Chess at Three Chess Clubs: Focus on the Fun!
At Chess at Three, we teach through stories, our students learn through play, and the focus is always on FUN!
Why? For one, kids are far more likely to retain and practice new skills when they genuinely enjoy the activity in question. More crucially, playing together puts kids’ social-emotional development into overdrive, and studies show that strong social skills can have a profoundly positive impact on long-term academic success. As such, rebuilding our kids’ post-Covid social lives is more important than ever.
We deeply appreciate the pains parents take to find safe, welcoming, kid-focused community spaces. That’s why our cozy, colorful chess clubs in Park Slope, Brooklyn, and the Upper East Side aim to provide the youngest New Yorkers with fun, inspiring group lessons, camps, role-playing classes, tournaments, birthday parties, and more.
Keep reading to learn about all the ways we’re bringing kids together at our Upper Eat Side and Park Slope Chess Clubs, through enriching activities that are educational and—most importantly—fun!
Open Play Saturdays in Park Slope
In honor of our brand-new Park Slope location, we’re currently offering a 20% OFF Grand Opening Special on group classes. If you’re curious about our story-based approach but want to get the best sense of who we are before signing up for anything, drop by our new digs on Brooklyn’s Fifth Avenue for an Open Play Saturday.
Every Saturday from noon to three, our tutors are out on the sidewalk telling short stories, playing mini-games on the giant chessboard, and answering all your questions about Chess at Three’s club offerings. Want a taste of the Chess at Three experience? Hop the R train to Union Street next Saturday and come say hi!
Weekly Group Classes
Both our Manhattan and Brooklyn chess clubs offer regular weekly group lessons where kids from all walks of life come together for fun, engaging stories and tutor-led chess lessons. Group lessons give kids the chance to bond over the antics of our silly, lovable characters, all under the watchful eye of an expert storyteller.
But kids won’t just learn how to capture and castle. Respect, fair play, and sportsmanship sit at the heart of our award-winning chess curriculum; in many ways, they’re the most important skills we teach.
Chess is an excellent vehicle for whole-child development and our tutors emphasize a range of strategies that promote emotional intelligence, empathy, self-regulation, and executive function, skills that are just as impactful on the chessboard as they are in the relationships students build with their clubmates.
Chess Club Camps
Some of my best memories as a Chess at Three tutor are of the summer Chess Club Camps I taught with our co-founder Tyler Schwartz. For three hours every weekday morning, we’d tell stories, play full games on a life-sized chessboard, analyze great games from chess history, and apply newly-learned chess concepts to creative activities like physical “Chessercises,” Rubik’s cube puzzles, and arts and crafts.
Chess Camp kids won’t just go home with chess skills and fun stories, though; all campers also get free chess goodies, a Birchguard Quest Fate Stone, and complimentary admission to one Quads Tournament in the year they attend camp.
If you’re looking to bridge the gap between now and the start of school, you’re in luck: Our Upper East Side and Park Slope Chess Clubs are running a few more weeks of chess camps through September 2nd. Click the links above to explore the schedule and sign your child up for this incredibly fun, can’t-miss-it chess camp experience!
Quad Tournaments
There’s nothing more impressive than watching three-year-olds play chess, except, perhaps, watching three-year-olds bring all their focus to bear in a chess tournament designed just for them!
Introducing: the Quad Tournament, a low-stakes, high-fun, competitive chess format for kids who’ve had a few Chess at Three lessons and learned how all the pieces move on the board. Quad Tournaments are held in the inviting environs of our Upper East Side and Park Slope Chess Clubs, as well as online.
Quad Tournaments are excellent at helping kids navigate winning and losing in a more official setting; our tutors keep a close eye on the proceedings to ensure everyone plays fair and feels supported. And, of course, no child walks away from a Quad Tournament empty-handed. In addition to healthy snacks, special guest speakers, and medals for the winners, all participants leave with a golden chess piece to commemorate the experience!
Birthday Parties and Special Events
Our Upper East Side and Park Slope Chess Clubs aren’t just great places for lessons and tournaments. We also host super fun birthday parties and private events of all kinds!
Each birthday party includes one hour of supervised play, a special bonus birthday story, cake and food time, a photo station with Chess at Three characters and props, party favors for all, and brand-new chess set for the birthday kid.
We offer our party package in-home as well; for more information, reach out to our Club Managers:
- Park Slope: Jen DiDonato, jen.didonato@chessat3.com
- Upper East Side: Haleigh Adams, haleigh.adams@chessat3.com
Birchguard Quest
Our newest club offering, Birchguard Quest, takes fun-focused, educational gameplay beyond the chessboard with a captivating, interactive role-playing series for ages five and up!
Inspired by legacy role-playing games like Dungeons & Dragons, Birchguard Quest is all about letting kids’ imaginations run wild within a structured narrative framework. To kick off the fantasy-filled adventure through the whimsical Kingdom of Bircholde, our tutors help students create their own unique characters with an original name, appearance, and one of five special abilities such as intellect and agility.
Over the following weeks, kids work as a team to achieve shared goals; they have so much fun along the way, they don’t even realize they’re boosting their vocabulary, flexing their creativity, and practicing quantitative skills like arithmetic and probability.
Curious about Birchguard Quest? Check out our recent blog about the benefits of role-playing games or head to the Birchguard Quest website for more details.
After-School Pickup
We know you’re beyond busy, so to make your chess club experience as seamless as possible, we arrange after-school pickups from select schools near our Upper East Side and Park Slope clubs.
If you’d like our tutors to walk your kids from school to chess club, check with our concierge team at sign-up to see if your child’s school is eligible, then fill out an extra permission form.
Safe Spaces for All
Our chess clubs are specially designed for fun, focus, fairness, and safety. Both our Upper East Side and Park Slope Chess Clubs have a separate reception area with cubbies for backpacks and shoes that’s overseen by a dedicated staff member who ensures that only registered students enter the club.
Both clubs are mask-optional for students, and parents are required to show proof of vaccination before entering the pickup and dropoff area. We also thoroughly clean and disinfect our spaces after every session, so your kids come home with rock-solid chess skills and happy memories rather than aches and sniffles!
Come Play With Us!
We have so much to share with you and your kids at our Upper East Side and Park Slope Chess Clubs this year. Let’s focus on the fun, forge new friendships across the chessboard, and learn through play—together!
