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Renaissance Knights is in its 18th year as a partner with the Chicago Public Schools chess program. CPS Academic Chess provides students from diverse communities across the city with the opportunity to learn, play, and compete in chess at no cost. The students participate in after school chess clubs and compete in tournaments throughout the year including at the CPS Academic Chess play-offs and Championships, City of Chicago Championship, State and National tournaments.

We need your assistance as we continue to build and expand our thriving chess programs. Donations helps advance the work of the Renaissance Knights Chess Foundation with CPS while your support as a volunteer, coach or mentor helps our chess club and chess team. GET INVOLVED TODAY!

The Kasparov Chess Foundation, the Renaissance Knights Chess Foundation, and the United States Chess Federation, are pleased to invite girls from across America to play in the largest and most prestige girls only tournament in the USA; the 17th Annual KCF All-Girls National Chess Championship.

The tournament returns to the Hyatt Regency McCormick Place, 2233 South Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive, Chicago, Illinois, 60616

The tournament is open to all girls under 18 years old as of January 1, 2022. Players will participate in the following categories: Under 8 years old, under 10, under 12, under 14, under 16, and under 18; sections.

The Champion in each age category, qualifies to represent the USA at the 2022 World Cadets (U8, U10, U12) and World Youth (U14, U16, U18) Championships.

More info / Registration

On Saturday, February 26th from 11:00 am – 12:30 pm, Join us for this exciting and fun workshop for Black History Month. The workshop is designed for both chess players and non-chess players alike.

We have lined up two great speakers; Rochelle Ballantyne, from the movie Brooklyn Castle, who will be going over a game of hers and speaking on her experiences as she tries to attain the status of master, and Daaim Shabazz from the Chess Drum, who will be going over Black masters throughout history.

This workshop is open to all students, so help us pass the word.  We are asking participants to register in advance .

REGISTER NOW

Rochelle Ballantyne

is an American chess player. She is best known for appearing in the 2012 documentary Brooklyn Castle and being the first African-American female chess master.  Rochelle a full scholarship to Stanford University, which she graduated from in 2017. She received an MA in education policy from Columbia University in 2020. In Fall 2020 she began law school at New York University Law School, fully funded by the AnBryce Scholarship.

Daaim Shabazz

Is an Associate Professor of Business at Florida A&M University (USA) and publisher of the online chess blog The Chess Drum dedicated to covering the chess activities within the worldwide African Diaspora.

Final Standings have been posted for all section except the K-12 High School Championship

VIEW STANDINGS

We are excited to announce the Illinois ChessKid Qualifier! will be held on Saturday, November 13th and is open to all scholastic players K-12 in Illinois. The event will take place online through the ChessKid platform.

DETAILS

When: Veterans Day, Thursday November 11th, 2021 at 12pm CT

Sections: K-5, 6-8, and 9-12

Format: 5-Round Swiss

Time Control: All sections will play G10+2 (ten minutes per game with a two-second increment per move). There will be a total of five rounds

Entry Fee

$10 by November 9th, 2021, 11:59 pm CT. No entries accepted after November 9th.

Note — in order to play in the warmup event on November 6th, 2021, you MUST register by November 2nd.

CLICK HERE FOE MORE DETAILS AND REGISTRATION

The Renaissance Knights Chess Foundation, the International Chess School, the United States Chess Federation, the Confederation of Chess for America, and the International Chess Federation (FIDE), thanks the 400 players from the USA, Mexico, and Canada, that participated in 17th Annual North American Youth Championship.

Click Here for results and photos

175 players from USA, Mexico, & Canada participated in the NAYCC Blitz

Click Here for results

On Saturday, February 6, 305 students in grades K-12 from across the country participated in this year’s Greater Chicago Scholastic Championship. Unlike prior years where the students competed in person, this year’s event was held online on the ChessKid platform. This allow students to participate from the comfort and safety of the home.

A special thanks goes out to SBB Research Group that sponsored this event for the 7th year in a row.

Congratulations to all the players and the winning individuals and teams in each category.

Complete results are at http://greaterchicago.rknights.org/index.php/final-standings/

We are very grateful for the support SBB has given us over the years. This year we have 350 students from across America registered to compete online in the Greater Chicago Online Scholastic Championship on Saturday, February 6.

Read the article about SBB’s support of the tournament and chess in Chicago
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/sbb-research-group-sponsors-greater-184900306.html

Since the shut down of schools in March 2020, we have successfully transitioned the Chicago Public Schools Academic chess programs online.

Since the transition, the program has thrived and expanded the opportunities we are providing to the students. Online programming includes:

• Weekly Thursday Nights Blitz tournaments
• Monthly Cops & Kids Blitz tournaments
• 1 or 2 Saturday tournaments per month
• Monthly Master and Intermediate level chess classes
• Monthly student empowerment workshops
• and much, much more.

Visit the CPSCHESS website for details