RCI is a local, full time, tournament chess, training company. What does that mean? Let’s go 1 at a time.
Local: If the people that run your camp are not from this area, how can they be customizing the training you will get? RCI knows on day 1 of the camp what the graduates will be facing if they play in Virginia. The most important thing about being local is after camp support. Our Thursday night meetings are specifically designed to support the private, school, group, and camp training that RCI customers are receiving throughout all of Virginia. This gives students congruence! Translation, no matter who they ask a question, they will get the same answer from everyone. When that happens, the student will stop asking questions and get to work!! Even if you fell in love with another camp and wanted to have a private one for your friends, school, or group, that won’t be possible because these vultures only come around once a year!
Full Time: If your lessons are coming from a Master or above, they have more core knowledge than a lot of coaches can study. If they are not a master, what are the tournament ratings and frequency of participation of their students? How many days a week are they living, eating, drinking, and breathing chess? When was the last time they went to a tournament? Come on people, these strangers are asking for $300 – $400 for a week of chess instruction. How current are their teaching skills? Are they US Chess Certified? There’s actually a chess coaching outfit in Richmond that hires part time chess instructors, and advertises, “no experience necessary”!
Tournament Chess: Notation, 3 time repetition, 50 move rule, the clock, ratings, pairings, en passant, touch move, draws by material, not announcing check, time trouble rules, the title system, etc. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, the only way to measure the success of chess instruction is by playing in tournaments. I saw one instructor advertise how they had brought their rating up to 1700 in just 14 months, but when I checked their US Chess record, they were getting ready to play in their 3rd Annual Scholastic Chess Championship in a row?! I saw a company in Virginia advertise that it had over 103 active coaches but they were advertising to every affiliate in Virginia looking for a tournament director!! I saw one person charging $60.00 per hour for lessons claiming to have 14 years of tournament experience. He forgot to mention that for 8 of those years, he had not played a single tournament game. To this day, he does not have a category! It means that in his entire playing career, he has never had 5 tournament results that would be considered impressive for someone rated 1200!!
Training Company: The Richmond Chess Initiative is a chess company! We have training offices, meeting space, are licensed and insured for chess. No 1 exposure to any chess idea is going to make any difference unless the student has people, places, and events that are in place for them to be nurtured and grow. The phrase, “Too many cooks spoil the pot!” is as true for chess training as it is for anything else. RCI is and will continue to be the total package when it comes to, “Tournament” and “Total Chess Personality” training in Virginia. Invest your chess dollars with us! We have and will continue to earn it!?
Thanks, Mike C
Scholarship Chess Business Center 