Frequently Asked Questions

Other questions? Contact us!

Missing a session?

We do not need to know if your child will miss a session. 

Withdrawing?

If you're withdrawing for the season though, please let us know so we can remove you from email lists & stop printing name tags for them.

Do I need to know chess before joining?

No. We run introductory sessions in the first few sessions.

Can my child join in the middle of the year?

Yes! We only run intro to chess sessions (piece movements, objective) the first few sessions though. If your child doesn't know the piece movements, they'll do best if they can learn those before attending. Alternatively, we could try pairing them with one of our older players for a few matches. If this is of interest, please reach out. Additionally, if they have a friend already in the club, have them talk in advance about trying to stick together and show them the ropes.

Can my kindergartner join?

If you have an older child in chess club & a kindergartner that you think may be interested in chess, we're ok with them giving our club a try. We ask though that you volunteer the first session or two they are attending to help them settle in. With 90 kids, navigating our club as it moves through different activities may be overwhelming to them, especially after a full-day of school.

Is coaching mandatory?

No! While we're excited to be offering coaching, we recognize that some of our members might not look forward to it after a long week of classes and we want to meet our members where they are. For 2024-25, coaching is opt-out for our green (middle) and yellow (most experienced) groups. 

Please contact us if your child would prefer not to participate in coaching. Please do so by Tuesday of the week preceding the next session.

Many of our blue group have very limited to no chess skills and so we provide instruction on basic piece movements & objectives. That occurs in the first few sessions. If you have a player in this group that's more advanced, they can play (and record) matches and with just a few wins are likely to be moved to the green group. See the Color Groups section below.

If your green or yellow member does opt-out, we won't assign them to coaching and they'll start the session with their first match assigned. Each week, we expect this pool to include 20-50 players so they won't stand out for opting out. After the first match, they may play anyone they want, including the members that have likely completed the short coaching session.

How do you know what color group your child is in? It changes week by week so it's best to ask them. In general, 1-2 graders are blues unless they've moved up. If in doubt, just contact us!

Tell me more about those treats

Students may earn a token for various activities engaging with chess. These may be turned in for a single treat per session (except the final celebratory session). 

We intend to repeat the treats we provided last year: Those are a choice of:

If you have any questions, please reach out. We're always open to a new idea of a treat that's inexpensive, fun, safe, and broadly acceptable.

Lost something?

We sweep the room each week and drop items at the school's Lost and Found, located on the main floor, adjacent to the stairs. If it's a valuable item that we can identify though (e.g. a Chromebook), we try to contact you and coordinate return.

Color groups

We group players into 3 different groups. Blue is the least experienced, green the middle, and yellow the most. These groups are used to tailor programming to where the club member is at (e.g. the yellow chess puzzle is a lot more difficult than the blue).

New members are assigned rankings based on your responses during registration regarding prior experience and their grade level. Existing members have their rank carried forward from the prior year. Each match is to be recorded during our sessions. The winner's rank rises and the loser's rank falls but the difference in prior rank determines the degree of change. In other words, if there's a wide gap in rankings and the higher ranked player wins, then their rank barely rises but if the lower ranked player wins, then they will rise in rank substantially.

Between us though, movement between groups is highly influenced by ranking but other factors are considered and it's a manual process. Our objective is to keep kids engaged and so we consider factors such as whether they are playing diverse opponents, whether demotion might be demoralizing (e.g. a demotion in the last 2 sessions), whether we are breaking up a known friend group, whether they've demonstrated exceptional interest we've observed. In short, if the ranking is near the line separating two groups, we may accelerate or slow movement between the groups based on subjective factors.

If a player wants to advance, our best suggestion is to play outside of the club sessions (e.g. in apps or with parents) and play more matches in session against more skilled players. Be sure the matches get recorded through!

In practice, each year we gain new players and lose experienced players (esp 5th graders) so we start around 40% blue, 40% green, and 20% yellow and by end of season, it's nearer to 25% blue, 45% green, and 30% yellow.

Chess puzzles

Each week we make available 3 chess puzzles, one per color group. The puzzle most often consists of answering a question in the form of "What movement will allow white to checkmate black in 1 move?" Occasionally we introduce more advanced puzzles for our most advanced group, the yellows.