Chicago Chess Foundation

The Chicago Chess Foundation was formed in 2014 with a mission to provide chess instruction, training and competitive opportunities to all Chicago students at low or no cost. The CCF Board of Directors includes successful chess coaches, program directors, parents, administrators and members of the financial community. CCF is currently negotiating a... partnership agreement with the Chicago Public Schools Office of Academic Competition aimed at supporting the districts academic and competitive chess initiatives. Chess has a unique ability to rivet childrens attention and simultaneously teach important life skills. Forty years of research has shown that chess improves test scores, academic performance, concentration, decision-making, creativity, problem solving, and social skills. CCF recently published a summary of the research that demonstrates the positive impact of chess on students critical thinking and academic success as measured by a wide range of metrics.. Click here to view the CCF Chess Research Summary . Chicagos existing chess program lags far behind other major cities. Approximately 1,500 Chicago students currently participate in chess programs compared to 23,000 in New York and 4,000 in many smaller cities. The best estimate is that roughly 10% of Chicagos Title 1 schools have instructional chess programs, versus 59% to 100% in cities such as Philadelphia, Miami and Portland. Chicago schools are virtually absent from state and national competitions. The New York Times recently observed, more students are enrolled in scholastic chess programs and are sent to tournaments across the country from schools in New York, which sends more teams to competitions than any other city; Miami; Seattle; Portland, Ore.; and even Brownsville, Texas. It is unusual for a city as large as Chicago, with 2.7 million people, to have only one school enter a tournament as prestigious as the K-12 (National) Championships. By comparison, Los Alamos, N.M., population 18,000, also sent one school. The formation of the Chicago ...Read More