Links to Online Chess Resources
IHSA & IESA Chess
Chess Equipment Suppliers
Prairie View Hobbies has a small chess equipment shop and is run by an Illinois chess coach! Be sure to contact PVHobbies with inquires for your team. We work hard to find the best equipment for your team's budget, and we can deliver to your next tournament! Browse the site, and if you don't see what you're looking for, just use the Contact form to send a message, and Prairie View Hobbies will work to get the right equipment at the right price.
The best supplier of wholesale-price chess equipment for years. Price breaks for larger quantities allow coaches to grab everything they need at the best possible price. They carry all the necessary equipment at exactly the right price. The more you buy, the more you save!
The supplier of premier chess sets AND the best quality tournament sets. House of Staunton has been creating and retailing the best chess sets in the world for decades. Everything a player or coach would ever need is here.
Learning and Teaching websites
LiChess is a FREE online chess website with teaching modules, tactics training, videos, studies, online live play and much more!
The Chess Network is a fantastic chess player, Jerry, a self-taught National Master from Pennsylvania. He live-streams on Twitch and posts tons of great instructional and analysis videos.
Master Your Chess is a site for Coaches and Students to download free software and Openings to practice against the computer, watch videos on Endgame lessons and then Practice against the computer. Its a free resource and it's also mobile friendly.
Chess.com is a wide-ranging chess website with play, tutorials, articles, videos, and much, much more. Users can pay for premium content.
Chessable is a fantastic chess learning and teaching tool with dozens of options worth exploring.
ChessTempo is a great training website where players can log their progress via a database of millions of positions.
ChessOpenings.com is a GREAT repository of videos about various chess openings. With a TON of free videos, players can learn an overview of most any opening quickly and easily.
Chessity is a chess training and teaching website specifically designed for coaches, teams, and schools. Chessity has materials for beginners through advanced players.
ChessBites is an online repository of chess games, positions, openings, and players. It's like an encyclopedia for chess online.
The Chess Website is an online repository of hundreds of instructional chess videos, separated by topics such as openings, endgames, traps, puzzles, and more.
Think Like a King was a great chess-teaching software... Now, it's available online at TheChessSchool.net
ChessCafe is an online respository of chess articles and other chess-related writings. Members can download and print thousands of manuals, books, e-books, etc.
ChessGames.com is an online chess database with millions of games and positions.
Professor Chess is an online repository of a ton of resources... Made several years ago by a chess coach, it remains as a great source of printable chess coach tools.
ChessCademy is an online chess learning website
PlyCount is a link to player stats populated from the USCF Player Lookup function. It also contains information about the PlyCounter, an electronic score sheet device
ChessKid.com is the "kid-friendly" version of Chess.com. It reshapes the UI to be simpler and more directed at helping young players learn the game.
Chess Organizations
The following are chess organizations in and around Illinois. This is not an endorsement of any of these organizations, simply a listing of chess organizations in the state that you might reach out to for resources.
The Illinois Chess Association (“ICA”) is the recognized state affiliate of the United States Chess Federation (“USCF”) for the State of Illinois. ICA is an Illinois corporation with not-for-profit status under Internal Revenue Code (“IRC”) §501(c)3. As the USCF state affiliate, ICA is responsible for conferring chess titles for the state of Illinois under USCF auspices.
The US Chess Federation (US Chess) is the official governing body and not-for-profit 501(c)(3) organization for chess players and chess supporters in the United States. Their mission is to empower people through chess one move at a time. Our vision is to enrich the lives of all persons and communities through increasing the play, study, and appreciation of the game of chess.
US Chess represents the United States in the World Chess Federation (FIDE), connecting our members to chess players around the world. Founded in 1939 with the merger of the American Chess Federation and the National Chess Federation, US Chess has grown to serve over 85,000 members and 2,000 affiliated chess clubs and organizations today.
Founded in Paris on 20 July 1924, the World Chess Federation (Federation Internationale des Echecs, known as FIDE from its French acronym) was recognized by the International Olympic Committee as an International Sports Federation in 1999. With 188 member federations, FIDE is among the biggest sports organizations in the world, very proud of over forty official championships for youngsters, men, women and seniors.
Prior to the founding of FIDE, Chess had existed as a sport played at competitive level for centuries. In its over 2000 years history from its origins in India and outlying countries in Asia, the game had undergone a series of changes and metamorphosed into its present day form by the 15th century. In those days, there was no common code governing the Laws of Chess or uniform regulations for International Competitions. The only binding force was that it was a gentleman's sport in which the players were expected to act with decorum plus the enduring beauty of the game to its practitioners.