Welcome to or welcome back to the chess coaching days at the KJCA for the 2017-18 season.

I can tell you, our GM led coaching is the envy all the other counties around the country and are clearly a contributing factor to our national success.  We follow the courses for the Institute of Chess levels.

To start, please be sure to carefully read the training FAQs that you will find under the ‘training’ tab at the top of this page.  http://www.kjca.org/site/page?view=training

The date for this season are as follows:

PLEASE NOTE: When enrolling your child (via the ‘events’ page), you ensure that you are registering for the correct sessions. For the 4 day courses (Levels 3-5) your fee will cover you for all of those days (plus the exam at the end) and we recommend you attend preferably all, but at least 3 of the 4 in order to maximise your understanding and give yourself the best chance to get a good result.

Provided you (i.e. your son or daughter) achieved a merit or distinction at the previous level you sat, we are happy for you to move up and hence register for the next level. If you obtained a ‘pass’ at any level, then clearly there are good things that have been taken on board but we recommend that you re-take that course to help you get to grips with all of the topics involved. Moving up ‘too soon’ only leads to further problems down the line and it really isn’t fun when too much material is going over a child’s head. Please note it is not a race to see who can get through all the exams as quickly as possible and rather all about discovering and understanding different aspects of the game that can be applied when they sit down and play their matches.

We really want our coaching days to be fun but by the same token we don’t want anyone spending a day listening to things that they already totally understand. Specifically, with regards to levels 1 and 2 and new arrivals to the coaching days, boys and girls will be assessed on the first morning of attendance to check they are in an appropriate group. When registering you will see that as levels 1 and 2 are only two day courses - with the first exams sat at the end of CD2. (The courses then run again on CD3 and CD4, so,  f your child is a beginner but you feel may be a quick learner and were hoping to join level 3 next season, then for example level 1 in CDs 1 and 2 with the intention of doing level 2 in CDs 3 and 4 makes sense.)

Young children will have adult assistance when taking tests and although there will be an alternative exam date or two laid on for those unable to attend CD4, whatever the level there is absolutely no compulsion to take an exam should a child feel unprepared or anxious.

If I could just kindly ask that you don’t leave it too late to enrol as that makes my life easier when obtaining the other coaches. Hope to see you all soon!

Grandmaster Chris Ward            

Shreyas achieved a fantastic 8/9 in the U8 Open section making him joint First on points and receiving the 2nd Place Silver Trophy on tie-break. ...

GP1 - The first tournament of the new season will be held this Saturday, 16th September, at Tonbridge girls' grammar school.

This event is a LJCC qualifier for U8, U10 and U12 and also has the popular U18 minor and U18 major section for older players.

Please go to: http://www.kjca.org/event/162 to register. If you plan to come along, please register before 7pm the day before the tournament (Friday 15th). 

Looking forward to welcoming all our young chess players to the new season.