Tuesday After-School Kids Club – Experienced Beginners – (Unrated to 1000 Elo)

THE NOV/DEC TERM IS NOW ENROLLING: Missed a class or two?  No worries, there is continuous enrolment! Sign up anytime and only pay for the remaining classes!

Tuesday Afternoons: (5 – 6.15 PM) – Online on Zoom 

TERM DATES: 
4th / 11th/ 18th/ 25th November 2025 & 2nd/ 9th/ 16th December

COURSE THEME: First Steps to Chess Mastery: Essential Openings, Winning Tactics and Strategic Thinking.  

COURSE DETAIL: 
Students will be introduced to the most important King’s Pawn Openings for white and black and learn essential middlegame ideas, plans and tactical themes so they can build an opening repertoire that will provide a solid foundation for their play.  

Classes are fun and relaxed but also challenging with lots of magic tactics as well as introductions to strategic thinking and creative visualization.

From day 1 students are given access to three lichess studies, two Endgame Studies (Explaining Pawn & Rook Endings) and an Opening Study: Chess Bud’s ‘Essential King’s Pawn Starting Out Repertoire.’

In between classes, students can learn the essential opening strategies they need  to play the opening with confidence.  They can do this by reading Mark’s in-depth explanations while playing through annotated games in the Study. 

In class, we look at puzzles, analyse student’s games and there is also a weekly friendly tournament in Lichess. Mark provides mentoring while watching the games and/or playing students, then analyses key positions from the student games providing immediate feedback so kids can learn as they play.

COURSE FEE:
70 Euro (10 Euro per student per class)  This course will run with a minimum of 6 students.  If cancelled, a full refund will be issued.

If joining a few classes into the term, just email mark@chessbud.ie to find out the correct amount based on the remaining classes in the term.

Suitability for the Experienced Beginners Course

This class is suitable for primary and secondary school students who are relatively new to the game and who know the basics (i.e. how to move pieces/ castle and when it is checkmate on the board etc.) but as yet they do not have any in-depth knowledge of opening strategies, middlegame plans or fundamental endgames. 

Students at the experienced beginner level generally have an online rating on lichess or chess.com between 500 and 1000 Elo. 

This course is therefore not suitable for Complete Beginners.