ChessWorks provides middle school and high school students job training, chess instruction and, ultimately, employment as chess teachers working with younger kids.

The mission of the U.S. Chess Center is to teach chess to high-risk youth as a means of improving their academic and social skills. Since opening in July 1992, we have introduced chess into the curriculum at dozens of urban elementary schools and high schools in Washington, D.C., and in many other schools in the Washington suburbs and nationwide. We have taught about 30,000 children in our weekly classes.

ChessWorks takes our mission to the next logical step. Too many adolescents, especially in the inner city, lack access to activities that engage them intellectually and to opportunities to find and succeed at gainful employment. ChessWorks will address both needs by offering additional services and ultimately employment to disadvantaged students in the District of Columbia who complete our elementary school chess program.

ChessWorks is conceived as a three-level program to apply the benefits of chess not just to academic and social skills but to job skills as well. In elementary school, students will learn chess through our well-established methods. In middle school, they will receive academic support, learn job skills, and continue to participate in chess at their level. When they are in high school, students in the ChessWorks program will be hired to assist in our chess programs for younger students.

We will invite children from District of Columbia Public Schools (including Charter Schools) who qualify for Title I benefits and who have been in our classes while in elementary school to join us on Sunday afternoons. To facilitate their participation, we will provide resources for transportation to and from our headquarters location and snacks during the afternoon.

Because the program lasts an entire afternoon, we have the opportunity to add additional services, including academic tutoring and job training, to the curriculum. ChessWorks participants will receive chess lessons alongside students from all backgrounds in our regular Teen Chess program, supplemented by assistance and encouragement for their academic work and mini-seminars on the skills that employers require. As these students reach the age when they may hold employment, we will hire them as assistant teachers, working with younger children to teach them chess skills.