Welcome students and parents! Kentucky has an active scholastic chess community which welcomes players ranging from those just learning the rules to expert players.
If you are brand new to chess, ChessKid (commercial, not endorsed) has a good beginner’s guide to chess (and another for parents) which can teach you the rules.
One of the best ways you can learn is to join your school’s chess club or visit a public clubs in your area. Playing online on sites like LiChess.org (free) or ChessKid.com (commercial) can also be helpful for beginners, because it will match you up against other beginners at your level. We encourage students to join the KCA’s official club on ChessKid, where we run regular online tournaments.
Once you have the basic rules down, it’s time to play in a scholastic tournament. You can find tournaments in your area using our scholastic tournament calendar. The scholastic chess season in Kentucky tends to run from September to April, and almost all tournaments outside the State Championship are beginner-friendly. For most scholastic tournaments, you don’t need to bring your own board or clock. Almost all scholastic tournaments are run using what is called the Swiss System, meaning that you will always get to play all rounds of the tournament, playing harder opponents if you win and easier opponents if you lose. More information can be found at in our Parent’s Guide to Scholastic Chess Tournaments.
More information can be found on our page for coaches and chess sponsors.
FAQ
My school doesn’t have a chess club. What should I do?
If your school doesn’t have one, consider starting one! For teachers or parents who are considering helping with chess clubs, note that you don’t need to be good at chess to do so (as far as he knows, the current scholastic director’s high school coach did not know how to play at all, and we won the state championship!). See our coaches and chess sponsors page for more information.
Also, individuals without teams can fully participate in all KCA championships except the State Team Championship.
Also, if a school doesn’t have an official organized chess club, that does not prevent the students from participating as a team, as long as there is a parent willing to bring them to tournaments and act as a point-of-contact.
I am homeschooled. Can I play in Kentucky scholastic chess?
Most tournaments are for individuals, not teams, so it is rarely an issue. The exception is the state team championship cycle. Here, homeschoolers have three options (a) to play for their local school, if permitted by the school (2) to play for a homeschool co-op if they received 50% of their curricular instruction there, or (3) to join with any collection of other homeschoolers within their region to form a team (the region map is at the bottom of this page).
Parents of homeschooled chess players are strongly encouraged to contact the scholastic director (k12@kychess.org) so he can assist in connecting them with other homeschooled chess players in their area.
What are the State Championship Events?
The core events for scholastic individuals are:
- The four regional championship “Quad” tournaments, usually in January or February.
- The State Grades championships, often in December of January, which determine a state champion for each individual grade (Kindergarten – 12th)
- The State scholastic Individual championships, usually in March. This determines champions for K-1, K-3, K-5, K-8, and K-12 and also selects KY’s representatives to US Chess national invitational tournaments (K-3, K-5, K-8, and K-12).
- The State Blitz (“speed chess”) championship
The core events for scholastic teams are:
- The State Bughouse (2 person team chess variant) championship. This is usually paired with Blitz
- The four regional championship “Quad” tournaments, usually in January or February. A team’s four top scoring individuals are added to produce a team score, and the top teams from each region are invited to the State Team Championships.
- State Team Championship, usually the last event of the year, held in March.