Chess NYC Plays China on ChessKid!

Chess NYC, a program in New York City that teaches chess to thousands of ChessKids, played an online match with a school in Fuxin, China this week. No, not Chinese chess, but regular chess!

According to co-director and coach Russ Makofsky, this is the first in a series of international matches they plan to organize, using ChessKid.com as the platform.

Chess NYC organized the players for the match by having one of its partner schools have a puzzle competition in their online club. The top 10 puzzle solvers then qualified to be a part of the official match versus China - what a great idea! We didn't think of having something like that when we wrote this article on integrating ChessKid into your classroom.

"It motivated them to do puzzles," Makofsky explained to ChessKid.com. "They wanted to compete and represent their country. It was a great cultural exchange."

Since there are no fast chess tournaments yet (but they're coming!), the match was played in the slow chess section of ChessKid, with Makofsky ensuring his players didn't take forever on their moves! On the other side of the world, Chess NYC coach and master Yun Fan supervised the Chinese players.

China won 7-3, but the match was also a cultural exchange. A Skype connection was open during the match, and players "virtually" shook hands and greeted their opponents before and after the games.

"This is big," Makofsky said. "Just the beginning of magical growth and bridge building through our great game." (It is often cited that there are more than 160 countries that play chess - second only to soccer!)

Chess NYC used the website and the ChessKid app (available on Apple and Android devices for free) for the match. "We were pleased," Makovsky said. "We are confident that ChessKid will be able to provide something we can build on. We have big plans."

Want to have a match with a neighboring school or an international Sister City? First group your kids into clubs, then learn about how to start a match!