Chess Club Term 2 2025 Bookings - Open 5 April

Term 2 2025 - Starts Saturday 3 May 2025  and runs for 7 Saturdays excluding Saturday 31 May 2025.

GATCA members are invited to take up the offer of a free trial lesson in the Beginner, Development, Advanced or Master Class. Please contact Colleen: perth.chessacademy@gmail.com to register. Once registered, bring your child to the desk to be admitted. There are no door registrations.

The instructor for all four classes is experienced chess coach Jay Lakner, and the classes are available to anyone between the ages of 5 and 17.

The academy consists of 4 classes of different levels.

Enrolments for chess classes

Chess is available to anyone between the ages of 5 and 17 years.

9 a.m. – 10.30 a.m.             Beginners Class

Appropriate for students new to chess. Here students learn the rules of chess and some basic concepts and strategies.

Registration

11 a.m. – 12.30 p.m.            Development Class

Appropriate for students who know all the rules and have a bit of experience but are unaware of basic chess tactics, strategies and endgames.

Registration  

 1 p.m. – 2.30 p.m.         Advanced Class

Appropriate for students with lots of experience and have a good grasp of basic tactics. Here they will learn advanced strategies and tactics and learn the basics of how to calculate variations.

Registration

 3 p.m. – 6 p.m.                         Master Class

This class features some of the top junior chess players in W.A. The class focuses on developing student's abilities in long time limit chess. Students develop high level chess skills, such as deep calculation, multi-level planning, technique in complex endgames, and so on.  

Registration

Cost:                     $130 for GATCA members and $160 non-members

Venue:                  Perth Modern School Lecture Theatre (Parsons Building)

Contact:                 perth.chessacademy@gmail.com

Perth Mod 2017 Map Car Park No. 4 off Subiaco Road or main car park off Roberts Road. 

The instructor tries to ensure that students are placed in the class that will most benefit the child. Therefore, if part-way through the term, the instructor believes a student needs to move to a more appropriate level, he will collaborate with the student and parent to suggest the move. The child can then switch to that level by letting the person at the desk know of the change or emailing Colleen perth.chessacademy@gmail.com

One-on-one chess sessions for students who wish to gain additional instruction.

Every coach is an experienced tournament player; most have represented WA in national events, and most are former or current WA title holders in various age categories. Term 4 2024: Starts Saturday 12 October 2024 and runs for 7 Saturdays excluding 9 November 2024.

Here is our list of coaches:
 Minh Nguyen: Available from 9:30am onwards.
 Daryoush: Available from 9:30am onwards.
 James: Available from 9:30am onwards.
 Clare:Available from 9:30am - 2:30 pm.
 

The coaching sessions take place near the Lecture Theatre on Saturdays between 9:30 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. Sessions are 30min long, but you may be able to book several sessions back-to-back for a longer coaching session. The cost for a 30min session will be $20.

Please contact Colleen to book a session.

perth.chessacademy@gmail.com

Why Chess

GATCA’s chess club is an opportunity for like-minded children to meet. Dr Peter Dauvergne, in his article The Case for Chess as a Tool to Develop Our Children’s Minds (July 2000), used educational and psychological studies to examine the benefits for children of studying and playing chess.  These show that chess can:

• Strengthen problem solving skills, teaching how to make difficult and abstract decisions independently.
• Enhance reading, memory, language, and mathematical abilities.
• Foster critical, creative, and original thinking.
• Provide practice at making accurate and fast decisions under time pressure, a skill that can help improve exam scores at school.
• Teach how to think logically and efficiently, learning to select the ‘best’ choice from a large number of options.
• Challenge gifted children while potentially helping underachieving gifted students learn how to study and strive for excellence.
• Demonstrate the importance of flexible planning, concentration, and the consequences of decisions.
• Reach boys and girls regardless of their natural abilities or socio-economic backgrounds.

Given these educational benefits, the author concludes that chess is one of the most effective teaching tools to prepare children for a world increasingly swamped by information and ever tougher decisions.

Parent Feedback

I wanted to let you know Jonathan Beringer will be continuing with chess club – it is the highlight of his week, literally.  He learns so much from the club, the chess is challenging him and I think we have found a life long outlet for him, all due to the opportunity of coming to the chess club – thank you so very much for organising it, and please pass on our thanks to Jay too – although I have not met him, I know my husband has been impressed by the way he teaches a concept each week, the respect he shows even the young children and the excellence of both his group teaching and individual instruction.