ChessKid Offers Lifeline in the Age of Coronavirus
On March 10th, 2020, the Hampton Roads Chess Association family gathered together for a State Championship after-party, including simultaneous exhibitions with some of our young state champions and a cake and ice cream party. While rumblings of our state’s first case of novel coronavirus had caused more than the usual number of first round forfeits at that weekend’s state championship, little did we know this would be the last time we would meet together in person for the season.
HRCA kids who played in the State Championship in March.
Hampton Roads Chess Association, a 501(c)(3), is the parent organization for two community-based chess clubs, as well as directly coaching at 15 area schools across our seven cities and indirectly mentoring and supporting countless additional community and school chess programs. On March 16th, all schools in the state of Virginia shut down, and all large gatherings were banned. Could it all be over, just like that, leaving hundreds of kids hanging at the peak of the season? We simply could not let that happen.
A thought in the back of my head was pushed into action by a question from our bookkeeper and non-profit consultant: “Could we do some of this online?”
Within days of the school closures, we had already transitioned a number of our school and community chess programs to Zoom classes [Ed: See topic #4 here]. Most of our coaches use ChessKid or Chess.com to drive instruction with screen sharing for their classes.
Shrihan Pattnaik participates in Zoom training with his class.
HRCA has been using ChessKid as the foundation of our instruction for several years, so we quickly and easily transitioned all planned activities to ChessKid. In the days and weeks after the school closures began, our community-based youth club has held a variety of tournaments for kids in our area and sister clubs in other locations. We issued additional challenges associated with ChessKid, including weekly puzzles and a fast chess leaderboard. We have perfected a way to continue our club ladder on ChessKid using Fast Chess from the friends/clubmates tab immediately following their Zoom classes each week! The kids would have been very bummed if their ladder was cut short in mid-March.
Jack Toomer practices on ChessKid.
April 4th was to be our Seven Cities School Chess Championship. Rather than cancelling the event, we moved it online. Setting up a Club for each section of the tournament, we added kids as members in the appropriate section (club) as they registered. We sent out plenty of advance instructions with screenshots on how to access the tournament, and all the anti-glitch tips we could gather.
Saturday’s event went off largely without a hitch, with more than 210 kids playing. Seeing parents post photos to Facebook of their kids “ready for the Seven Cities Championship” that morning nearly brought me to tears of joy. Thanks to US Chess, we are even able to submit the event for a special internet quick rating, thanks to the administration from a Senior Tournament Director.
Cayden Jackson, Seven Cities Online Chess Champion, Intermediate 3rd-5th Rated.
Delilah, Griffin, and Liam ready to play in the Seven Cities Online Chess Championship.
Every action we have taken to replicate normal chess activities for the kids online has received rave reviews from parents and teachers, saying it meant the world to the kids. Now it’s not even about the chess itself, which, let’s be honest, is not important in the face of a global pandemic. What is important now is providing the kids with a sliver of normalcy and a small sense of security they so badly need with their worlds being turned upside down.