The title of Club Instructor (CI) is intended for those who will be running junior chess clubs and similar community chess structures outside of the school system. The title will be conferred on those who have attended a two-day seminar and successfully passed a written exam.
A Club Instructor is expected to be familiar with the following topics:
- Benefits of chess
- Organization of a chess club
- Material requirements and layout
- How to teach chess to a beginner
- Simple pedagogical ideas (Piagets four stages)
- How to run a tournament and other chess events
- Place of a chess club in the world regional organization ICU ECU FIDE
- Chess history origins, development of World Championship, people
- Laws of chess
- Child protection, first aid and legal issues
- Finance and funding
- RSVP resources, sponsors, volunteers, promotion
The topics are almost identical to those for the title of School Instructor (SI), but the emphasis is different, as is some of the content within the topics. For example, organization of a chess club is a major component of the CI seminar syllabus, but a minor part of that for SI.
A candidate for the Club Instructor title does not need to be a chess player, but it may be a practical advantage if they have a chess rating of 1000 or more.
Hand-outs provided at the training seminar will provide all the necessary information for a non-player to become a player (almost overnight) and for all attendees to be able to run a club, handle queries and teach others with confidence.
Successful candidates should consider further developing their skill set in order to gain the Academy Instructor title (the highest granted by the ICU) and then attend a FIDE TRG Seminar in order to progress to the Development Instructor title (the first rung on the ladder of world training titles: Development Instructor, National Instructor, FIDE Instructor, FIDE Trainer, FIDE Senior Trainer).