I need help founding Chess Club

Hello there...
- I currently stand as the freshmen founding president for the new Chess Club at my high school. There has yet to be a Chess Club for over 8 years now, and it seemed as though that wasn't about to change. Ever since a few months ago, I’ve been hosting the club with the librarian after school, 2:50 to 4:15. While I could definitely get better, I’m a decent player in person. I’ve played casual games with anywhere between 6 to 15 members (Some are just busy on Wednesdays); reviewing the games personally, and later with the local computers in vain attempts to help. I’m not sure how to develop the club further beyond some short leisure on Wednesday. If anybody could help me in what to improve at the meetings, or how to explain concepts of “Thinking Ahead” to novices, please do tell.

- Thank you!

Hey! I'm no grandmaster, but I have lots of experience with chess clubs as a member of one. I would say that fostering a love for the game of chess is the number one priority, but how you do that is up to you. For more novice members, teaching basic tactics like forks, pins, as well as castling tactics and en-passant as well as common uses for these four tactics are a great way to improve. For intermediate players, teaching an opening and then playing games with them where they have to play the opening can be good ways to develop them. For more advanced players, doing online Lichess or Chess.com tactics (if you have computers available) are super great ways to help advanced players get better, and you could even set up competitions between them to see who can solve puzzles faster. For all levels, blitz games with a timer are often more fun and good ways to keep players focused who often lose focus with long games. As for your question about "thinking ahead," I would just try to use leighman's terms. For example, one way to explain thinking ahead would be "If I do this, what could my opponent do next?" That skill is by far the hardest to master, so I understand if you can't seem to get your members to accurately think ahead. As GM Eric Hansen said, "Chess is just pattern recognition," but being able to recognize patterns in advance is very difficult. Anyways, good luck with running the club. Things will certainly get easier as the years running it progress.

@RulerofNight well clearly you didn't get taught well. "If I do this, what could my opponent do next?" "Oh, no problem, I'll just check the computer." :D

So you're saying in a real time game you're allowed to just pull out your phone and check the engine?

Download the homeroom chess curriculum for free at homeroomchess.org.

I put this resource together over a span of about 10 years to help new chess club instructors build a foundation of newb lessons. It may have some exercises in there that will help you... Though you definitely already know it all as a player.

Hope it helps :)

@RulerofNight seems like cheaters only like playing other cheaters

maybe hold some casual blitz tournaments

@RulerofNight in case you haven't noticed, you are marked as a cheater. I was making a witty remark about a cheater recommending what to do at an HONEST chess club :D.

@SungJiHyun-Korea They got banned for cheating 4 hours ago (see their recent games), and you made that remark about them cheating 7 hours ago? How does that work?

@JMath no he was definitely banned before that, I went to sleep 7 hours ago and he was banned then too.