Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy Chess club/chess team

Does anyone here have their child in a competitive chess club? DD has JUST learned chess in the past two months (they teach it at her gifted magnet, and she plays at home)and would like to join the after-school club. This will possibly lead to her joining the school chess team, which competes regularly, travels hundreds of miles to events, and appears to be very good.

DD seems to have a bit of a talent for the game (she reports having beat kids who are really into it and have been playing for years), but she is, of course, still an amateur. How competitive/cutthroat is this world? (DD is not actually that competitive herself but can get her feelings hurt if other people are.) What kind of time commitment is it? Is she going to be the only girl, or one of very few? What is the atmosphere like? My husband and I know virtually nothing about chess or any of this.

i think it's pretty hardcore but i would say let her join the after school club and let it develop from there. i was in the school chess club but am not competitive and never went beyond that. anyway, if she likes to compete she may want to go for it. if she is delicate she may come home crying but why not let her go with the flow... if it's too much and she doesn't like it she can stop.

I do have to shell out about $200 for her to join, so there is a buy-in.

It isn't that she will cry if she loses--she's a good sport generally--but if her opponent gloated or made a big thing out of it, she might. I don't know what the culture is likely to be. She has never been in anything competitive before. We are new to the school, so I don't know anyone else with a kid on the team (I am not even totally sure about how the club vs. team thing works anyway, but my guess is that if DD can join the team, she will want to).

Chess club memberships, especially for juniors, usually cost much less than that. I would keep looking. A good online chess program
(about $30/year) is Chess Magnet School.

It's through her school as an after-school club, so very convenient. I wouldn't bother with another club (and there may not be one locally). I don't know what the charge is for, but it may pay the coaches.

DS6 is in an after school chess club that meets once a week for one hour. There is also a tournament once a year, but we have not participated in that yet. DS seems to love it, and it is very reasonable at only $25 a session (5 weeks). I had my dd7 in chess club last year but she didn't like it. I noticed there were some girls in it last year but none of them returned this year, and now there is only one girl in it this year. It does seem to be a bit male dominated.

In middle school I went to the state chess championship for my year, and did very well. As I remember, all the kids thought it was fun, and not too serious. Some of the parents thought it was a little more serious, but no one made a scene or anything. I played against a girl there, but there weren't a lot of them.

My dad bought me a chess book at around that time, but it wasn't exactly written for a middle schooler to comprehend... more like a graduate student. I never learned to properly annotate games. When I joined the chess club in high school, annotating games was a requirement. You could win a game, but have your win taken away from you if you made more than 2 mistakes with annotation. After winning a difficult game against one of the better players, my win was taken away from me due to poor annotation. I never went back after that. In fact, I have played but a few games since then.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that any talent needs to be properly supported to thrive. The fact that you're here asking questions means you probably know that though.

I don't see a big risk in joining up. If it ceases to be fun, let her stop.

Both of my kids (DS8 and DD10) play in chess club ($55 for 15 weeks) and they really like it. They also take weekly lessons, and play tournaments occasionally. Their club uses the "win with grace, lose with dignity" principle so there is no gloating tolerated. I think if she is interested, there is no harm in giving it a try.

I just joined the group today, so apologies if I am responding too late, but this is a topic I know well.

Chess is a game that can be enjoyed at all levels. The important thing is to find a set of tournaments where your child is competitive, which means she is neither losing all the time, nor winning all the time.

One thing to note is that the required level of commitment increases significantly if your child starts becoming competitive at the state or national level. Someone who just wants to play for fun will do fine with instruction from the local chess club.

However, if your child really likes the game and wants to win the state championship in a seriously competitive state, that requires private coaching and being willing to commit a couple of days a month to attending all day tournaments.

Competing at the national level gets very serious (~15 hours per week of study, plus tournaments almost every weekend, and purchases of many chess books). Don't push this onto an unwilling child. On the other hand, if your child loves chess as much as mine does, then you actually need to make time to prioritize activities other than chess. I pull him away to go out and play basketball.

This thread has been helpful to me. DD really enjoyed chess, until she didn't. I think her first tournament was too competitive for her. There is a chess club at her new school which sounds appropriate, but she hasn't tried it. Since I don't really play chess, I'm of no help for her. Are there online games she could play? What would you suggest to help a child get more confident?