I would never have suspected in a million years that when I volunteered to create an after-school chess club at my son's elementary school eleven years ago that I would still be running the club when he was a senior in high school. In the summer of 1988, my son, Micah Fisher-Kirshner, ready for first grade at Weibel Elementary School in Fremont, California, entered a local library chess tournament. Ray Orwig, a chess coach and Senior Tournament Director, ran a number of these non-US Chess Federation tournaments in the San Francisco Bay area. During the year, he also held a number of US Chess Federation, matches including the Northern California State Scholastic Championships.
My son enjoyed the library tournament so much that I decided it would be nice if he could have a few other children to play chess with after school. I started out with about eight children from Weibel Elementary School and three from a nearby school, Mission San Jose Elementary. Today (NOTE:1999) that small Weibel club has grown to 135 children, a 40-person waiting list and five paid instructors. Mission San Jose, a smaller school than Weibel, has about 50 members in its chess club and continues with parent volunteers. Inquiries from other parents has enabled chess in Fremont to expand to five other schools averaging about 70 children in each program. Some have hired Weibel chess teachers through family or Parent Teacher Association contributions.
While only a few of our Fremont children have been on the USCF Top 50 list for their age group and our schools have won few National Championships (Mission San Jose won the National Grade Level and Hopkins Junior High School won the K-8 Championship Division in 1996 (NOTE:Players fronm Weibel in that year attended Hopkins. They now go to Horner), the excitement of chess continues to explode in this area. Perhaps this explosion is because our emphasis has been on the art, the proven educational value and the fun of the game. (NOTE:From 2010 to 2018 Weibel Chess won two National Elementary School Championships and eight All-Girls National Championships. Mission San Jose won numerous National Elementary School Championships. Gomes Elementary School won two National Elementary School Championships. To be clear a team or individual can officially call themselves champions if the won the Championship Division. There are other Divisions and a first place team or individual deserve Kudos, but are not official champions.)
Last year, one of my Weibel players asked me why I continued to run the club when my son was now in high school. I answered him, "Because Weibel Chess has great parents and without the support of the parents and their willingness to volunteer their time in a myriad of different ways there would be no chess in Fremont."
Time to get to the when, what, where and how of this program: In March of 1989, Micah in first grade won our states K-3 championship division. I learned of the National Elementary Championships being held in Tempe, Arizona in April. I thought it would be fun to try it and was not sure I could afford to attend. A colleague of mine raised the funds and paid the way for my two sons and myself. What an experience!
At Tempe, in 1989, numerous booksellers and chess entrepreneurs exhibited their products. Sadly, this was not to be the case at future Nationals as the U.S. Chess Federation wanted to run the event and to sell its products. I bought everything I could find on organizing a scholastic chess club in Tempe.
Dewain Barber’s pamphlet, A Guide to Scholastic Chess, that the US Chess Federation provided free, proved a great start. So did the five free tournament chess sets I obtained from the Chess Federation's Trust. Equally valuable were the insights I obtained from talking with fellow parents who also ran chess programs at their schools. So, I returned to Fremont loaded down with new ideas from chess instructors and educators. Over the years I have continued to keep my ears open to any suggestions on how to build a scholastic chess program.
I believe the three most productive concepts at Weibel for maintaining interest in chess and producing good chess players has been our hands-on approach to learning, our peer instruction and an extensive system of rewards. All our students had the use of a chess sets. At first I used full size tournament sets, but as the numbers increased I moved to pocket sets for each player. In recent years, I have gone back to tournament sets, as I broke the program into two days, one for Team and one for Club. Since I now have the help of other instructors, I can break these groups down into smaller sections based upon ability, and the school has given us more classrooms. The PTA first purchased the boards and pieces, but presently parent contributions and funds from chess tournaments that I run supply all our equipment needs. In recent years, I have even been able to donate equipment to the classroom teachers and extra funds to the PTA.
