Chess Demonstration Boards
To instruct a number of students at once chess demonstration boards are a must. These demo boards hang on a wall or aisle and are huge, with easily moved pieces that can be seen across the room. Many have tabs to put the pieces in place which can be supplemented with laminated tabs that can give further instruction such indicators of check and checkmate, other optional chess moves during discussion, or opportunities to look at what might have happened if a different move had been made.
Chess Scorebooks
If you would like to record your moves, a chess scorebook is very helpful. We use algabraic notation in chess and it's a great skill to have - you can review past games as well as be able to read chess notation on a slide or simple sheet during instruction. When teaching it allows an instructor to go over past games played and analyze mistakes as well as fantastic moves. Moreso than most games, you often learn much more when you do not win your chess match! A scorebook will have lines to put the notation of each move on often a single piece of paper in an organized fashion. They also offer a chess board 'map' to show the final position (or pivotal game position of your choice!).
Chess Clocks - Should you bother?
There are lots of reasons people use clocks. For one, it maintains a level of control of time for a game that matters in a club setting - if you only have an hour to play, giving each player 30 minutes means you do not need to worry about games going over. It also teaches pacing and patience, Another thing used in chess tournaments and clubs would be the chess clock. Often when starting a club it's an important question - do we need chess clocks? If so, which one should we choose? If you're just playing casually with friends or at home you may not need any of the features a chess timer provides. You may also be happy with the most basic clock - in this case, the question is whether or not you ever expect to do more. It might be worth an additional investment per clock for a school if you're playing casually for now but might expand to tournaments later on. If not, the clocks you have may no longer suit your needs when it's time for a chess match!
Chess Clocks - Features to consider.
There are many chess clocks on the market ranging from inexpensive clocks for about 25.00 up to fancier models over one hundred. You certainly do not need an expensive chess clock, but it is important to know some important feautres they have.
Most important is if the clock simply tracks time on two displays or has 'delay' or 'bonus' options. Delay time is where a secondary timer will give a delay before your clock moves - If you set this to 5 seconds, you basically have 5 free seconds to make a move before your clock starts ticking down. Bonus time is similar, but you can acutally bank the leftover time - that means if you have your 5 seconds and make a move within 2 seconds, 3 seconds are added to your total time. This feature is often seen in faster blitz games that might only have a few minutes total play time - this way if you play quickly you can add time to your clock so that you'll have precious additional time for that one chess move that really matters.
Another major feature is whether or not the clock has primary, secondary, or tertiary time controls - in tournaments there is often a second time setting that comes in to play; for example, you might have 2 hours to make 40 moves, and after those 40 moves you get an additional hour for more moves. Not all clocks can do this automatically, so if you're going to be playing in professional tournaments you might want to make sure the clock you get has this functionality.
