The Knight School Summer Chess Camp

The Knight School is the exciting national chess program that has perfected kid-oriented, super-fun chess classes! Our summer programs are the perfect way for kids of all levels (from brand new beginners through highly advanced players) to have a highly developmental experience that will be the highlight of their summer!

The Knight School invites summer campers to come join the fun. Kids love learning that they are unspeakably smart and can absolutely demolish their parents in chess! 

Chess Camp is a super-fun, high-energy experience. Kids celebrate a new chess tactic each day with:

• silly videos,
• music-driven puzzlers for prizes,
• colorful silicone Tactixbands,
• funny movies, and
• chess clock tourneys!

Laughter, fast-clocks, and compelling teaching approaches make this camp the summer’s highlight for the current hundreds of kids who make up the awesome network of The Knight School’s nationwide chess teams.

Sportsmanship, Fun, & Intellect

TKS camps are a great way to sprinkle a little intellectual stimulation into every summer! We put fun and sportsmanship first – chess third. Each week-long session offers tons of fun chess tournaments for kids (just like our after school chess program that runs during the school year). At The Knight School chess summer camps, kids spiral daily through a dizzying array of chess activities. These include rotating tourneys, zany chess movies, “Rechess,” fun chess lessons, many other types of fun, plus everybody’s favorite, “ChessMaster Says.”

We even have preschool chess class and preschool summer camps!

For over 15 years, The Knight School Chess Camps bring laughter, joy and chess friendships to kids. Our “Rechess” includes a fun chase game called “infection” and snack provided by The Knight School. Also, we use our classic party bead system to keep up with who is still undefeated in each chess tournament, and with who has lost and thus has entered the “rainbow bead tourney.” Similarly, we play “Chess Ninja,” a fun game where kids are invited to enact a screaming, overly-dramatic death once they are winked at by their fellow campers. Dramatic deaths that splatter a chessboard across the room are hardly part of our grandfathers’ chess classes!

To be clear, we have reimagined every different aspect of chess so that the old Russian system—mandatory chess notation, mandatory silence, mandatory long clock times and mandatory one-hour gaps between games—are completely replaced with laughter, fast games played rapid-fire, and silly teaching.

The Details

Chess Camps usually last five days, Mondays through Fridays, and are typically either full-day (9am-4pm) or half-day (from 9-12 in the morning or 1-4 in the afternoon). Additionaly, the week-long immersion into chess stimulates the growth of our campers. Some campers even increase their chess prowess many times over. And, many times a child experiences their “chess epiphany” at camp. This is the lightning-strike moment when a student has a sudden, blinding realization that literally any problem can be solved, anything can be engineered to come out the way you want, and all scenarios are winning scenarios.

The Knight School invites you to join us at Chess Camp!