Introduction to Chess is a course designed for beginners with little to no experience playing chess. Each two-hour class period is composed of one hour of lecture and instruction, followed by one hour of playing time. Our objective is to lead students to develop experience and a love for the game through instruction and practice.

Through this course, students should demonstrate proficiency in the following areas:

● Rules
○ Basic rules, including set up and movement of pieces
○ Advanced rules, including the use of chess clocks and notation

● Strategy
○ Basic tactics and terminology: forks, pins, skewers, etc.
○ Tactics and calculation
○ Material and positional evaluation
○ Move selection, tempo, and initiative

● Openings
○ Fundamentals and principles: center control, development, king safety
○ Book openings and a small opening repertoire

● Endgames
○ Fundamentals and principles: King activity, bishops vs. knights, etc.
○ Checkmating patterns

● History
○ World championship history
○ Famous games: Opera Game, Evergreen Game, Immortal Game, etc.

● Miscellaneous
○ Variants: Chess960, Bughouse, etc.
○ Resources, tools, and engines: lichess.org, chess.com
○ Chess in the Modern Era: ProChessLeague, FIDE World Cup, Grand Chess Tour

There will be no required readings to purchase but there will be various homework posted on bCourses. We will be using many online resources, including a site to play online games and a chess clock application. All games will be played on this site and will be submitted to bCourses.

Evaluation Procedures:
30% Participation/Attendance
50% Homework
20% Quizzes

Participation includes answers to reading questions at the beginning of each class and playing time during the second half of the class. Reading questions can cover readings from homework material or from the lecture of the previous week. This will be graded out of three points every class: attendance, reading questions, and playing time.

Students will be expected to play online games every week and submit these games to bCourses. In addition to this weekly assignment, students will be assigned various readings and videos throughout the course of the semester to supplement their learning. Also, students will be expected to attend either two Chess Club at Berkeley meetings or one in-person tournament. All of these details will be posted to bCourses.

There will be two in-class quizzes and one take-home quiz. These quizzes are meant to be finished in the allotted class time and can cover any material from the course.
A minimum of 70% is required to pass the course. Extra credit opportunities will be available if necessary.

** For those of you who submitted the form prior to 8/15, please contact me at nathanfong@berkeley.edu to update your contact information! ** Applications are no longer being accepted. This class is full, CCNs will be distributed at the first class to students who have received an email.