Boston Area Scholastic Initiative for Chess (BASIC)

The Harvard Chess Club recently established a chess league coordinated with the YMCA that strives to provide Boston with a scholastic chess network that it has lacked for years. The program, named Boston Area Scholastic Initiative for Chess (BASIC), involves a league of after-school chess clubs at local YMCA sites and relies on a network of volunteers from different universities to serve as chess instructors and role models. The program's mission is to foster community, healthy competition, and an enthusiasm for the intellectual pursuit of chess as well as to empower young individuals. Chess is perfect for these goals as it has been shown time and again to promote creativity, strategy, analytical skills, discipline, and sportsmanship. We expect BASIC to expand with time and to branch out to many neighborhoods and many universities in the greater Boston area.

The BASIC league runs for ten weeks and culminates in an inter-YMCA tournament during the last week, at a date TBD. We currently teach students for one hour per week at YMCA sites including Egleston, Roxbury, Central, and Wang and hope to expand. If you are interested in volunteering or have any questions concerning BASIC please contact Arin Madenci for more information.

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The Harvard Chess Club currently sends volunteers to the following YMCA branches:

Roxbury,
Instructors: Arin Madenci

Chinatown-Wang,
Instructors: Annie Weiss, Stephen Ho, Albert Yeh, Prithvi Shankar

Central Square,
Instructors: Julian Arni, Johnny Sadoff

Egleston,
Instructors: Matt Daniels, Dan Pressi