WHO WE ARE (INCLUDING YOU)

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The New Orleans Chess House is many things--a chess academy, a tournament venue, a social club, and the headquarters for Savvy Chess Press. But like the ancient concept of emergence, it is more than the sum of its parts. These components serve the same underlying mission by bringing together the elements needed to support chess passion and talent. Whether chess is just an activity to socialize around or a professional aspiration, the community needs ready access to high-quality affordable or even free content to guide how they want to evolve in chess. Savvy Chess Press books (coming soon) are perfect as both training materials for individuals and coaches and as beautiful gifts. Classes are a great way to meet other players and improve quickly. Tournaments can be a fun way to get a challenge, prove your ranking, and a chance to win prizes. We are actively building a scene for adult chess enjoyers to meet at social events. These elements create the ecosystem of chess. 

 

PHILOSOPHY​

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Zoe (Co-Founder) and I (Dr. Coach Robert, CEO) have built our share of community over the years. Many of my students went on to do great things in chess, attaining international titles, and just as importantly many of them are building their own startups, learning disciplines including mathematics, physics, and engineering, and applying the lessons they learned in chess to real life, in the USA and internationally. Many of them keep in touch through the Chess Coach Robert YouTube/Twitch free chess learning experience. We plan to continue building community around chess while helping people reach their casual or professional chess goals. We want to include everyone in this journey and operate like a "chess team". This is the reasoning behind our highest class level being called Chess Team, and why our members can look forward to so much social content that complements the learning-focused aspects.

 

TEAM

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While coaching on the US east coast, I also trained coaches. Our coaches will come from many backgrounds and have many levels of chess skill (as everyone knows, sometimes the best player is not the best coach because of soft skills and educator knowledge), but some things are the same. We are all on a personal chess improvement journey, value community building, have experience in all levels of chess play from beginner to tournament player, and follow a new chess curriculum and method designed by a PhD and chess master that evolves with the student needs. Our method does not only focus on particular chess knowledge--it emphasizes generalizable skills that matter in the real world. The fact that chess has so many transferrable skills is part of what makes it a timeless classic among games. You can also expect the highest personal conduct standards with USA SafePlay training and tournament director certification from our coaches. We carefully track and analyze all student progress and are happy to meet to discuss strategy or start a dialogue around any concerns you may have as club members. 

 

HOW WE SUPPORT YOUR GOALS

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We value fun, but we also believe that the most fun possible in chess is unlocked at a high level of skill. Therefore we bring together in our method rigorous training methods, the most educational examples, a dynamic puzzle training system, and testing-based advancement. We want to avoid players getting stuck because they missed fundamentals along the way while supporting their organic pace of advancement. Our class tiers are thoughtfully organized to keep players of similar skill in a tight range while they work on the most essential skills for that level. All of our decisions are informed by experiences with over a thousand chess improvers. We believe that everyone can become a master with the right combination of determination and coaching that adapts to the student. At the highest level, we have an organic team approach that we think you will enjoy.

 

Chess Culture is A World Heritage

 

Chess is inherently free to play, global, and accessible. By playing chess, we are participating in a tradition that spans at least centuries (if not millennia) and everywhere that humans can be found. At Savvy Chess, we value and promote these characteristics of chess culture as a beacon of positivity, self-improvement, introspection, and global awareness. All people who love chess are welcome to become members, as long as they follow simple universal rules of good conduct. We do not tolerate unsafe behavior since, like chess itself, our academy and the Savvy Chess platform are each a safe place to engage with our thoughts, feelings, and beliefs. Savvy Chess is multigenerational, multicultural, nonpartisan, inclusive, and respectful. 

 

A Program Offering for All Chess Needs

 

You may see yourself in these descriptors: casual chess enjoyer; player of endless fast chess games on lichess or chesscom; can't get enough chess puzzles; aspiring tournament player; chess scholarship hunter; park hustler; online chess troll; educator fascinated with chess as a tool; chess prodigy turned chess coach; local chess legend; the chess player as many forms. We've heard what chess players look for and what's lacking in the current chess ecosystem, which led us to these core offerings:

-Group Classes with a Professional-Vetted Method and Scientific Analysis

-Private Classes

-Tournaments Casual and Rated, With and Without Prizes

-Chess Socials for Families and 21+

-Custom-Made Chess Literature

We do not compete with the existing chess offerings -- we enhance them. Lichess.org is our playing platform of choice as a free, open source, charity site to play chess. Effectively everything lichess does not offer we offer through SavvyChess.

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Group Classes For All

 

Our Group Class offering is tailored to bring players from zero chess knowledge to any level they are committed to attain. It's an open-ended system that takes you from learning piece movements and what checkmate is to being part of a team that trains together at the highest level with in-house training partners and coaches and guest lecturers through our network of partnerships. We offer eight levels of class ensuring that nobody is stuck in a group with peers too far beyond their skills to train together efficiently. Our class breakpoints are based on skills--not subjective ratings (although the two are strongly correlated). We have plans in place to support players who need time and spaced repetition and players who want to do extra work and move quickly in each group. In the first class, our coaches will evaluate students to determine their best initial fit, and create a plan for their progress. Classes are open-enrollment so that there's no need to delay anyone's chess journey for logistical reasons. Our curriculum is designed such that classes don't depend strongly on the order in which they are taken, to accommodate the reality of classes being rescheduled or missed. Each student's knowledge and performance is tracked and analyzed by the head coach (Dr. Coach Robert). All students are engaged individually throughout each class. Because of our student tracking method, we ensure that students get a custom set tailored to their current needs. Because many students in lower classes are younger, and because adults tend to learn quickly, adults and children only combine in the highest level classes, with adult-only beginner options available.

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Private Classes

 

Many students benefit from combined group classes (socialization, general skills, target practice) and private classes (intense customization, more training hours, individualized opening preparation, flexible schedule).  

 

An Exciting and High-Quality Tournament Environment

 

Our tournament offering is starting with a Saturday Tournament with a $100 prize, class prizes for players under 1000 USCF rating, and second-place free entry prizes (even if it’s a tie for second!). We hope to expand our roster to offer tournaments throughout the week, including rated blitz and casual events – and perhaps a few whimsical formats. See you there!

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Chess Socials

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If you know you know.

 

Merchandise

 

Our merchandise offering brings access to chess equipment at discount rates, plus custom board art and individualized or exclusive print training materials. 

 

Cafe Tropical

 

Outside of peak playing hours, we invite you to come work with your laptop and a drink or catch a casual game at our members-only cafe in the New Orleans Chess House! During tournaments and events, the cafe will be open to serve sustenance (and perhaps a little extra) while you play.

 

Our Technology Advantage

 

Savvy Chess supports coaching and chess literature merchandise with trade-secret technology that surpasses the capabilities of all the major chess platforms for bringing together instructive chess materials. Student analytics are performed by a data analysis professional.

 

See the bottom of the page to reach out -- even if it's just to say hello!

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May you all win,

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Dr. Coach Robert