Chess
“The beauty of chess is it can be whatever you want it to be. It transcends language, age, race, religion, politics, gender, and socioeconomic background. Whatever your circumstances, anyone can enjoy a good fight to the death over the chess board.” – Simon Williams
Top 10 Benefits of Chess
- Brings people together
- Teaches you how to win and lose
- Improves Spatial Reasoning Skills
- Can help you focus
- Improves Memory
- Develops creativity
- Builds confidence
- Develops problem-solving skills
- Excercises the brain
- Helps keep you calm
Academic Goals
- The Chess Board, The pieces, and their initial positions on the board
- The value of each piece
- The objective of a chess match
- How to write Chess Notation
- Opening strategies; What should be the first move? What should not be the first move?
- Opening Principles: ex. Control of the center, Piece Development, etc.
- Basic Strategies; Space, Initiative, Exchanging Pieces, Etc.
- Types of Checkmate; ex. The Back-Rank Mates, Ladder Mate, Fool’s Mate, Scholar’s Mate, Checkmate in 1, 2 and 3 moves
- The Middle Game Principles
- The Endgame: King and Queen vs King; King and Rook vs King, etc.
- Chess Tactics: Pins, Skewers, Forks
- The Chess Champions
- How to use timers & Tournament Play
