Spring Term 2024
Richmond Junior Chess club continues in Spring Term 2024 at Orleans Park School for face to face chess chess teaching and play on Saturday, 6th January, meeting weekly, from 2 to 5 p.m., until Saturday 23rd March.
Autumn Term 2024 will consist of 11 sessions:
- January 6, 13, 20, 27
- February 3, 10, 24
- March 2, 9, 16, 23
Please note that there will be no classes on Saturday 17th February, when the club will be closed for Half-Term.
The Membership Form will open for applications for Spring Term 2024 on 23rd December 2023.
Types of Classes
We split our classes into the following types:
- Beginners ‒ we run a class lasting for an hour and ten minutes for young players, aged 6 years and up, learning chess for the first time.
- Novices ‒ we run a class lasting for an hour and ten minutes for young players who are familiar with the moves of the pieces and the purpose of the game (i.e. checkmate) in order to teach them the basic tactical themes (double attack, pin, skewer, discovered check, double check, discovered attack, removal of the guard, etc.) and the elementary endgame mates (king and queen, two rooks and king and rook against the lone king).
- Intermediate ‒ we hold classes for young players who are already familiar with the moves of the pieces, the basic tactical themes and the elementary endgame mates and wish to improve their knowledge and skills further to gain the confidence to be able to take part in chess tournaments for the first time.
- Advanced ‒ we hold classes for young people up to 18 years of age, who are already taking part in chess tournaments, at local, regional, national and international levels. These classes are held by skilled coaches who are themselves experienced, strong players, able to impart high level knowledge about all aspects of the game, from openings, middle-games, endgames, attack and defence, tactics, strategy and positional play, to sports psychology and how to maximum one’s performance.
For the 2022-23 academic year, we have set the following ECF rating boundaries for our classes:
- I2 ‒ up to an ECF rating of approximately 700
- I1 ‒ up to an ECF rating of approximately 900
- A3 ‒ up to an ECF rating of approximately 1,100
- A2 ‒ up to an ECF rating of approximately 1,200
- A1 ‒ a minimum ECF rating of approximately 1,200
Age and maturity will also be used as discretionary criteria.
It is a requirement that a club member is comfortable recording a game played and replaying the game from record.
Time-table
Beginners
14:20 – 15:30 Group instruction, and the opportunity to play against other Beginners
Novices
15:40 – 16:50 Group instruction, and the opportunity to play against other Novices
Intermediates/Advanced
14:00 – 14:20 Sign-in/Friendly Game
14:20 – 15:20 Instruction in ability groups
15:30 – 16:30 ECF rated rapidplay game in the Club Championship
16:30 – 17:00 Coach-led game analysis of the games played in the Club Championship
Our Standard Tariffs
The standard tariffs for our classes can be found at: Our Standard Tariffs.
Signing Up to our Classes
Please complete the online Membership Form and the online Booking Form. Start by clicking here!