Chess Merit Badge

Overview

Chess is among the oldest board games in the world, and it ranks among the most popular games ever created. Chess is played worldwide—even over the Internet. Players meet for fun and in competition, everywhere from kitchen tables and park benches to formal international tournaments.

Requirements

(1) Do the following:
- (a) Discuss with your counselor the history of the game of chess.
  
  Resources: A Brief History of Chess (video)
- (b) Research a famous chess player and what accomplishments made him or her famous. Discuss with your counselor.
  
  Resources: Story of World Chess Champion Magnus Carlsen! (video), The ‘Queen of Chess’ Who Defeated Kasparov (video), Chess Champ Bobby Fischer on 60 Minutes (video)
(2) Discuss with your counselor the following:
- (a) Why chess is considered a game of planning and strategy.
  
  Resources: Why Every Strategist Should Learn Chess (video)
- (b) The benefits of playing chess, including developing critical thinking skills, concentration skills, and decision-making skills, and how these skills can help you in other areas of your life.
  
  Resources: 14 Shocking Benefits of Playing Chess (video)
- (c) Sportsmanship and chess etiquette
  
  Resources: The Morals of Chess by Benjamin Franklin (video), Chess Etiquette (video), Understanding Resignation and Respect in Chess (video)
(3) Demonstrate to your counselor that you know each of the following. Then, using Scouting EDGE to teach someone who does not know how to play chess:

Resources: The EDGE Method of Teaching (PDF)
- (a) The name of each chess piece
  
  Resources: Chess 101: Name the Pieces (video)
- (b) How to set up a chessboard
  
  Resources: How to Set Up the Chess Board (video)
- (c) How each chess piece moves and captures, including: four rules of castling, en passant captures, pawn promotion, check, ways to get out of check, and checkmate.
  
  Resources: How to Move the Chess Pieces? (video), Chess: Castling and En Passant (video), Check! | Chess Term (video), Checkmate | Chess Terms (video)
- (d) The five ways a game can end in a draw
  
  Resources: Draw and Stalemate in Chess Explained (video)
(4) Do the following:
- (a) Demonstrate scorekeeping using the algebraic system of chess notation.
  
  Resources: Learn How To Record Your Chess Games, Read Books and Communicate (video)
- (b) Discuss the differences between the opening, the middle game, and the endgame.
  
  Resources: What Is a Chess Opening? (video), The Dreaded Middlegame (video), What Is the Endgame in Chess? (video), A Beginner’s Guide to Chess: Opening, Middlegame, and Endgame Principles (video)
- (c) Explain four opening principles. Demonstrate for your counselor the first five moves of the following openings: Ruy Lopez, French Defense, Queen’s Gambit Declined, Sicilian Defense.
  
  Resources: The Ruy Lopez: The Opening Every Chess Player Must Know (video), The French Defense Chess Opening Explained in 4 Minutes by a Chess Master! (video), Learn the Queen’s Gambit Declined (video), Chess Openings: Sicilian Defense (video)
- (d) On a chessboard, demonstrate Scholar’s Mate, Fool’s Mate, Légal Mate, Fried Liver Attack, and Noah’s Ark Trap.
  
  Resources: Fools Mate Scholar’s Mate and a Nice Tactic (video), Legal’s Mate Trap: Chess Opening Trick To Fool Your Opponent & Win Fast (video), The Fried Liver Attack in 1 Minute (video), Chess Trap: Noah’s Ark Trap—Guy Lopez (video)
(5) Do the following:
- (a) Explain four of the following elements of chess strategy: exploiting weaknesses, force, king safety, pawn structure, space, tempo, and clock management.
  
  Resources: How To Identify and Exploit Weaknesses (video), Only One Move Wins! (Understanding Forcing Moves) (video), The Top 5 Priorities for Any Chess Opening! (video), Pawn Structures in Chess (video)
- (b) Explain any five of these chess tactics: clearance sacrifice, decoy, discovered attack, double check, double attack, fork, interposing, overloading, overprotecting, pin, skewer, remove the defender, zwischenzug, and zugzwang.
  
  Resources: Everything You Need to Know About Chess: Tactics & Strategy! (video), Every Chess Tactic Explained in 4 Minutes (video), Decoy vs Deflection (video), Interposing (video), Zugzwang (video)
- (c) Set up a chessboard as follows and with White to move first, demonstrate how to force checkmate on the Black king:
- (1) White on e1, the White rooks on a1 and h1, and the Black king on e5.
- (2) White King on e1, White queen on d1, Black king on e5.
- (3) White king on e1, White rook on a1, Black king on e5.
- (d) With White king on d4, White pawn on e3, and Black king on e6:
- (1) With White to move, demonstrate how White can force Black to allow his pawn to reach the last rank and be promoted to a queen.
- (2) With Black to move, demonstrate how Black can force a draw.
- (e) Set up and solve five direct-mate problems provided by your counselor.
(6) Explain to your counselor how chess tournaments are run, including the Swiss system tournament format, the round robin tournament format, pairings for each round, time controls, touch move, scoring, and chess ratings.

Resources: Why Swiss-Style Tournaments Are the BEST Tournaments! (video), How To Use a Chess Clock (video), Round Robin Tournament (video), How To Play: Touch Moves (video), Chess Piece Values—How Much Is Each Chess Piece Worth? (video), How the Elo Rating System Works in Chess (video), The Elo Rating System for Math Nerds (video)
(7) Do ONE of the following:
- (a) Play at least three games of chess with other Scouts and/or your counselor. Replay the games from your score sheets and discuss with your counselor how you might have played each game differently.
- (b) Play in a scholastic (youth) chess tournament and use your score sheets from that tournament to replay your games with your counselor. Discuss with your counselor how you might have played each game differently.
- (c) Organize and run a chess tournament with at least four players, plus you. Have each competitor play at least two games.
  
  Resources: Example Tournament Chart (PDF)

Resources

Note: This is an unofficial archive of Scouts BSA Merit Badges that was automatically extracted from the Scouting America website and may contain errors.