opportunity to visit the computer lab and experience all that ChessKid has to offer.  

Each week since, students have been begging to watch the amazing ChessKid videos, play games, do tactics, and participate in lessons on the site.  The coolest thing for them was when they saw their own chess teacher on the site.

ChessKid has also been a valuable resource for after-school chess club.  My 40-plus chess club students race to the computers in the chess room every Monday and Wednesday.  Often 10 of them are gathered around one computer trying to solve puzzles or watching videos.  They have improved immensely just by being exposed to all of the awesome material.

My advanced middle school students even took a break from their usual Chess.com obsession to take on the challenge of ChessKid.  Not only did they learn how to mate using a knight and bishop with PlayfulSquirrel, but they watched as much as they could about Magnus Carlsen and pushed to get their puzzle ratings as high as possible.

To date, students at Franklin Academy have logged more than 1,000 hours on ChessKid.com. 

It has been an invaluable resource for students to practice their skills.  As a coach I am able to monitor their improvement and suggest different content for them to conquer.  It becomes my favorite activity when I show a ChessKid video in class and several students raise their hands to say that they have already watched it at home. 

Every time I visit my kindergarten class I hear them talking about “stinky breath” (that kings can’t touch) from FunMasterMike’s video. 

For next year it is my goal to set up a school-wide ladder for students to play in tournaments and to compete via the ChessKid platform. 

With ChessKid.com, the possibilities seem endless.