Class Instruction

Group Lesson Goals

1. Develop critical thinking skills: Chess is a game of strategy and requires players to think several moves ahead. Through our lessons, we aim to help children develop critical thinking skills that they can apply to other areas of their lives.
2. Improve decision-making abilities: Chess requires players to make decisions based on limited information, a skill that can be challenging but essential for success. We aim to help children improve their decision-making abilities through our lessons.
3. Build a strong foundation in chess fundamentals: To become a successful chess player, it’s essential to have a strong foundation in the game’s basic principles, such as opening theory, tactics, and endgame strategies. Our lessons will focus on building this foundation for children, and provide in-person practice opportunities including uscf-rated tournaments to measure their progress.
4. Foster a love for the game: Chess can be a challenging game, but it can also be a lot of fun! We want to help children develop a love for the game by making our lessons engaging and enjoyable, the 2-hour in-person class will bring more chess fun for the kids and help them make friends each other.
5. Encourage sportsmanship and fair play: Chess is a game that requires players to demonstrate good sportsmanship and fair play, even when they lose. We will practice them in our internal training matches.
6. Help children set and achieve goals: Chess is a game that rewards persistence and hard work. Through our lessons, we aim to help children set achievable goals and work towards achieving them.
7. Provide opportunities for competition: We aim to provide children with opportunities to participate in competitions and gain confidence in their abilities.
8. Develop problem-solving skills: Chess requires players to solve complex problems and make difficult decisions. Through our lessons, we aim to help children develop problem-solving skills that they can apply to other areas of their lives.
9. Improve concentration and focus: Chess is a game that requires players to focus and concentrate for extended periods. Our lessons will focus on helping children improve their concentration and focus skills.
10. Teach life skills: Chess can teach children valuable life skills such as patience, perseverance, and the ability to handle defeat gracefully.

Group Lesson Format

1. The students will be divided into two groups, catering to beginners and intermediate level students.
2. Each session will consist of eight lessons, with each half session including three one-hour online lessons via Zoom and one two-hour in-person lesson, held at a location in Culver City, 90230.
3. The two-hour in-person lesson will focus on internal training matches and game analysis, and cover advanced OTB tournament skills, including time management.
4. At the end of the session, each student will receive a free entry to a USCF-rated monthly chess tournament, allowing them to apply and showcase the skills they learned during the lessons.

Group A: Beginner Level

(recommended rating: 0 – 400)

The Beginner Class is designed to teach students basic principles, the history of chess, how to solve tactics, learn about the opening, basic middle and endgame ideas. Simple plans and strategies will be shown along with famous games to further understand concepts.

Group B: Intermediate Level

(recommended rating: 400 – 800)

The Intermediate class is designed to teach students key concepts in the middlegame, identify winning vs drawn rook endgames, spot tactics, and understand sacrifices and initiative. Famous games showing each concept being displayed will be taught and explained to further deepen the understanding.

NOTE:

• The online instruction (including zoom links and detailed training syllabus) will be sent out after booking this camp successfully.
• We recommend all students to have a US Chess member to measure the improvements by ratings. If you don’t have it yet, you can register a US Chess member here.
• If you don’t know your child’s chess level, we will evaluate at the first class, and we will move him to the group as appropriate.
• We will use lichess.org for the coaching tool and tournaments. Please have a lichess.org account for free ahead of the class, and join the ICEA Chess Club (https://lichess.org/team/icea-scholastic-chess-club) so we can share the studies or homework.
• All students will be offered a free entry at the end of session to attend ICEA Chess@The Wende Monthly USCF-Rated Chess Tournament, and the games will be analyzed by the coach.
• All registration is not refundable.

Class Schedule:

(Note: There will be no class during the week of 3-26-2023 due to the SoCal SuperStates Championship Chess Tournament.)

Price:

• $200 / student 

About Coach Alex Wang (NM)

Alex Wang is a 10th grader at Corona Del Mar high school and a National Master with a peak USCF rating of 2266. Other hobbies that he likes to do are ping-pong and reading. He enjoys sharing his understanding of chess with others. Alex is also the captain of ICEA Chess Team for 2023 SoCal. SuperStates Championship.

About Coach Felix Guo

Felix is a 6th grader and an experienced Math and Chess teacher and he has been teaching math and chess for more than 100 students. He received 2023 AMC 8 Honor Roll of Distinction with a perfect score. He started playing OTB chess tournament when he was 10 years old, and reached a USCF rating of 1800+ within one year. He is top 50 of the chess players of his age in U.S.. He is a student of coach Melikset Khachiyan (who is also the 2022 U.S. Olympiad Women’s team captain). He was the captain of the ICEA Chess team in 2022 So Cal. SuperStates and lead the team to get second for the K-5 team championship.

About Teacher Assistant Austin Huang

Austin joined ICEA Kids Chess Club since 2020.  He is a 4th grader and his current USCF rating is 800+. Austin has a passion for both playing and teaching chess for younger kids, and he is also one of the admins of ICEA Kids Chess Club on chess.com.

Click to Learn More About ICEA Chess Club

Bookings