Online Secondary School Chess Club In April 2021, CSC launched an online chess club on the Lichess platform. Membership of the club is open to any child of secondary school age in the UK and is completely free of charge. Members can take part in regular tournaments in a variety of formats; schools can enter team competitions to test their chess skills against their counterparts from across the country. The secondary school club complements CSC’s online provision for primary schools which takes place on ChessKid. What is Lichess? Lichess is an online chess server used by players from all over the world, from beginner to grandmaster. It allows users to challenge their friends to a game, play against a randomly assigned opponent, and choose from hundreds of tournaments in which to compete every day. Lichess is used by adults and juniors alike. It has a number of safeguarding features to keep children safe online. CSC will be making use of the “Kid Mode” setting for all accounts it distributes, meaning that students can neither send nor receive messages, nor make use of the server’s chat functions. How do I sign up my school pupils? CSC will set up as many accounts as your school needs for you to allocate to your pupils. Please sign up using the button below. We simply need a contact at the school and the number of accounts you require. If you have any additional requirements (e.g. customised usernames, named accounts), please include those in the comments, or you can contact us here. Apply for accounts here Our guide for schools signing up for accounts can be read here. How do I sign up as an individual? If you’re a pupil at a secondary school, already have a Lichess account, and want to join our online club, you are very welcome to sign up. Using the “Community” menu in Lichess, select “Teams” and then “All teams”. Search for “CSC Secondary Schools” and click on the link to join. You can find details of our tournaments on the team page. If you don’t have a Lichess account, you can create one free. For safeguarding reasons, we strongly recommend that you turn on the “Kid mode” setting in your preferences as soon as you create the account. To help you get started with your Lichess account, we have written this short guide. In what other ways can CSC support chess at my school? CSC can also deliver or support after school chess clubs and enrichment lessons in UK state secondary schools. To find out more, please complete our online form here. Manage Cookie Preferences