Play in a team tournament!

Many school chess clubs are getting started, so this is a great time to start planning to play in a team tournament with other schools. Team events are excellent first tournaments for students for several reasons:

• they have fun playing with their friends
• competing as a group relieves pressure that some students may feel (if they lose some, or even all, of their games, they can still encourage their teammates and contribute to the team’s success)
• they can wear school t-shirts, sit together and enjoy snacks as a group between rounds, building school spirit
• team events are usually generous with team trophies so schools have a good chance of winning something, especially if they have multiple teams

Team events are also good for coaches and organizers since announcing the team’s success (at school, in the PTA newsletter, etc.), displaying team trophies at school, and taking photos at the event for the yearbook are great ways to promote a chess club. Parents and teachers can also network with their peers from other schools and get ideas for improving their programs. You can enter most team tournaments with as few as 3 or 4 players on a team, so you do not need many students to get started.

You can choose from several team tournaments that the NC Chess Association already has in their K-12 tournament listing:

• October 12, 2019 CMSCA Team Tournament, Charlotte
• December 8, 2019 Triangle Team Tournament, Cary
• January 19, 2020 Triangle Championship, Raleigh
• March 15, 2020 Triangle Team Tournament, Raleigh

Please encourage your clubs to enter at least one team event this year!