How to Start a Chess Club at Your School

As chess grows in popularity, more and more kids, parents, teachers, and school administrators will want to start a chess club. Here are some examples of how school chess clubs operate today. The one thing they have in common is they all utilize ChessKid.com.

Chess Club Options

1. Before School Chess Club - Welch Elementary School in Peabody, MA

Welch Elementary won a 2021 ChessKid grant that provided every elementary student a free gold ChessKid account. This has helped grow their chess club and get them excited about tournament play. Welch Chess Club meets weekly at 7:30 a.m. Wednesday morning before school starts.

Welch chess tournament

Here are kids from Welch playing in an afternoon chess tournament during school hours so friends and family could watch. The winner in their March Madness tournament won a championship belt that was custom-made at a local trophy shop in Peabody! Counselor AJ Grube says "I am so grateful for ChessKid and the major impact it has had at blossoming chess passion at the Welch School." ChessKid just announced the opening of its 2022 Grant Applications. Your entire school system may be selected to receive free gold ChessKid accounts for every student, just like Welch School.

2. Lunch Chess Club - Hamilton Chess Club in California

Abel Talamantez leads a lunch chess club at Hamilton K-8 School in Novato, California. Hamilton has set up a chess classroom where members come to play chess after they eat lunch in the cafeteria. Half the chess club members are girls, and they have big plans to compete at Nationals soon. The Hamilton Chess Club also uses the ChessKid online platform to supplement chess instruction.

Hamilton chess classroom

3. Chess Club During the School Day - Gifted and ELL

Alabaster City Schools Gifted Instruction

Susan Mitchell, Gifted Specialist at Thompson Intermediate School in Alabaster, Alabama utilizes ChessKid.com during the school day in her gifted classes. She places students into online clubs where they can engage in numerous activities and even hold online tournaments.

Gifted chess tournament

Lenoir City Schools - English Language Learners

The Intermediate/Middle school English Language Learner (ELL) teacher in Lenoir City, Tennessee, uses the ChessKid language setting to teach kids how to play chess in their native language (chesskid.com/es for Spanish, for example). The ELL teacher is planning to use the ChessKid lessons that are also available via audio to help her students learn and improve their English language skills.

Any student can change the language for his or her account under settings by clicking on the cog in the upper left corner of the homepage.

Then in the drop-down menu select the preferred language and click SAVE.

4. After School Chess Club - Madison City Schools

After-school chess clubs are the most popular and convenient way for students to meet, learn, and improve their chess skills. Sometimes meetings are led by an adult chess coach, teacher, or high school chess team member. If you are fortunate enough to have parent volunteers help maintain order, that is an added plus. Most chess club meetings start with a brief lesson and then an opportunity for kids to apply the lesson or play a game. After lots of practice, your kids are ready for tournament play!

Pictured below are after-school chess club practices at Discovery Middle and Liberty Middle schools in Madison, Alabama.

Both middle schools also offer a 9-week chess elective course during the school day that students can register for among many elective course offerings. The introduction and competition chess elective courses utilize the ChessKid.com program and curriculum and are taught by classroom teachers.

ChessKid to the Rescue - An Offer for Teachers

If you are a classroom teacher who wants to start a chess club, ChessKid is here to help. ChessKid is offering classroom teachers 20 free gold student accounts to set up an online Chess Club. This offer is for new subscribers who do not have a current subscription or who have never tried ChessKid before. ChessKid will offer teachers virtual training on how to use the program and how to use the Lesson Planner that allows teachers who know very little about chess to nonetheless teach their students how to play.