Online Chess Support

Welcome to the 2020-2021 Chess Season!

Collected here are some of the most useful resources found throughout this site 

Resources

Master Your Chess

Coach Lucian Bogdan of Argo HS has built this to coach his team using online tools.  It offers a complete curriculum organized in a scope and sequence for new players through advanced players.

Included in this website:

LiChess_Beginner.pdf
LiChess_Intermediate.pdf
LiChess_Advanced.pdf

LiChess Training Flowcharts

Coach Lucas Spriggs of Belleville West made these helpful sheets to guide chess players as they use the Learning tools available in LiChess.

Coach Chris Aderhold, Lombard (Glenbard East), introduces the 4th Annual Coaches Clinic, sets Zoom standards and welcomes participants.  Coach Sean Fisher-Rohde, Palatine HS, introduces the clinic agenda, says a few welcoming words and kicks it over to the next session.  Coach Dylan Canavan, Hinsdale (Central), introduces the Illinois Chess Coaches Association, briefly discusses its roles and responsibilities.  He says a word or two about this most unusual of seasons

2.  Master Your Chess: Beginner to Master online curriculum

Coach Lucian Bogdan, Argo HS, reviews his "Master Your Chess" website.  He introduces his new "Beginner to Master" course.  This complete curriculum guides players from the most basic of skills through tactics, positions, and practice built right in!  It's arranged in a scope and sequence using publicly, freely available sources so everyone can participate.  An incredibly valuable tool based on Master-Level instruction manuals.

Click here for a copy of the Student Tracker

3. LiChess Basics for Coaching

Coach Sean Fisher-Rohde, Palatine HS, reviews the many uses of LiChess.  He covers basics like setting up an account, making and using the "Team" feature, making and using the "Class" feature, Preferences settings, and so much more.  He includes anecdotes of his experience as a coach and team new to the platform, answering key questions to make sure everyone knows what's available and how they might use it for their team.

LiChess tutorial

Sean Fisher-Rohde, Palatine (H.S.), shares a brief tutorial overview of the LiChess website and how it can be used by coaches and teams for competition.  This is a shortened version of the information from the Coaches Clinic session.

4. Digital Record Keeping with the ICCA

Coach Erik Czerwin, Rockford (Guilford), introduces the ICCA Online Conference Season Tool using Google Sheets.  He covers all the basics of using the sheet and answers several questions about setting it up and sharing/publishing the sheet within a conference.  He briefly discusses future use of these sheets to enhance the ICCA database files.

Conference Online Season tool tutorial

Sean Fisher-Rohde (Palatine) made this helpful, short tutorial for coaches to navigate the ICCA Online Conference Season tool.

5. Using the ICCA Slack workspace to communicate

Coach Chris Aderhold, Lombard (Glenbard East), introduces the ICCA Slack Workspace, how to join, how to use the features, how to navigate channels, and more.  This forum tool will help connect coaches across the state

Online Tournament Tool - Coach Tutorial

Coach Erik Czerwin explains how coaches will interact with the Online Tournament tool for running standard ICCA tournaments using LiChess and the tool.

Online Tournament Tool - Player Tutorial

Coach Erik Czerwin explains how players will interact with the Online Tournament tool for running standard ICCA tournaments using LiChess and the tool.

Links

Illinois HS Chess, LiChess team

A LiChess Team for ALL Illinois High School players, coaches, and alumni

Article by Tim Just about how online chess rules have changed for the USCF.  Not necessarily applicable to IHSA/IESA, but he raises some good questions that we should all consider.  He also links to a couple USCF resources including the updated (and freely downloadable) US Chess Rulebook.