WHY FREE FAQ

Why does Charlotte Free Chess insist on all of their chess clubs being free

Paying for a chess club doesn’t provide anything of value to the chess club member. Therefore, if your only objective is to provide the best chess club with the largest reach, you would never charge for it if you could get away with it. Can we get away with it? We’re doing it right now!

How do you pay your bills?

We get everything we need from volunteers and donations.

What's wrong with paid chess clubs?

Nothing. There are lots of paid chess programs in the world that do excellent work. That's simply not how we do things.

Why not just give scholarships to members that can’t afford to pay?

Because that doesn’t work..

I’ve worked in school chess clubs for 20 years, often for orgs that (theoretically) give scholarships. Among the thousands of kids of kids I”ve taught chess, I can count the ones who were on a scholarship on one hand The reasons for that could be discussed, but the track record remains. If you want to maximize the reach of your school chess club, including children who can’t afford it, the club needs to be free.