No chess experience needed — for teachers or children.
6 Bosses, 6 new skills, a harder puzzle each week.
Chess Club: a 6-week lunchtime term for KS1–KS2, no chess skill needed
A complete six-week lunchtime chess club for KS1–KS2. The adult who runs it does not need any chess skill. Each session is about 15–20 minutes, with a two-minute teacher script, pupil sheets and an answers page.
Each week has eight puzzles on two pages: four easier mate-in-one puzzles (one star, 1 point), three harder puzzles (two stars, 2 points) and one Boss (three stars, 5 points). That is 15 points a week, and 90 points for the term. Over six weeks that is 48 puzzles. For a mate-in-two Boss, children write the first move; the answers show the full line and a short why-it-works note. Use the points kindly: celebrate a personal best, not only the top score.
Week 1 is also available as a free taster, with the same eight puzzles. This paid pack is the full term: all six weeks, a club journey map, wall posters (each week’s named Boss), a class scoreboard, a sticker progress chart with six skill badges, and an end-of-term certificate with all six badges.
What’s included
– Teacher guide: how to run the term, a club journey map, a one-page script for each week, answers for each week (with a why-it-works line, a short story line for each Boss, and a “Next week” teaser), and a one-page chess ideas glossary.
– Pupil booklet: a club journey map, how the pieces move, a notation guide, the weekly puzzle sheets, and a progress chart with a weekly score out of 15, a personal-best line, and six skill badges to collect.
– Six “Puzzle of the week” display posters in A4, and the same six in A3 (prints best on A3). The poster is the Boss and does not show the answer.
– A class scoreboard in A4 and A3 (prints best on A3), with a row for each name and columns for Weeks 1–6 and a Total.
– An end-of-term certificate, with all six skill badges.
Each puzzle has exactly one best first move. White is always at the bottom of the diagram. This is club practice, not a test. Print A4 at actual size / 100%. Posters and the scoreboard may be printed at A4 or A3; they print best on A3.
Puzzle positions from the Lichess puzzle database (CC0). Diagrams drawn by us.
AI note: No AI images: all graphics were drawn in code. Page text was drafted with AI help.
Licensed to you under your Lesson Planned Teaching Resource Licence.
© 2026 Ren Sun, trading as Mingpine · mingpinelabs@gmail.com
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