About Us

Our Mission

To integrate chess as a learning tool in our nation’s 2nd and 3rd grade classrooms, in order to have an enduring positive impact on our students’ critical thinking and social skills, and ability to achieve academically. 

Our Vision

America’s Foundation for Chess (AF4C) is committed to the education of our children. It is our vision to see that First Move will soon become a regular part of every child's classroom experience. 

In nearly 30 nations around the world, including Venezuela, Iceland and Russia, chess is integrated into the country's scholastic curriculum. In the U.S., despite the numerous studies that demonstrate the impact learning chess education can have on cognitive and critical thinking skills, chess is rarely incorporated into American schools. Our goal is ambitious as we seek to do our part to bring positive change to our educational system. 

This current school year, nearly 50,000 children in 27 states across the country will participate in the First Move program. Our goal in the upcoming school year is to add 1200 new classrooms to the program. Many of those will be schools/districts with high levels of free and reduced lunch, high levels of mobility and/or low state test scores.

Featured Testimonial

Stephanie Manderscheid
Campbell Hill Elementary

My students love to play chess and are very motivated to learn new strategies.  I can see that Chess provides very good opportunities for problem solving and logical thinking skills.  I am amazed at students that may have difficulty in traditional school activities such as reading and
writing, but they can really excel in Chess.  I also appreciate having a resource for extensions and cross curricular connections to chess.

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