CHESS CAMPS

ALL-STAR PALS COACHES

Head instructors include two National Masters and bonafide local stars, Griffin and Sullivan McConnell. Griffin is the top-ranked player on Team USA for People with Disabilities; his brother Sullivan the current Colorado State Chess Champion is ranked #2 among active Colorado players and tied the record as youngest CO State Chess Champion in history when he was just 12 years old.

SCHEDULE OPTIONS

Full day M-F 9:00 am to 4:00 pm
Half-day Mornings M-F 9:00 am to 12:00 pm
Half-days Afternoons M-F 1:00 pm to 4:00 pm
Three-day camps M-W 9:00 am to 4:00 pm
Three-day camps T-Th 9:00 am to 4:00 pm
Three-day camps W-F 9:00 am to 4:00 pm

Morning recess 10:30 am to 10:45 am
Lunch break from 12:00 pm to 1:00 pm
Afternoon recess 2:30 pm to 2:45 pm

WHY OUR CAMPS ARE THE BEST

PALS SUPER-FUN Summer Chess Camps are the gold standard for aspiring young chess players in Colorado.  Highly motivated and enthusiastic PALS students have won Colorado Scholastic State Chess Championships every year since 2014, but most importantly, our chess camps are tons of FUN!!  Here’s what your kids can look forward to:                   

• Learning chess lessons from famous games in chess history, with entertaining move-by-move analysis and engaging team chess mazes, puzzles and relays that help reinforce the new material they’ve learned

• Learning pattern-recognition, fundamental tactics, and step-by-step planning strategies in all phases of chess (opening, middlegame, endgame) 

• Learning chess notation to help them effectively analyze their own games and learn from their mistakes  

• Group and team challenges and presentations that enhance students’ teamwork and leadership skills 
• Special activities like bughouse (team chess), battleship chess, detective chess, piece mazes, chess stories and riddles, creative problem-solving, and much more!
• Camps for children ages 5 to 17, with students assigned to groups based on age, level and chess ability. 

• Teacher-student ratio of 12:1 or better.