Wizards of the Mind Chess Club

Chess Lesson 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 learning!

Saturday group classes are taught at our Learning Center. The vast majority of students come to each class to learn and play their tournament games. The class is also broadcasted via a Zoom video-call where students are able to participate in the interactive lesson remotely and from the comfort of their home. All students participate in tournament games in their respective formats, over-the-board (OTB) chess games and online chess games.

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Should I attend in-person and online classes?

We recommend all students to come join us in-person at the Chess Club for the best possible experience. While the online format of our class is exceptional and does not skip a beat against what is taught in-person*, it is our recommendation to come experience the class first-hand at our chess club. Especially for younger children, there is higher focus and attentiveness shown when coming to class. For all children, chess is a social game, and many students can easily make friendships when coming to class.

 

*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. Each class is split into 2 halves featuring an Interactive Lesson and competitive Tournament Games.

 

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, science, and art forms of chess.

 

 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. This is the same tournament format used by most USCF affiliated chess tournaments. Each week, all students play one long, competitive game with an assigned 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. For example, a player with 3 wins in a row (3 points) will most likely play an opponent with also 3 points in the 4th round. With more games you win, the opponents get tougher. In the other hand, if you lose games, opponents may get easier in later rounds. 

 

The top 3 finishers of the class tournament are awarded prizes for their tremendous effort! Students who finish consistently at the top of their class tournaments may be recommended to move up a group level at our chess club in order to continue progressing by competing against a stronger pool of players. In each session, we play out 2 of these tournaments consisting of 5 - 7 rounds of chess games.

 

For any time remaining in class, students play sparring games and have their tournament games reviewed by the Coach to learn from mistakes and get tips to improve their play for future games. In many class club-level groups (L4. Challenger and above levels), students are taught to notate their games on a scoresheet in order prepare them for USCF chess tournaments and for the purposes of game reviews.

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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 if there is an interest for our online class format.

 

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