XFYD’s Chess Program has continued throughout the 2024-2025 school year, bringing introductory chess to hundreds of students at both in-person and online classes.
One of our classes early in the year was our XFYD Wittmann Chess Class. Bringing a five-week hands-on Chess Class to over 20 elementary schoolers, we helped introduce new students to Chess and guide students who were already proficient in Chess Basics to higher strategic skills necessary for excelling in Chess.
This class is led by Benjamin Tang and Darsh Maheshwari, who have competed in national tournaments for years and have hundreds of hours of experience tutoring chess with XFYD. Our other teachers, Keenan Park, Ocean Cheng, and Aditi Ganesh, also have years of experience teaching chess. This chess tutoring program at Wittmann has run for three years to date, first set up by Benjamin and Ocean. In that time, it has brought chess teaching to over 80 students. Our system of focusing on hands-on learning, having fun, and applying chess concepts you learn by playing and competing has helped our students grow significantly in chess year after year.
This isn’t the only chess event held recently. A group of 5 volunteers held an Online Chess Class in the Spring, led by Emmanuel Wu, our Chess Division Director. Tutoring over 20 students in chess, our teachers helped students grow systematically and intuitively.
Through several weeks of chess classes, our students were taught advanced chess tactics and strategy by Emmanuel Wu, Adithya Anand, Aditi Ganesh, Matthew Chen, and Joseph Chen. These students, all skilled chess competitors with Whitney’s Chess Club, shared their experiences growing and learning with chess with the younger kids. Kids not only learned fundamental chess concepts like openings, structures, and tactical thinking, but they also developed a love for the competition.
