FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Parents and classroom teachers of the kids in The Knight School have reported remarkable increases in classroom confidence as well as marked improvements in behavior, sportsmanship, and character. Moreover, clinical studies have long-established that chess increases math and science scores and consequently boosts ACT scores as well. The main reason to take chess, however, is that very frequently chess results in a personal epiphany in which students begin to see that any goal in life can be achieved once it is clearly defined. Chess is pure magic; it allows kids to conjure any future they conceive, build a pathway to it, learn to anticipate and eliminate obstacles before they materialize, and control every environment they ever encounter.

The Knight School is designed by a blue-ribbon educator from the ground up to be alluring and irresistible to kids so that the hook of critical thinking can take hold. Everything about class is fast-paced, fun-centered, music-driven, movie-oriented, and silly. The curricular cleverness and child-centered nature of this innovative and ground-breaking approach is truly effective at taking a beginner and making them great at chess. Have your child attend a free, no-obligation trial class to find out!

Absolutely! Many, many beginners join each week throughout the school year, and we have a set procedure to assure that the new kids are folded into the larger class seamlessly. Many of our kids at any given time are brand-new-beginners or are very new to chess.

The Knight School takes great pride in our 100% guarantee of a deeply rewarding classroom experience, effortless billing, and world-class customer service. Since all classes are standardized and presented in identical format each week all over the United States, the classroom experience is predictable and delightful to the chess students enrolled. All classes include a weekly tactic, which is taught by your school's official chess coach, who interacts with the weekly video lessons presented by Dr. Brooks. After the hilarious and highly effective tactics lesson of the week, complete with puzzlers for immediate lesson application, kids break into the Mardi Gras bead tournament until they pack up. The synthesis of the awesome on-site coach, the blue-ribbon zany lesson, and the compelling Mardi Gras bead tourney generates a very effective, professional class and a very entertained and educated chess student who climbs into your car after school delighted to tell you about chess class.

Your child needs to understand that they are truly smart. They need to be confident in every academic and non-academic setting. They need friends who share their celebration of reason and sophistication. Mostly, all Knight School students genuinely understand that gaining control of the chess board is a practice field for manipulating and controlling every aspect of their own classrooms, sports fields, and home lives.

In most schools, The Knight School tuition includes each student’s personal premium TKS chess bag and vinyl chess board, chess pieces, the official The Knight School Chess shirt, and all the silicone Tactixbands a student can earn. Also included in the tuition are free replacement pieces and chess boards for life. This feature is a significant and luxurious benefit for kids who often misplace a chess piece or two! The Knight School families that register through our site are able to pay tuition by automatic, recurring draft. Automatic drafting frees us both from the old days of lost checks, worry, and late fees and leaves us free to enjoy a pure chess experience! There are no contracts ever in The Knight School; while a one-year commitment generates the best chance for a fully successful and satisfying chess experience for your student, automatic drafting can be canceled at any point in the year just by e-mailing us. You may also opt out of the recurring draft right now by paying by for the entire semester or school year. Contact us with any questions.

Yes, your child may attend any other participating location of The Knight School as part of the tuition. In addition to attending other locations, you may choose to enroll in The Varsity, which is our city-wide advanced class, meets weekly for pizza, a grandmaster lesson and an awesome city-wide bead tourney. Enrollment in The Varsity requires enrollment in the standard Knight School and costs $50 per month.

The Knight School meets once per week inside your school in a room designated by your principal. We always meet once per week - throughout the school year - unless your school is dismissed on the designated chess day or unless an alternative chess calendar has been published for your school.

“Little Geniuses” Preschool Chess is a division of the Knight School that provides developmentally-appropriate chess classes to 3-5 year-olds during the school day in many local, excellent child development centers. “Chess Nuts” Kindergarten Chess, which is the division that targets kindergarten kids ages 5 and 6, has a Little Geniuses-style curriculum but allows 15 additional minutes each week for chess play, which results over the course of the year in substantial improvement in the entire kindergarten chess team. “The Knight School" Elementary Chess is developmentally designed to target kids kindergarten through seventh grade; the mix of all these ages really works in The Knight School.

Yes, our ground-breaking curriculum, designed from beginning-to-end by veteran educators, works backwards and results in amazing chess mastery. First we make the kids love the class, the activities, and the coaches. In that environment, the tactics lesson begins to take hold. Kids consistently report The Knight School to be the favorite part of their week and our focus is always good sportsmanship and being both a graceful winner and a graceful loser. This results in brand-new-beginners finding a fun and positive atmosphere that, almost without them even realizing it, develops into chess mastery. Advanced players will find targetted challenges within each lesson, as well as steep competition - either at their own schools or at "The Varsity," which is the city-wide advanced chess team. For the very best of the best, we have "The Masters," our nation-wide elite chess team, which meets on Zoom each week.

Yes, the second child is $10 less per month.

Absolutely. Many people come to one free sample class first. If they love the class, they enroll right here on this website.

In The Knight School, all our kids are involved in many diverse activities. We are the chess academy for the well-rounded kids of America who are good at multiple things.

You may withdraw at any point, but for best results and to be sure your child meets his or her epiphany when it comes, we recommend that you keep your child enrolled in chess the entire year. We have learned that the muse never announces herself and when the lightning bolt hits--the one revealing to the child that every single thing in a kid’s life is manageable and engineerable--it changes the child’s life. Most students return for many years; many have enrolled seven years in a row and have become better than the coaches. Three have even gone on to grow up, move to a new city, and to become The Knight School City Coaches!

Referring a friend earns you one month’s credit in The Knight School. To redeem this benefit, simply ask the new parent within one month of enrollment to contact your City Coach and request this benefit for you.

At last count The Knight School brought chess to 770 schools across America, coaching 11,514 students each week. We are the chess coaches at the National Cathedral School in Washington DC; in the Mountain Brook Schools in Birmingham, Alabama; and in many, many systems. Go to https://www.theknightschool.com/enroll to find the nearest location to you.

The Knight School was 51-0 in head-to-head matches against our rivals and competitors when good sportsmanship dictated that we stop counting. Our coaches have a hand signal that commands our students to lose a match on purpose so our opponents can save face and avoid winning zero games in a match. Some years, kids who first joined The Knight School as beginners have won ten state championships. Mainly, though, our kids have fun and develop a life-long love of both chess and learning in general. Bragging is not in our nature, which is why this FAQ came last.