For families
Most children in an Infants or 1st and 2nd group have never played. The first weeks assume nothing at all, including which way round the board goes.
Already running
Clubs are running in Dublin schools this term. Tell us your school and your child's class and we will send the day, the time and how to join. If there is not a club there yet, the form further down asks your school for one.
Or write to [email protected]
First Moves
45 minutes a week
A first, happy meeting with the chessboard. Movement, stories and short games, not sitting still for forty-five minutes.
Across a term, pupils work towards naming every piece, moving it correctly, and finishing a short game with a partner.
Playing the Game
50 minutes a week
The whole game, properly. Rules, captures, keeping pieces safe, and full games played from the first week.
Across a term, pupils work towards playing a full legal game, spotting a piece under attack, and finishing with a basic checkmate.
Thinking Ahead
60 minutes a week
Real chess thinking. Tactics, plans, calculating a few moves ahead, and analysing your own game afterwards.
Across a term, pupils work towards recognising common tactics, explaining a plan in their own words, and talking through their own game.
You will see claims that chess makes children better at maths. The largest study ever done on this, across 100 schools and 4,009 pupils, looked for exactly that and did not find it.
What the same study did find is that most children enjoyed it, and that teachers saw a difference in how pupils behaved and worked together. That is a good enough reason on its own. It is the reason we give, and we would rather you heard it from us.
Schools take parent interest seriously, and a handful of families asking is usually what starts an after-school activity. The form below writes that note for you, addressed to your own school. It opens in your email app so you can read it and change it before you send it, and it goes from you to your school. Nothing arrives at Little Chess Explorers unless the school gets in touch.
On your school's Parents Association? There is a page written for you instead, with the numbers and a paragraph ready for the next meeting.
Fill in two boxes and it is ready. It goes from you to your own school, and nothing reaches us unless the school gets in touch.
Free, whether or not your school books anything
Ten things worth saying, three worth avoiding, and four that work at the kitchen table. You do not need to know the rules.
Yes. Every programme is written for children who have never touched a chessboard. Children who already play are given harder versions of the same task rather than a different lesson.
No. Little Chess Explorers is deliberately focused on group programmes delivered through schools rather than private one-to-one coaching.
No. Most children in an Infants or 1st and 2nd group have never played. The first weeks assume nothing at all, including not knowing which way the board goes.
Not in the younger groups. Infants play short games with a few pieces and nobody keeps a score. From 3rd Class up there are ladder games and internal challenges, because that is what children of that age usually want, but taking part in them is a choice. A school that wants more can also arrange a friendly online event against a group of the same age in another country: closed, chat switched off, and free.
Prices are set per school, because session length and term length differ. The current Dublin range is around 10 to 12 euro per child per session, booked as a term block. The exact figure for your school appears on your school's own booking page.
The term fee covers the block rather than individual attendance, in the same way as most after-school activities. A child who misses a week is caught up at the start of the next session.
Only for blocks shorter than twelve weeks. From twelve weeks upward the sets come with the programme and go home again at the end. Teaching materials are included whatever the length.
