Chess Sets & Demo Boards
ChessZ.net – home-based in Adare, Co Limerick. tel: 087-679-4211, email: chessadare@yahoo.co.uk
ChessZ was founded by part-time engineer, John Alfred in 2003, and has been selling chess sets (1000’s of them) and other chess equipment to Irish schools since then. John believes his chess sets could well be the best priced in Europe !
Two of his children played chess for Ireland in 2010; Emily captained the Irish Ladies team, and Jeffrey was u10 champion. His books, MASTER CHESS, are the type of initial chess coaching he did with them – It’s hard to win if you can’t checkmate !
The website is due an update and potential purchasers should contact him to check if items are currently in stock.
The Regency Chess Company was established in 2008 and has risen to become Europe’s largest online retailer of chess and backgammon products. They stock a large range of competitively priced tournament grade equipment as well as an enormous range of wooden chess sets. Based in Frome Somerset, the business is run by a small team of 5 people who take pride in offering the best customer service and very fast turn around on orders.
Regency Chess have kindly provided Ficheall.ie with a 10% discount code for use when ordering online. Just use code “FICHEALL.IE” at checkout.
Chess Coaches
John Alfred: Experienced chess player and coach based in Limerick, but travels to schools nationwide to provide chess workshops.
- Call: 087 6794211
- Email: chessadare@yahoo.co.uk
- Website: chessz.net
April Cronin: Retired principal and experienced chess player and coach based in Dublin.
- Email: aprilmarycronin@gmail.com
- Website: MovesForLife.ie
April Cronin has recently published a chess coaching book for teachers and junior chess club coaches called “First Moves 1”. The book contains 40 chess lessons for beginners. To order simply email April at the email address above.
Brendan Buckley: chess coach in many Galway primary schools and operates a fantastic chess teaching website called ChessOssity. Brendan has many chess coaching videos on YouTube which are linked in the Chess Lessons page of this website.
Email: brendan@chessossity.com
Website: ChessOssity.com
YouTube Channel: ChessOssity
Mark Quinn: Based in Kilkenny, Mark is an International Master of Chess (IM) and represented Ireland in chess from 14 years to senior level. Mark is also an experienced chess coach to children and adults alike from beginner to advanced level. Mark is currently focused on adult courses and has a variety of courses available from beginner to intermediate to advanced adults.
Email: mark@chessbud.ie
Website: Chessbud.ie
YouTube Channel: Chess Bud Ireland
Ficheall (Chess as Gaeilge)
Foclóir Fichille le Úna O Boyle
Conas Ficheall a Imirt le Mícheál MacConncradha
Useful Websites
Moves for Life – Supporting teachers and schools to promote chess in Ireland.
Chessosity.com – Excellent tool for teaching chess and running chess leagues in schools. ChessOssity is ideal for teachers relatively new to chess and groups with mixed levels. It allows the competitive players to develop their thinking skills at home (but not as homework). Once their desire to improve is facilitated we can then keep the focus of chess time at school on social aspects of chess, participation and fun.
Lichess.org – a free chess website that contains many interactive lessons, some of which would be very useful as demonstrations on the interactive whiteboard.
Kid Chess – The website of the Atlanta Chess Club contains many checkmate puzzles that can be printed out and given to children.
State of Play Guide to Playing chess – A brief guide to the game of chess, with a useful list of links.
John Bartholomew’s YouTube channel – there are many chess videos available online, but John’s Chess Fundamentals series should be the first videos you watch having learned to play chess. The videos are all quite long, but do not have to be watched in one go.
Organising in-School Chess Tournaments
Once you have taught the children how to play, in-school tournaments are a great way to maintain interest and an excellent rainy day activity for lunch time.
Ficheall.ie tournaments are run using the Swiss system. It is a system commonly used in chess tournaments. Every player will play every round, and the player with the highest number of points at the end of the tournament is the winner. These can be easily organised using Swiss Online Tournament. This website is easy to use, with a useful demonstration video. It can also be used to organise Round Robin and single elimination tournaments. It is free to use.
This All Play All Event Handler does all the hard work of running a chess league for you. Just enter player names and take it from there. If you want to keep it simple, a similar even can be run off using this fixture sheet.
A Chess Ladder is a great way to keep track of children’s performance, and they do all the work themselves!
Chess Posters
Download and print posters for your school chess club: