Chess Belts

The Chess Belts program is a novel approach for teaching chess to young beginners. This program takes into account children’s educational psychology, the importance of entertainment in the learning process, as well as the methodology of professional chess training.

One of the main strengths of the Chess Belts program and training is its fully developed testing system which includes twelve pre-defined levels (which can be roughly translated to USCF ratings).

The Chess Belts program facilitates the teaching of the rules of chess, enhances the understanding of the game, increases children’s interest in the game, improves their attitude toward the learning process, and presents a challenge in the form of a competition.

This program is very dynamic and keeps children interested in the game as well as in the development of chess skills.

The main strength of the Chess Belts Program is its system of testing that consists of a set of exercises aimed at providing a better understanding of students’ chess level and at adjusting the curriculum accordingly.

For many children attending our classes, Chess Belts has become the most attractive feature of the program. We believe three main factors contribute to the success of the program:

1. Utilization of Educational Psychology
a. Chess Belts builds a positive attitude by providing awards. The teaching of chess theory includes step-by-step learning with permanent reference to the previously learned material, which helps to build up a solid theoretical base. The ongoing assessment process helps to track and correct players' mistakes.

2. Entertainment elements of the program

3. Use of a comprehensive curriculum, which includes
a) Rules of chess
b) Basic opening principles
c) Basic endgame principles
d) Standard tactical problems
e) Strategic skills

Advantages of the Chess Belts Program over other chess teaching programs

Even though there are numerous chess instructors and companies that provide chess classes, not a single existing program features effective teaching and testing of the beginners, and especially young beginners. This lack of an adequate system of testing makes it difficult for an instructor to identify strengths and weaknesses of each player and design exercises that could improve the chess level of a particular player. The system of Chess Belts successfully solves this problem.