Curriculum Based Classes

Learners Online offers 4 curriculum based classes a week, one for each of our skill based levels. Learners divides classes by 4 skill levels, Knights: Beginners, Bishops: Novice, Rooks: Intermediate, and Queens: Advanced. These classes are an hour long and consist of a half hour, interactive lesson, and half an hour to play casual chess and apply the skills they just learned about.

Beyond the Curriculum:

On top of these regular classes, we also have an invitational Kings level Advanced class for students who have shown advanced level chess knowledge.

We also have community based class on Saturday mornings and Tuesday evenings for all skill levels where we move outside of the curriculum, reviewing games, openings, or fun tactics and patterns

To see our calendar with our full tournament and class schedule, click here!

For more information on our skill levels and curriculum, check out our more detailed class curriculums here!

Students will be invited to one standard tournament every week and one Bughouse tournament every week. Students will also be given time for casual games as part of every class, and have access to our online site where they can challenge others to casual games at any time.

Standard Tournaments

Our standard tournaments are traditional chess tournaments held every Wednesday at 5:30. Students will play 3 games, with a time control of 7+5 per game. This means that each student has 7 minutes on their clock, and gets a 5 second bonus added to their time every move they make. Tournaments generally last about an hour. These tournaments are also rated within the Learners Online Rating system. Depending on attendance, we may split tournaments into two sections based on rating so that students can play peers at their skill level.

Bughouse

Bughouse is a team based chess variant where a team of two students plays another team of two students. When a student captures their opponents piece, they give it to their partner who can place that piece on their own board as their move. It's super fun and one of the most popular chess variants. Bughouse will be held every Sunday at 3:30, and will last somewhere between a half hour and an hour. We aim to play 3 games each, but this is dependent on attendance. Because this is a chess variant, Bughouse is not rated.

To see our calendar with our full tournament and class schedule, click here!

Socializing on our website

Our online website is only open to students who have registered with the Learners Online Program, keeping it private. This allows us to safely allow students to speak with their peers in our website's chat feature. Our chat feature does not allow any private messaging to other students, only a group chat with all our online members, which also includes and is monitored by our chess coaches.

Socializing in our Classes

Classes are set up to have half an hour of interactive lesson, where we ask students to keep their comments and question relevant to the lesson. For the second half of class, we move on to playing casual games, during which students can socialize through the video chat and talk, as long as it does not distract from playing their games.

Community Based Class / Hangout on Saturday Mornings and Tuesday Evenings

We offer a class on Saturday mornings from 8:00am to 10:30am and Tuesday from 6:00pm to 7:30pm specifically for hanging out, building community, and socializing. This consists of a short lesson on something outside of our traditional curriculum and then a lot of time spent playing casual games, bughouse, and socializing in the video chat.

Our Membership is $35 a month, with the option for automatic monthly payments, or to pay in bulk from the current month until August 2022 for a 5% discount. We also automatically discount November and March down to $25 for the month, and December down to $20 for the month, due to the holidays and breaks. Monthly cost is prorated for the month you begin your membership.

If you need any financial assistance, check out our need based scholarships here.

Members who pay monthly can cancel at any time from the registration site. Members who pay in bulk must email learnerschess@gmail.com to cancel their membership. You can find our entire financial responsibility and cancellation policy here.