Local K-12 Chess Education Partners

 This is a new source of support for 2016.  These men and women who have sacrificed so much already are poised to provide an anchor as Playing ACES CHESS mentors.  over the next year Playing ACES CHESS will be reaching out to local veteran groups for additional support.

For over 50 years the US Military has hosted the Armed Forces Chess Championship.  A well known champion and 5x champion of this event was US Air Force Sargent Emory Tate.  Sgt Tate’s style earned him great respect in the chess community.  To view some of his games go to Chessgames.com.   The Armed Forces Open (AFO) now has separate a Military Veterans Open (MVO)  specifically for former and retired honorably discharged military veterans from all branches of services including the the Merchant Marines and the USPHS.  Click here to learn more about the new annual MVO event that starts in October 2016.  

Madison House has been supporting our K-12 chess outreach efforts since 2012. Greg Dorsey, former UVA student, and now a teacher at the Chesapeake Bay Governor’s helped establish Madison House as a primary source of UVA student leadership in helping to provide mature mentors to help K-12 students, especially K-8 students develop their sense of chess.  Click here to learn more about Greg’s efforts in helping Playing ACES CHESS connect with various UVA student groups to grow K-12 chess. Student volunteers from Madison House form a sustainable core of mentors for established programs at Boys & Girls Club (Cherry Avenue), Computers for Kids, City of Promise (Westhaven Community Center), and emerging programs at the Main Street First Baptist Church and other locations.

The UVA Curry School managers the Day in the Life student service learning program. Playing ACES CHESS has been privileged to work with many fine students who have inspired young area players.

API Theta Chapter is a service fraternity who since 2009/2010 has focused their chess mentoring service efforts on a single school – Johnson Elementary School. Their stalwart support assures the kids at Johnson ES always have a chess program.

During the 2013/14 SY and again during the the 2015/16 SY members of the UVA Football Team and in 2015/16 members of the UVA Track and Field Team provided valuable chess program support. We hope UVA students athletes who also play chess continue to show how chess and sports are overlaid when it comes to winning strategy.  

The CCCC meets every Monday evening (6:30 – 10:30 pm) at the Saint Marks Lutheran Church in Charlottesville. It is mainly a group of adult chess players.  But, current K-12 players like Aaron Osborne and others come to play the sages in order to advance their chess potential. Many are rated 1600+ (Class B) with some rated 2000+ (Expert). They are always open to help teach the finer and deeper skills of the game.  In  

Members of the UVA Student Chess Club are serious about chess, but have fun too. The club began supporting the training of emerging talent focusing on advancing the skills of Middle and High School players in our area. They also supported the 1st Newcomb Hall Open in 2012 where nearly 100 K-12 students came to play, many of them in their 1st official chess tournament, and they also arranged a spring 2013 event at the UVA Student Activities Building where Dean Groves, Dean of Students at UVA,  also came to speak to the kids about the importance what they were learning from chess and to encourage them to continue this life long learning effort.

Members of the UVA Chess Team, a very competitive group of UVA chess playing students, have several Expert (2000+), Master (2200+) and near Grand Master (2400+) rated players that compete in various collegiate chess events.  They have focused their efforts on working with some of the most talented K-12 players in our area helping them advance their respective games.