20 Jan '14 14:59>
Thanks for giving me your time. I currently work in secure psychiatric services and have been asked to co-run/set up a chess club. I expect to have about 10 people max at any one time. I need to be able to go from teaching how to play, to maintaining the interest of competent chess players. I don’t know the skill pool will be and I am a very weak player but I do play which is more than the other staff available. Club session length will be limited to 1-2 hours once a week. There is no internet access.
So could you advise me on?
1) Minimum and ideal equipment setup,
2) How to go about teaching chess,
3) How to keep it interesting and fun for everyone,
4) How to run interclub competitions,
5) How to access player skill.
My thoughts are;
1) 5 boards and sets of pieces min. Ideal; 6 boards and sets of pieces, 5 chess clocks, computer with something like chess master on for access outside of sessions/ as aboard to play out tactics on.
2) Teach the rules, then teach some tactics/ language ie coordinates, what a pin is, what a skewer is, a fork is with examples and simple problems. I might be able to do this part on a one outside session times. If the club becomes stable then will make up a booklet to cover this so one on one time can be used playing and talking about a game. This for me is where it gets hard, because I’m a weak player, so talking about theory of centre control, endgame theory etc would just be giving a minefield of misconceptions so I figure this would be were playing through annotated games and discussing out thoughts would be the only way to improve understanding and of course if someone was a stronger player than me have them give their advise on positions and reasoning behind moves.
3) Set up tactical puzzle of the week ie start each session with a
tactic puzzle(s). Club ranking, have a set format Club game, ie 20|0 and the results effect club ranking.
4) Here I’m pretty clueless.
5) Here I thought KISS and play the results will show who is stronger.
Thanks for any guidance.
So could you advise me on?
1) Minimum and ideal equipment setup,
2) How to go about teaching chess,
3) How to keep it interesting and fun for everyone,
4) How to run interclub competitions,
5) How to access player skill.
My thoughts are;
1) 5 boards and sets of pieces min. Ideal; 6 boards and sets of pieces, 5 chess clocks, computer with something like chess master on for access outside of sessions/ as aboard to play out tactics on.
2) Teach the rules, then teach some tactics/ language ie coordinates, what a pin is, what a skewer is, a fork is with examples and simple problems. I might be able to do this part on a one outside session times. If the club becomes stable then will make up a booklet to cover this so one on one time can be used playing and talking about a game. This for me is where it gets hard, because I’m a weak player, so talking about theory of centre control, endgame theory etc would just be giving a minefield of misconceptions so I figure this would be were playing through annotated games and discussing out thoughts would be the only way to improve understanding and of course if someone was a stronger player than me have them give their advise on positions and reasoning behind moves.
3) Set up tactical puzzle of the week ie start each session with a
tactic puzzle(s). Club ranking, have a set format Club game, ie 20|0 and the results effect club ranking.
4) Here I’m pretty clueless.
5) Here I thought KISS and play the results will show who is stronger.
Thanks for any guidance.