Workshops

Chess Bud offer workshops for schools, clubs and companies nationwide.

Opening Gambit
Are you a teacher who has always wanted to introduce chess into your school? Or a TY Coordinator looking to offer your students an activity-based chess workshop?

Perhaps, you already have a chess club up-and-running in your company and would like to run a chess event for your clubmates? 

At Chess Bud Ireland we can tailor a workshop to suit the needs and interests and chess level of your students/clubmates. Myself and Jonathan are available to give school workshops individually or together. 

Ceardlann Trí Ghaeilge
Tugann Mark ceardlanna fichille trí Ghaeilge freisin.  

Let’s get started!
Fill out a booking form and book a date for your school workshop.  If your students are all complete beginners or relative novices, we recommend a full-day workshop that does not include intermediate or advanced players.
Chess Bud will come back with a proposal which will detail how the workshop might work on the day and how it would cater to players of diverse levels.

How do our Workshops work?

1. Chess Bud Workbook:  Two weeks before the workshop takes place you will receive a workbook in pdf format with tactical chess problems, middle-game plan-formation challenges and essential endgames to analyse and solve.  The workbook will contains separate sections for students of all levels in your club (i.e. complete beginner/ experienced beginners/ intermediate/ advanced).   Club members can tackle these puzzles individually or in groups at lunch-time in the lead up to the workshop.  The idea is to encourage students to analyse together, so they can learn from each other and share ideas.  Many hands make light work
2. Group Analysis, Feedback and Insights: During the workshop, students will be encouraged to present their solutions and ideas.  Analysis will take place on a large demonstration board or classroom white board during the course of the workshop.  Students will be encouraged to present their solutions and also to explain the thinking underpinning their choices.  Particular emphasis of these group analysis sessions will be on the specific thought processes that strong chess players use to assess a position, the criteria they use to draw up a series of potential moves, then how they ultimately decide on one specific plan.  All participants in the workshop, regardless of their current standard will benefit from this insight.  This exercise is designed to improve strategic and lateral thinking.
3. Play, Analyse, Experiment:
   Practical playing elements will be a key aspect of the workshop, with students getting to try out new openings and dangerous attacking ideas and/or take part in a simultaneous display etc.  For these playing sessions, students will be grouped according to strength (i.e. experienced beginner/ intermediate or advanced) to that they can have the most fun and get to play to win!
4. Deliberate Practice: Expert Feedback.  In the final phase of the workshop, we will analyse some of the games played in the practical playing sessions and offer advice on how individual participants and the entire group can continue to develop their game.
5. Review Workbook Solutions on Lichess:  Immediately following the workshop, we will set up a Lichess study containing the solutions to the workbook.  This study will also include 10 deeply annotated master games selected to help students to expand their opening knowledge.   Any student or teacher participating in the workshop can play through solutions or games if they have a Lichess account.  Only your students/teachers school will have access to this study and it will be available for two months.  Teachers should compile a list of the names of the Lichess accounts of any students participating in the workshop.  Chess Bud Ireland will then invite them to become members of the Lichess study.

Workshop Fees: 
Full-day (4 hours): €450 + expenses – max 40 kids
Half-day (2.5 hours): €290 + expenses max 40 kids
Chess Bud Ireland will provide all the chess boards & sets/chess scoresheets for the day

Expenses:
Petrol: €0.50 per kilometer (for schools situated 20km beyond Kilkenny)
Lunch/ Dinner: €15/ €30
Lodging/ BB: where overnight is required

Let’s play chess!

IM Mark Quinn
CCIM Jonathan O’Connor