The Path to Improve YOUR Chess to a High Standard
Whether you coach chess or want to learn chess, there is a lot for you here - free structured tuition/learning materials, chess exam papers, past papers with model answers, details of chess organisations.
We aim to provide first-class customer service, so please contact us for your requirements.
Institute of Chess (IoC) aims primarily to raise the standard of chess education in the UK and, as a consequence, to reverse the low level of recognition of chess by the education authorities. Up to now, structured courses and supervised written chess exams have been scarce in comparison to the multitude of participants, including the many who just play for fun rather than in public competitions. In many parts of the world, the benefits of chess skill in mainstream education (problem-solving, decision-making etc.) are well-recognised and strongly supported by the State. There are many international studies endorsing these benefits. The opportunity for players to study chess and be rewarded with certificates for passing traditional exams is also widely available elsewhere - some countries even have specialist Chess schools.
Students
These courses are suitable for players of up to County Open level, junior or adult. Novices can soon take Level 1. Even quite strong, experienced players can further improve from studying Level 5. The courses are ideal for those who run chess clubs or other coaching groups and would like to teach their members to play better.
We hope you will gain more satisfaction from your chess as your knowledge and skills grow and that you will enjoy these courses on the way.
Tuition & Revision
The Revision Guides also serve as tuition materials and syllabuses. These are available FREE to download from the Revision Guides page. This is immensely beneficial to schools and clubs wishing to offer structured courses, as they can obtain tuition materials FREE of charge and to students, as they can revise at home from the FREELY accessible information. The Revision Guides have been prepared by Grand Masters, including a former British Champion, and have been developed and trialled extensively on coaching courses since 2004. The improvement in the playing standard of the body of attendees has been dramatic.
December 2024: GM Gukesh Dommaraju, 18 (India) became world champion when he defeated the holder, GM Ding Liren, 32 (China) 7.5-6.5 in Singapore.
October 2023: We are delighted to report that WCM Bodhana Sivanandan, our former student, won the World Under 8 Girls' Championship 2023 at Sharm EL Sheikh, Egypt from 16th to 26th October 2023. It is the first time that an England Junior has won any World Standard play title since 1998. It completes a clean sweep of World Under 8 Girls' titles for Bodhana in 2023, as she won the rapidplay and blitz championships in Batumi, Georgia in June. She won every game she played in all 3 championships. It is also the first time that one of our students has ever won a World Standard play title but we hope not the last.
April 2023: GM Magnus Carlsen (Norway), having decided not to defend his world title, the world championship match in Astana, Kazakhstan was contested between GM Ding Liren, 30 (China) and GM Ian Nepomniachtchi, 32 (Russia). After the standard play match was drawn 7-7, including 3 wins for each player, the 4th game of the rapidplay tie-break was won by Ding Liren, who becomes the first Chinese world champion.
March 2022: After 6 years, we are launching our updated website. It is intended to be adaptable to the screen you are using - laptop, tablet or mobile. If you experience any difficulties, please email us. We hope you will enjoy our new website.
December 2021: GM Magnus Carlsen, 31 (Norway) retained his world title in Dubai by defeating GM Ian Nepomniachtchi, 31 (Russia) 7.5-3.5.