Announcing Hour Of Chess Week On ChessKid

Starting in 2016, ChessKid will dedicate one week a year to encouraging chess in schools (in every school) for at least one hour. Taking a page from the KhanAcademy playbook (a website and organization whose efforts we greatly admire), ChessKid is announcing its first ever Hour of Chess Week, February 8-12.

What Is Hour of Chess Week?

The Hour of Chess Week is a week dedicated to playing chess with everyone, for at least one hour! But specifically, ChessKid will be working with its major programs, largest and most active school districts, as well as promoting the efforts to as many schools in the nation to "try chess club at your school for one hour this week" and see if your kids love to play chess. We think they will!

When: Pick any hour 8 a.m.-3 p.m. your local time during the week of February 8-12

Where: Your school (kids can use any device -- including their own smartphone or tablet if approved by the school for that hour -- to play Fast Chess or Solve Puzzles, (teacher or coach's decision which one) for one hour

How: To get approval from your school's principal and/or district leaders, we recommend you contact them immediately upon resuming regular classroom activities in January. Any schools needing official documentation of the event can contact ChessKid staff at [email protected] with the email title Hour of Chess Week. Reading this article and telling your school leaders how much you love the idea of chess in your school might be enough!

Who Can Participate?

Everyone! In fact, one of our most active school districts, Madison City Schools in Alabama, has already committed all 7 schools in the district, expects nearly 1000 students from the grades 1st-6th to participate in its "Hour of Chess," which will be February 12 from 8-9 a.m. CST.

Ranae Bartlett, Vice President of Madison City Board of Education and the Executive Director of the Madison City Chess League, had this to say regarding Madison's plans to jump start its 2016 chess year and prepare its students for the spring State and National Championships:

"When we return from the holiday break, Madison City Schools will be promoting and getting kids ready to participate in Hour of Chess using the Fast Chess feature on ChessKid.com. We will provide our teachers with sheets they can print out with a QR code that links to your 13 minute video on how to play chess, a sheet with all the pieces and how they move, and also a “how to” sheet on how to login to ChessKid and start a Fast Chess game.

Our plan is to have a minimum of five devices in every classroom available for elementary kids to cycle through to play Fast Chess (some schools may also open up their computer labs to accommodate more students), but if we have just five kids online in each classroom, that will amount to almost 1,000 students online at one time playing Fast Chess! We could not be more excited to participate in ChessKid's first annual Hour of Chess Week!"

Why An Hour Of Chess?

Chess is recognized universally as one of the most effective ways to bring fun into the classroom, yet still do something that encourages critical thinking skills, increases focus and otherwise helps with the cognitive development of students.

Simply put: We believe every school should have and would benefit from having a regular chess club.

Why is ChessKid doing this?

We want to help you grow chess in your area! In fact, we're giving away prizes to prove it! All schools that sign up with their planned time of participation during the week of February 8-12 will be registered in a drawing to win one year free of ChessKid Gold Membership access for every kid in their school. (Up to 500 Gold Memberships -- a $2200 value). Only one school will win.

In addition, ChessKid will give away three "Share the Chess" gift baskets to all programs (school or homeschool) who share a photo of their chess class and tag ChessKidcom on Facebook! We will share and promote the best photos and announce the three winners (subjectively chosen as our three favorite photos) to receive a ChessKid Tournament gift basket with shirts, pens, scoresheets and stickers!

Thank you for helping to grow chess in your school and district! Questions on the process? Email [email protected] with the subject line: Hour of Chess Week!

Sincerely, International Master Danny Rensch (PoppaBear)
Vice President, Chess.com LLC and ChessKid.com