Newfoundland and Labrador School Chess Association (NLSCA)

About School Chess and the NLSCA

Tournaments

The NLSCA typically runs a scholastic chess tournament about once every month throughout the school year. Tournaments are run by NLSCA volunteers in accordance with the NLSCA Tournament Rules. Most tournaments run by the NLSCA are rated tournaments (see Ratings for more details). Tournament announcements will appear on this page and results will be posted here shortly after each tournament.

In addition to the scholastic chess events, the Newfoundland and Labrador Chess Association (NLCA) from time-to-time, runs tournaments open to all ages, including adults. More details on NLCA events is available from the NLCA web site at www.chess.nl.ca/NLCA.

School Chess Clubs

Starting and Running a School Chess Club

If you are a teacher, or parent interested in setting up a school chess program in your school, there are many avenues open to you. The path you take should be dictated by your familiarity with the game and the support network you have available to you.

Gauging the Level of Interest in Your School:

It is first suggested that you gauge the level of interest by sending home a notice or form to determine interest. Once you’ve considered the feedback we’ve provided below, draft your notice to parents.

Your Experience:

You don’t need to be an experienced chess player to run a chess club. If your school is an elementary school, these kids often want nothing more than a place to play and other kids to play with. You can, if you wish, limit the club size initially to those who have experience playing chess and expand it later to include novice chess players. You might, as well, appeal to parents who play chess to assist you.

Duration of Club Meetings:

The duration of club meetings can vary to suit the time available to you. The length of time required to play a game of chess by players in lower grades (K to 6) may range from 5 minutes if the players are unevenly matched up to 30 minutes for the more serious players more evenly matched. For planning purposes, it is recommended that the duration of your chess club meetings should be no less than 30 minutes and no longer than 90 minutes. Less than 30 minutes and the more serious players might not get to finish a game, resulting in frustration, while more than 90 minutes might tend to exceed the concentration span of younger players.

Obtaining Equipment:

Chess sets are really all you need to start. Chess sets for schools come in tubes convenient for quick access and easy storage. These sets consist of sturdy plastic pieces and a durable roll-up vinyl mat. The sets can be acquired directly from the Chess’n Math Association (chess-math.org), a nationally based not-for-profit organization promoting chess in schools across Canada. The NLSCA may be able to help get a new club started with a starter kit. Please contact us if you would like more information on this.

Suggestions for Funding for your School Club:

To expedite setting up your club, we recommend that you obtain some funding to acquire the additionalal chess sets. Potential sources available to you would be the school through your school principal, or your school council. To ensure that the interest of club members is genuine, we suggest that you charge a small fee to join the club. Use this money to maintain your club over the school year.

Holding Tournaments:

Holding tournaments within your club is a good way to prepare your players to play in tournaments against other schools. Playing in tournaments is the only way to gauge the development of your club members. The easy way for you to do this in your club is to group those children interested in groups of 4 players or 6 players. Once done hold a simple round robin match where each player is paired against each other player in that group. You assign 1 point for each win, ½ point for a draw and 0 points for a loss. If you have more than 1 group, take either the top player or top 2 players in each group and combine them later to form a single group and repeat the process. Round-robin pairing sheets to organize games and record your results are below:

Rating your tournaments is a great way to keep younger kids interested. Each child who plays will get a scholastic rating from the Chess’n Math Association. This rating indicates the skill level of a player relative to all other players across Canada. To rate your tournament you need only keep a record of the results of your tournament for each and every game played and provide it to our association. We will forward it to the Chess’n Math Association and they will issue your player(s) with a computer generated ‘id’ and a rating based on their performance in the tournament. The cost for rating a tournament is $0.50 for each player entered. Ratings are updated on a weekly basis on both the Chess’n Math website and our website (www.chess.nfld.net).

When to Hold Your Chess Club:

There are several options open to you, each one having certain advantages and disadvantages. Consider each one carefully weighing the time you have available. If you’re flexible, you might ask parents to indicate their preference in your notice home.

Lunch-Hour Chess:

A lunch-hour program held in a spare room like the Art room or Resource room. Alternatively, if you have a small group, a classroom will do. If you don’t want to get too involved, your club could simply be the kids in your home classroom.

This format is geared towards a meeting of 1 hour duration. As it’s being held during the school day, you maximize your opportunity to involve more children. The disadvantage is that it may be difficult to have parents assist you. If you’re familiar with chess, this might be the best format for you.

After-School Chess:

An alternative to a lunch-hour program would be the after-school format. This format typically attracts the greatest number of kids. It might also offer you some support by parents willing to stay behind and assist. The main disadvantage is that after-school kids are often tired. Consequently you might want to limit the time to 45 minutes to1 hour.

Evening or Weekend Chess:

Evening or weekend chess in your school is recommended for consideration only after you’ve established your chess club, i.e. you might consider it after you have one year under your belt. This format usually attracts those kids more serious about playing chess. It is beneficial in that it offers you an opportunity to draw upon a larger number of parents with playing skill. You might want to consider this approach if your chess skills are limited and you can draw on parents interested in assisting you.

Support from the NLSCA

Please feel free to contact us. if you need ideas, or if you run into any difficulties. We exist to promote and encourage chess in schools all across Newfoundland and Labrador and we will do what we can to help.