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.
The rules governing scholastic competitions in Kentucky can be found on the governance page.
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!). Feel free to contact the scholastic director at k12@kychess.org for assistance.
Also, the US Chess Federation provides a Guide to Scholastic Chess, although it is somewhat dated and does not account for modern online play and Internet resources.
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 schooler (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 from one central county and its adjacent counties to form a team.
The scholastic director may also grant dispensations to the boundaries from #3 for reasonable causes. 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.