Wizards of the Mind Chess Club

Chess Lessons Details:

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Wizards of the Mind Chess Club offers chess classes on Saturdays for children of all levels, ranging from Complete Beginners to Advanced. These group classes meet every Saturday at the Wizards of the Mind Learning Center on 379 Morris Ave in Springfield, NJ.

 

Please see our Class Schedule on our Website for more details on Saturday class scheduling.

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Classes are available for both in-person and online (Hybrid format)

Our Saturday group classes are taught at our Learning Center and also made available in an online format for anyone interested in connecting remotely. While we recommend all students to come join us at the Chess Club for the best possible experience, online links will be made available to all students who'd like to attend virtually. For Online Learners, we provide the same class instruction using the video-call service Zoom paired with our Online Chess Portal.

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Class format and structure:

Wizards of the Mind Chess Club uses a "Learn & Play" approach to learning chess.

 

The 1st Half of Class is for "Learning" and will be devoted towards the Interactive Lesson the Coach teaches. This is the instructional portion of class that will cover all relevant chess concepts and topics. The group class is highly interactive where students are encouraged to participate by answering questions posed by the Coach in class. Chess is a very complex and nuanced game so it is common for students to participate in class discussions by sharing their unique moves and ideas with the Coach and fellow students. Our Chess Coaches are also happy to answer any questions students may have during class.

 

Each class lesson will introduce new strategies, tactics, and concepts/topics most relevant to students in a variety of ways to always keep class fun and interesting for kids. Lessons will include the study of chess theory, instructional master-level games, "Game Analysis" of students' games, calculation exercises, among other methods that cultivate our students' ability to reason and become strong critical thinkers. All phases of the game from opening, middlegame, and endgames are covered in our curriculum. Lastly, the Coach also enjoys sharing some interesting insights from chess history and stories of legendary masters to build further appreciation for the sport and art form.

 

 The 2nd Half of Class if for "Playing" and will be devoted towards a competitive "tournament game". All chess sets and clocks are available in our classroom, while online learners will be playing against each other using our Online Chess Portal. The Chess Coach organizes an in-class chess tournament using the "Swiss tournament" format. Each week, all students play one long and competitive game with a pre-determined opponent that is scored for the long-running class tournament. This format aims to give students a different opponent each week based on their total points scored in the tournament. The top finishers of the class tournament will typically be recommended to move up a group level earlier than the rest of the group. In each session, we play out 2 of these tournaments. For any time remaining in class, students play sparring games and have their tournament games reviewed by the Coach. In most groups (Challenger and above), students are also expected to record their games in chess notation so their Coach may analyze their games.

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We currently offer a free chess evaluation to determine proper class placement and a demo trial of our Online Chess Portal.

 

Please complete the following form if you are interested in our chess evaluation and demo: