Chess Club

Welcome to the Wedgwood chess club

The chess club is parent run and its success relies heavily on volunteerism. We meet Tuesdays during the school year to engage in puzzle solving, hear instruction from top-rated local chess masters, play competitive chess, learn good sportsmanship, and have fun while learning the centuries-old game of kings.

Our instructors and chess sets are provided by the Chess Mates Foundation, which is where we send the bulk of our club dues. Our remaining funds are used to supply workbooks full of chess puzzles, and also to support our chess team in their bid for a trophy at the Washington state elementary championships held each April. The chess puzzles help kids to learn the basic rules and to transition from haphazard, to calculating, to pattern-recognition based chess play.

Chess is experiencing a resurgence in the U.S., especially among elementary age children. Seattle is a major hub for this activity and has hundreds of kids active in weekly tournaments. Our chess club has enjoyed much success in these tournaments and continues to produce some of the top-rated kids in the state. (Of course, we can only facilitate this development, as high parental involvement makes all the difference.) Although it's a challenge, we manage to support both high-level competition and pure recreational play within the same club.

For more information:

Read a NY Times article about scholastic chess in Seattle or

Visit our day-to-day website.