• Chess for ¿All?
  • Ditching Classes
    • Reinforcing Use of Chess Platforms for Beginners
    • Beginners Teach Beginners
  • Identifying and Separating Levels
  • Make It Personal
    • The Rooky Annotator
    • Virtual Arenas for Community Building

§Chess for ¿All?

“Hosting an open chess club” or even “providing free chess classes” tend to have a very inclusive tone and make for great social projects on paper. But do these ideas actually serve everyone they claim to?

In the never-ending path of learning better to do better, Soma has landed in a local government-led project where the main goal is to develop skills in individuals that will allow them to integrate as capable and productive citizens of society.

As part of this program, we’re hosting a weekly chess space, promoted as a workshop to develop strategy and critical thinking skills.

Since the workshop is open to the public, it’s meant to bring in people who have never played before but are interested in the development possibilities the sport offers. However, the workshop is also meant to serve as a physical space for chess players of any level to grow and play — since the community currently doesn’t have such places in a public setting.

So it begs the question: how do you create a multi-level chess environment that does not intimidate newcomers while still challenging experienced players? Ensuring no one is left behind, nor held back.

§Ditching Classes

It was clear from the first week that we wouldn’t be able to follow a structured curriculum, as is commonly done in private chess settings. This model doesn’t work for a high-volume, multi-level group. And when attendance isn’t mandatory, a structured class format quickly becomes a disadvantage for irregular participants.

So we started a self-regulating process.

§Reinforcing Use of Chess Platforms for Beginners

Learning piece movements through the interactive lessons on Lichess:

• Promotes self-learning
• Determines each participant’s level of interest
• Gets them comfortable with digital resources
• Saves the teacher/trainer’s time
• Leaves chess boards exclusively for playing

§Beginners Teach Beginners

Low-level players give a basic introduction to beginners (piece movement and checkmate) and follow up by playing a game. The game is meant to be guided and corrected by the low-level player, with the goal of checkmating the beginner as quickly as possible.

• Gives beginner players a feel for what a full chess game looks like, even if it ends quickly (like Scholar’s Mate).
• Sets the precedent of a lost game serving as a learning experience.
• Serves as an accurate indicator of the low-level player’s knowledge: can they clearly explain movements and spot mistakes? Can they create structured positions in a game they’re leading? Can they produce checkmate patterns when given the advantage?

§Identifying and Separating Levels

1. Beginner — Has not played before and/or is learning basic piece movements and the concept of checkmate.
2. Low level — Can correctly move pieces and understands special moves and rules (castling, pawn promotion, en passant, illegal moves, and etiquette), but struggles with spotting checkmate patterns. Commonly finishes games in stalemates.
3. Intermediate — Has a basic understanding of overall gameplay and has most likely studied the basics of openings and tactics. Struggles with deeper chess theory such as endgames, calculation, and chess annotation.
4. Chess player — Developed players by experience or active study of the game. Has a clear understanding of structures, speaks in chess terms, and can easily spot tactics and mate patterns. These participants seek challenging environments to fine-tune their already developed skills. They are generally looking for stronger opponents, personalized game analysis, and training plans based on strengths and weaknesses identified in their games.

This separation during free play helps players:

• Self-identify their level and get a clear visual sense of where stronger players stand.
• Protects beginners and low-level players from the discouragement of constantly losing to stronger opponents.
• Keeps experienced players motivated by pairing them with challenging opponents, while also giving their ego a healthy boost through recognition of their higher level.

§Make It Personal

§The Rooky Annotator

Using a digital chess annotator creates a sense of ownership over games. A finished game is like a finished painting — you can choose to admire it, nitpick the mistakes, save it to your personal repertoire, or share it with the world. Whatever they choose to do with it, the concept of ownership is what matters.

§Virtual Arenas for Community Building

Creating multiple weekly arenas gives participants a digital space to keep playing. While chess platforms always offer the option of finding random opponents online, playing against someone they know and see regularly is a great motivator for team building and friendly competition — and a good push toward daily matches, rather than keeping chess strictly a meetup activity. Arenas are created with different themes to keep them fun and dynamic:

• Bullet
• Blitz
• Classical
• Opening-themed

This way there’s something for everyone, and it also helps reinforce theory — like openings — on participants who are motivated to play but less interested in studying.

Although this approach has proven optimal so far, given the limitations of the environment and the social/cultural context, this is still merely a proof of concept for integrating chess into Salvadoran culture.

However, this experience also reminds us that chess is not, in fact, “for all.” These spaces are also meant to serve as a natural filter — distinguishing those who are willing to put in the work to become chess players, whether as a hobby or in a more serious setting, from those who aren’t. And that’s okay, because chess is demanding. High-rewarding, but demanding nonetheless. It should not be forced on everybody — it is meant for self-development, like philosophy. And as with philosophy, anyone can read it, but not everyone is willing to do the inward work.

We’re looking to continue documenting this path and learning from the experience.