When activities like chess are offered only as an extracurricular activity, in an after-school environment, a type of self-selection process occurs. Usually, only those students with an initial interest and sense of self-confidence end up joining the chess club. Many times those students most in need of the game’s benefits never even think of joining the chess club, especially if they have never learned how to play.
The 9 Queens Classroom program is a sixteen-week chess curriculum program designed to expose all students to the benefits of chess in an in-school environment. Once a week, a 9 Queens chess teacher will visit a Title I, public school and teach an hour-long lesson in five classrooms. Throughout the school year, the 9 Queens chess teacher will introduce approximately 250 students in ten classrooms to the benefits of chess education.