Setting Up A Chess Club

So you've decided to set up a chess club. You have a few people you think might come regularly, and you know that you are doing the community a favor by adding this very valuable resource. The first thing you need is a location. And that's sometimes quite challenging. Rent can be expensive! So you need to talk to your local library, perhaps a senior center, a YMCA or maybe even a local game store. The chess club here in Denver, Colorado is located currently in a historic center/church. There was talk at one point of moving it to a large bookstore with a coffee shop. I have even heard of people starting chess clubs down at local cafes or a Carl's Jr.

Parking is always an issue for players, as well as the times that the club would have to close. If you ask around, talk to your local library and schools etc, you should be able to find something where the rent is reasonable. You might even find a few new joiners to the club.

There are many different ways to run a chess club--as many as there are chess players. One popular way is to run a monthly rated tournament. You have to have someone who is a certified USCF tournament director, but it isn't too hard to get certified. You just contact USCF and get the details and they send you a certificate once you learn a few rules.

Another format is to run "one night" speed tournaments. These can be a lot of fun and are great for the social atmosphere of the club, as they promote good natured competition but still allow for talking and a bit of laughter.

You can have what are called ladder games, where you move up or down the ladder (a list of players starting from the strongest to the weakest) on a given night depending if you can beat the person above you, or if you lose to the one below. These are usually unrated or casual games. But I suppose they could be rated too, so long as you have someone to submit the ratings.

Some clubs like to switch things up and do a little bit of this and a little bit of that. You can take a group vote and decide what everyone wants that way. You can certainly change the format of the club around if you want to later.

Once you get your night settled on and the times and locations you must begin to get the word out about your club. You can usually get it listed cheaply or even free in the newspaper for local community events. You can create a webpage with dates and times etc, and email links to your website and share it on facebook and twitter. You can put up a sign. Having the club in a public location is a good way to promote the club. Casual passers by get intrigued and ask questions about how they can join and many of them do. It really is a community service to create a chess club. Good Luck!

 You don't actually need to have chess sets to start a club, but it helps. You can tell people to bring their own sets. But it is nice to walk into a chess club and see the sets all laid out, even better if they have chess clocks. You can order them wholesale in bulk from lots of different websites including the US Chess Federation. Shop around and see who has the best deals. In addition you can order demo boards if you want to offer short little chess lessons at the beginning of your club, a nice feature and one that will attract more beginners. It is a good idea to attract beginners, because beginners do improve and they add to the overall numbers of the club.