Mark Indermaur chess grants, chess merit badge, outdoor chess

Supporting Chess in Scouting

We are excited to support our first Scouting organization, the Occoneechee Council, which serves scouts and their families in twelve counties in central North Carolina. We provided chess sets and instructional materials to the Council, so they can offer chess merit badge courses in their summer programs at Camp Durant in Carthage and during merit badge universities throughout the year.

Since 2019, we have helped schools, libraries, and community organizations across North Carolina start chess clubs through our Game Changer Program.

If you would like to start a chess program in your NC Scout Council or community organization, please apply for one of our grants. If you would like to support our efforts, please consider making a donation. You could designate it for our Aditya Nicholas Dias Memorial Fund, as Aditya loved chess and scouting.

Mark Indermaur Chess clubs, chess merit badge

Helping Scouts Earn the Chess Merit Badge

Since many of your middle and high school chess club members may also be members of Scouting America, helping them earn the chess merit badge would be a great way to combine two of their favorite activities.

All of the requirements for the chess merit badge (which are described in the chess merit badge pamphlet) are topics you would naturally cover in chess club meetings, so it would be easy to help your club members earn this extra recognition.

You can also leverage additional online resources like the following:

  • ChessKid chess merit badge guide: This series of ten articles is designed for scout leaders and parents who want to help scouts achieve the merit badge and enjoy the game of chess. They were written by Jerry Nash, a national chess education consultant who served on the committee which developed the content for the chess merit badge pamphlet.
  • St. Louis Chess Club online chess merit badge camp: This free, online camp is held several times a year. The St. Louis Chess Club has been holding chess merit badge workshops since the chess merit badge was introduced in 2011. When Scouting expanded in 2019 to allow girls to join, the St. Louis Chess club was also the the first to offer a workshop specifically for girls.
  • ScoutSmarts chess merit badge guide: This guide was written by an Eagle scout to help more scouts earn the chess merit badge.

If you would like, you could also become an official merit badge counselor for the chess merit badge by contacting your local Scouting council and completing the steps described in the Guide to Merit Badge Counseling.