When the children are taught something with the traditional demonstration board, with a small group around a teacher, or using computers hooked up to projection TV's, they are asked to move the pieces on their own boards. They repeat each lesson on their own and then demonstrate the lesson, such as checkmating with a king and a rook vs. a king, to a classmate.
I would like to take an aside here and describe the Club and Team approach at Weibel. At the beginning of each year children I asked if they wanted to be in the Club for fun or the Team for competition (and fun, of course). Team members must commit to attending three USCF tournaments during the year (girls must play in the CalChess Girl's Tournament as one of their tournaments), playing in the CalChess State Scholastic Championships and doing a minimum of 2 1/2 hours of chess homework per week. In contrast, the Club members have no commitment other than to attend our lessons.
Team members meet for an hour and a half with 30 minutes of instruction and an hour of tournament style play. (NOTE: This changed to two hours and 20 minutes with 50 minutes of instruction and 90 minutes of play. Our instructors go over the games if they finish early.)
Club members receive 20 minutes of instruction and play chess for 40 minutes. (NOTE: This changed to one and a half hours with 50 minutes of instruction and 40 minutes of play time. If they finish early, they play another game.)
I make no decision as to who will be on the Club or the Team; that is left to the children (well, in reality, the parents). This year (1999) we had 55 children from K through 6th grade on the Team and 80 children participating in the Club, most of whom were in the lower school grades. We have 40+ children on our waiting list each year, as space is limited. (NOTE: We later increased the number of instructors and the school principals, who in those days were very supportive of the chess program, provided me with extra rooms. The largest group was 240 in 2017.) The number of chess players in our program (1999) constitutes about 22 percent of the students at Weibel, and one-third are girls. I am happy to report that the dropout rate for the girls is no different than for the boys, and for both the numbers are very low.
At the beginning of program, I had about 40 new students who have limited if any knowledge of the game usually about ten of them were in kindergarten. Our more knowledgeable students became our chess aides. I provided the lecture, and the teaching assistants (other students) worked one-on-one with the new club members. This usually lasted for about eight weeks, when I then divide the class into smaller groups based upon ability. Later when I started charging parents a tuition, I hired chess instructors.
Our reward system is extensive, effective, and really simple. The children respond beautifully to positive feedback and little goodies. Handshakes for good participation, chess stickers (made on the computer), certificates and an in-house rating system works wonders for our students’ self-esteem and our 97% retention rate. This year (1999) we had a special pizza and ice-cream party for the Team's tenth straight year winning a state championship title.
Let me describe our rating system, as it has proved the most effective motivation for the children. We award points for winning a game (3), drawing a game (2) and losing a game (1). If the children attend USCF tournaments, these points are doubled. They obtain points for doing homework (on the Team this would be any homework above the minimum required per week) and for helping other students with their learning (NOTE: In later years the Team was required to do puzzles in Chess Magnet School.). After obtaining eight points they receive the rank of Pawn. After obtaining 16 points they become a Knight, and so forth. A few students have obtained the title of Weibel's Gary Kasparov, obtaining 1,150 or more points accumulated over the years. Each week all the students receive an updated rating sheet and each month the parents receive progress reports. Children love collecting these sheets and announcing out loud how they are now, for example, a Queen.
The points are cumulative over the years. Five players in the Club and five players on the Team are given special recognition at our year-end potluck awards banquet for obtaining the most points in that year. All Weibel chess members receive small trophies at this ceremony plus a colorful certificate recognizing the title they have earned. We also present numerous door prizes at the banquet, from chess key chains to chess computers. Winning a prize depends only on the luck of the draw, and no players go home empty handed. (NOTE: In later years I added, for the Team, fairly large trophies for the MVP-Most Valuable Player),the most improved player and the Rookie of the Year-the player who was on the team for the first year that contributed the most to the team’s success.)
School Mates, official youth magazine of the US Chess Federation published this article in their November/December 1999 issue. Edited and Updated Notes in 2022
Our first Team at State Championships in 1989 and three of the four players plus the coach in 2016.