Kick-starting chess

[Mike Davies]

OK, I'm a maths teacher in Swindon, who plays adequate chess though never graded in any way. What I have done so far:
- got involved in the existing chess club at school, started to teach them a few opening moves and how to win the endgames (King and rook etc)
- found contacts of other chess clubs, and started to arrange fixtures
- had one fixture, which we won!
- borrowed chess clocks off a local club, and started to build contacts
- gone along to a local club, to improve my own play and enthusiasm and pick their brains

What next? I've read some good stuff about the UK chess challenge, but have missed it for this year. What is the best website (apart from those in signatures, obviously) for kids wanting to learn more? What's the best book to get for the school library to point the kids towards? Anything else?

Advice welcome,

Mike

[adam_hunt]

Mike,

What age are the children?

Starting a chess ladder or introducing a rating system is a good way of motivating them to come to the club sessions. (Rating system better but requires more work!)

[Mike Davies]

Mostly year 7. Good idea aobut the ladder, thanks. Only problem is there would be a fixture at the top, and everyone else battling for second. Works for the premier league though

[William Metcalfe]

chesskids is a really good web site with lots of puzzles and ideas for kids

[Richard James]

chesskids is a really good web site with lots of puzzles and ideas for kids

Many thanks for the plug, William. You beat me to it.

Work is proceeding (slowly) on a completely new version. Watch this space.

[Neill Cooper]

Mike

You seem to be doing the right things - such as using local resources, finding local clubs and other schools etc.
Wiltshire does have an active Junior chess community who may know of other chess playing secondary schools (such as Thamesdown club which meets at Commonweal School). see wiltshirejuniorchess.homestead.com

One thing I do at my school chess club is put problems on the Inter Active White Board, as the pupils like solving problems on it. I use Richard's Chesskids site and also my own (see link in signature) which has a different problem each day. They can also practice getting checkmates on my site, or play against the computer.

One important thing is keeping it fun (my chess club is not silent!). Another is stopping inappropriate pupils turning up because it is raining outside.

Adam's suggestion of a ladder is good - and you may be surprised that you 'fixture at the to' gets beaten from time to time. Grading is gets them keen.

UK Chess Challenge is fantastic (I had over 60 pupils play last term) - you could run a pilot in the Autumn term. (How many days a week do you meet?) If you have houses you can run a year 7 inter-house event.

[Dean Madden]

'How to Beat Your Dad at Chess' and 'Chess Tactics for Kids' are a couple of good books I'd recommend.

[Mike Davies]

Sorry for not replying to the helpful tips earlier. Here's where I am now. I am running an after-school chess club where primary school pupils come to our secondary school to play, in addition to my lunchtime club for the bigger kids. I tried to run through a game today on the whiteboard with people suggesting moves, but it was a wee bit rowdy!

The lunchtime club is weekly, the after-school fortnightly.

Mike

[Neill Cooper]

Mike. Well done for getting another club going. I tend to use just a position (what is the best move in this position - where there may be a mate on, or you can win material). I put some on the web a while ago at http://www.cchess.org.uk/quiz06/quizsum06.html - you can play a move and the computer will give the reply. The problems get more difficult as the term goes on. I find that if I spend more than 5 minutes stopping them playing chess going over a position/game then most of them get bored.

[Rob Thompson]

As for books, Tim Onion's books will probably be useful, though they are aimed primarily at primary school age. I can't remember off the top of my head what the titles are.

[Neill Cooper]

10 Ways to Succeed in the Opening/Middlegame/Endgame - Tim Onions & Dave Regis
Excellent books for under 13s interested in chess but not yet passionate or driven. Only £5 each. Lots of nice pictures as well as chess diagrams
Tim Onions scorebook is also the best for such players - it goes flat easily!

[Mike Davies]

Great, thanks. Will see if the library has any budget at the moment!

[Scott Freeman]

The following might also be of interest:
www.championsleaguechess.co.uk
www.englishchesschallenge.co.uk

[Peter Rhodes]

I don't know if this helps, and would be interested in feedback from trainers.

I was going to suggest that you can let your students know about Internet Chess.

If a junior is excited by the game, but no-one in his family is able to play him (or perhaps there isn't even a board at home) then he can play some games on the internet. Kids seem to pick things up on computers really quickly and from what I've seen, are on the internet all the time !

There is a wide range of opponents of all skills, and it can be an effective way of picking up the basic tactics (pins skewers etc etc). Their are also "puzzle-bots" - but that is probably for more advanced chess-pupils.

Check
www.icc.com
www.fics.com
www.chesscube.com
www.playchess.com

[Mike Davies]

I played on itsyourturn.com for a while too - good point!