News

All Star East and West Chess Clubs are off to a strong start after their success last year.  Last year, MCCL offered an East and West All Star club for 2nd and 3rd graders to get an extra hour of weekly practice and instruction.  "We sought to develop some of our youngest, most promising players to be ready for the State Scholastic Chess Championship," said MCCL Executive Director Ranae Bartlett.  The result was a sweep of team awards in the Primary (K-3) school section and a 2nd place team trophy in the Primary Club section for Madison!

For the 2016-17 school year, All Star West Chess Club (for Madison, West Madison, Heritage and Mill Creek Elementary schools) will be run by coaches Ranae Bartlett and Ed Mullin and will meet Tuesdays from 4:30-5:30 p.m. at Madison Elementary. All Star East Chess Club (for Columbia, Horizon, and Rainbow Elementary schools) will be run by coaches Ranae Bartlett and Will Stevenson and meets at Rainbow Elementary on Wednesdays from 4:30-5:30 p.m.  All Star Chess Club is for 2nd and 3rd graders (although coaches, in their discretion, can make exceptions for a few 1st graders).  All Star Chess Club is by invitation only.  MCCL relies on nominations and recommendations from chess team coaches and chess activity over the summer such as enrollment in summer chess camp, summer edition of All Star chess club, and online activity on chesskid.com.

Coach Ed Mullin shares: "I never imagined the level of chess expertise that elementary players have here in Madison. I played chess since I was 5, but didn't achieve the quality of play of many of our top elementary students until I was in college. I get great satisfaction when I can help a 600 rated player reach 800 or an 800 rated player reach 1,000 or higher. I love to see when the light goes on and a chess player moves on to a higher level of play." 

Both All Star Clubs will utilize the free ChessKid.com accounts provided by Madison City Schools to all elementary students.  Students invited to participate in both clubs will be added to online clubs where coaches can monitor their progress.  All Star West and East clubs also plan to hold chess matches with each other to provide additional opportunities to prepare for tournaments.

Each class will follow this basic structure:

• Chess Notation Emphasis

• Lesson

• Full game using clocks and notating moves

• Game analysis – sharing games with the class and seeing how well you have recorded moves.

Read this article which contains links to a video and article on how to notate moves.

We look forward to continuing our efforts in developing young chess players in Madison.