Who This Club Is For

Cohen Chess Club is built for students who are ready for a genuinely challenging competition. No prior tournament experience is required — but just having learned the rules isn't quite enough.

Your child is a great fit if they:

• Know how all the chess pieces move
• Have been practicing online — Chess.com or Lichess are both great
• Are ages 9–14
• Want to improve through real competition, not just lessons

The club is probably not the right fit if your child only just learned how the pieces move. A few weeks of practice on Chess.com or Lichess against real opponents is the best way to get ready — once they're finishing games and having fun, they're likely good to go.

What Happens in a Typical Session

Each session runs approximately 55 minutes over live video on Outschool. Here's what a typical Tuesday afternoon looks like:

1. Login and warm-up. Students log in to CohenChessClub.com (no registration — credentials are provided by Mr. Cohen). Mr. Cohen opens the session on Outschool video.
2. Tournament play. A new arena tournament begins. Students play as many 7-minute games (plus a 2-second increment) as they can fit into the session. After each game, your child can click ‘back to tournament’ to get paired for another match right away — or click ‘pause’ and ask Mr. Cohen in the Zoom chat to go over the game before jumping back in.
3. Live game feedback. Mr. Cohen is available throughout the entire tournament to review your child's games as they happen — pointing out missed tactics, strong moves, and ideas to apply right in the next round.
4. Puzzles and analysis. The site's analysis engine processes every game after the session and generates puzzles from the best tactical moments. Students can practice at home before next week.

Benefits Students Earn Over Time

The arena tournament format rewards active play. The more games your child plays, the more chances they get to improve — and the more material Mr. Cohen has to work with when giving feedback. Students who play consistently see measurable growth in several areas:

• Pattern recognition — repeated exposure to tactical themes (pins, forks, discovered attacks) builds fast, intuitive thinking.
• Time management — playing with a clock teaches students to think efficiently and avoid time pressure.
• Sportsmanship — winning and losing with grace, shaking (virtual) hands after every game, and celebrating an opponent's good move are all part of the culture.
• Problem solving — chess has been shown to improve critical thinking and concentration in school-age children.
• Self-confidence — there's a particular pride that comes from defeating a tough opponent over the board. It sticks with kids.

The Honorary Grandmaster Title

Every week, the player who wins the tournament earns the honorary GM title — the Grandmaster designation placed next to their name on the site for the following week. It's a small, fun reward that students take seriously, and it gives everyone something to chase.

Puzzles Built from Your Child's Own Games

After every session, Mr. Cohen's chess analysis engine reviews every game played that week. The best tactical moments — blunders, brilliant moves, missed wins — are automatically converted into puzzles and added to the site's training database.

Students can log in between sessions and work through these puzzles. Solving a tactic from your own game — one you actually played last week — is far more memorable than solving a generic puzzle from a textbook.

Frequently Asked Questions