Upcoming Club Events
Check our calendar for upcoming meetings and special events:
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Chess Work
Each week I'll be assigning some Chess Work for students who want to improve faster. We'll review this each week, and students can always catch up if they miss a week.
It is also good practice to review the basic checkmates. These are fundamental to being able to win a chess game. Students should practice the six exercises until they feel completely trivial. Do not worry about how many moves it takes to checkmate. If you have questions...just ask Coach Dave at our next club.
Club Info
For information about joining our club, please contact sandcastlechessclub@gmail.com!
- When: Every Sunday, 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM
- Where: Near the Vons in SLO (email me for specifics on joining our club)
- Who: Students in Kindergarten through 4th grade
- What to bring: Just your smile! We provide all chess equipment
Also, check out a recent article about our club in New Times.
Meet Coach Dave
I've been playing chess my whole life, and teaching for over 20 years. My son has gotten into the game, and I'd like to give students an opportunity to play in person and learn and have fun. I'll be providing instruction on topics from how the pieces move to basic strategy.
If you'd like to learn more about our club, please email me at sandcastlechessclub@gmail.com!
How to Improve
The most important way for young students to improve at chess is to enjoy it. Thinking, playing, and studying chess at a young age will naturally lead to improvement. If you REALLY want to get better at chess, though, here is what I recommend!
- Play chess games with long time controls. Ideally more than 15 minutes per side and longer is better...but you have to try to use AT LEAST half your time.
- Do chess puzzles! These are positions where there is a sequence of moves that either win material or lead to checkmate.
- Review your games. Try to find at least one things each game that you could have done better. Examples are not hanging pieces, looking for your oppoents plan, missing a tactic to win your oppoents piece, etc. This can be tough, so bring your games to our chess club so we can talk through them!
Here are some links to help you:
- For playing games, I recommend lichess which is completely free. Chess.com is also good, but may cost some money if you want all the features. ChessKid can be useful, but it doesn't save the games which can be problematic for reviewing mistakes.
- For puzzles, either lichess puzzles or chess.com are good resources. For physical books, I recommend Everyone's First Chess Workbook.
- Personally, I use this site which has a free tier for training programs at all levels. Chess Dojo