SUPPORT US
Dear Parent,
As you may have noticed, we have added a donate button to the Start Right Chess website. Since we are not a nonprofit organization, this deserves some explanation. (Short explanation: we needed a flexible mechanism to allow folks to support our free services and keep Start Right Chess solvent.) Here is what you should know:
Jump-in Classes. A few weeks ago, we began offering classes that kids can attend even though they were not booked in advance. This makes sense because you may not know until the last minute that your child will be available, and, on our side, jump-in classes help fill thinner time slots. (This helps the kids who are signed up; having more kids tends to be more fun and improves the end-of-class tournament experience.) Moreover, the practice is working; most of you have nudged your kids along to a few jump-in classes.
Of course, we still need to cover expenses for these classes, including paying our wonderful coaches. We could try to bill you, but we’re betting that a donate button is a more flexible option that allows for differing levels of interest and ability to pay. (Of course, please continue to send your kids along to jump-in classes even if you do not choose to donate.)
Free Saturdays. Start Right Chess offers a “Free Saturdays Program,” which includes tournaments with cash prizes (and, lately, pecan pies!). Our Saturday program helps make us a community rather than just a provider of chess services. Most of you seem to appreciate this aspect of Start Right Chess. Again, we could try to charge for this, but we want to keep it as robust and well-attended as possible; so we think it’s a good idea to keep the Saturday tournament program and non-chess activities free.
Chess Buddies. We are adding a free “Chess Buddy” program to our smorgasbord of chess offerings. This program will pair up players and facilitate slower time control games outside of scheduled class times. (Think of it as chess ladder matches that are more like the games played in serious, USCF-rated events.) We will also be offering free game analysis with this program.
Scholarships. We offer full scholarships to kids who could not otherwise afford high-quality chess instruction and tournaments.
Finally, our private afterschool program has been partially subsidized by the contracts we have with schools. That is, we provide online chess instruction to a number of schools around the country, but most of this business has been an artifact of COVID—schools needing online activities—and we cannot count on these contracts being renewed in the fall. (In fact, we can be fairly assured of losing most of them.)
We hope you will understand and be moved by this communication, but please don’t feel obliged and please know that we deeply value you and your amazing chess player(s)!
Thanks & Regards,
John "Coach Mac" McManus &
The Start Right Chess Gang