NY Smart Start · Grades K–12
Think · Plan · Win
Four afternoons a week in Brighton Beach, your child learns to sit with a hard problem, think two moves ahead, and stay calm under pressure. Small groups, two coaches on strategy days, and rated tournament play from the first year.
23 Brighton 11th Street, Brooklyn NY 11235 · Monday–Thursday after school · Open to students from any school
Levels
Two grade-based groups, plus an invitation-only competitive track. If you're not sure where your child belongs, the coach will tell you after the trial lesson.
For children who have never played. We start with how each piece moves and build to a first full game.
12 students max · Mon–Thu
For players who know the rules and want to stop losing pieces. Tactics, patterns, and guided play.
16 students max · Mon–Thu
A competitive track that runs alongside the regular groups. Coaches invite players who are ready for rated play.
12 students max · Tue & Thu
Champions Circle is not the next step up — it runs in parallel. A strong fourth-grader can attend Calculated Thinkers on Monday and Wednesday and Champions Circle on Tuesday and Thursday, at no extra cost.
Weekly schedule
One monthly price covers every session your child's level is running. Miss a Monday, come on Wednesday — nothing to reschedule and nothing extra to pay.
♟Strategic Beginnings
3:00 – 4:15 PM
12 students max
♜Calculated Thinkers
3:00 – 4:15 PM
16 students max
♟Strategic Beginnings
3:00 – 4:15 PM
12 students max
♜Calculated Thinkers
3:00 – 4:15 PM
16 students max
Off
No classes Friday
♜Calculated Thinkers
4:30 – 5:45 PM
16 students max
♟Strategic Beginnings
4:30 – 5:45 PM
12 students max
♜Calculated Thinkers
4:30 – 5:45 PM
16 students max
♟Strategic Beginnings
4:30 – 5:45 PM
12 students max
♛Champions Circle
5:00 – 6:00 PM
12 students max
By invitation♛Champions Circle
5:00 – 6:00 PM
12 students max
By invitationTuesday & Thursday: two parallel groups, two coaches Doors open 15 minutes before each session No classes on BSE holidays and school breaks
Beyond the classroom
Chess only becomes real when a child plays someone they've never met, with a clock running. We build toward that from the start.
We run our own rated events regularly, so a child's first competition happens on familiar boards with familiar faces — no travel, no entry fee, no pressure to be ready.
Coaching goes past strategy into what rated play actually demands: clock management, notation, tournament rules, and holding your nerve in a long game.
Students who are ready compete at local, regional, national and international tournaments, with coaches preparing them for each one.
Every quarter you get a written report on what your child has learned, where they've improved and what the coach is working on next. No guessing.
Why chess
A full game asks for forty minutes of unbroken focus. That habit follows children into homework.
Every move has a consequence you can see on the board. Children learn to check themselves first.
Nobody wins every game. Reviewing a loss with a coach turns frustration into a next step.
The same small group meets four days a week. Rivalries here tend to turn into friendships.
Coaches
A titled player and a tournament director — one who has competed at the highest level, one who has spent years building chess programs for children in South Brooklyn.
International Master · FIDE 2300
Kakha brings decades of competitive play to the board and has been teaching since 2022, from children learning how the pieces move to advanced players preparing for rated competition. He is unusually good at taking a complex idea apart and rebuilding it in language a child can use.
He also holds a degree in mathematics and has years of experience tutoring middle-school students, which shows in how he teaches calculation and pattern recognition. He speaks Georgian and Russian as well as English.
USCF Certified Tournament Director
Collin led the chess club at Wesleyan University, where he built a community of players and expanded opportunities for competitive play. In 2023 the Connecticut State Chess Association named him Volunteer of the Year for his work organizing tournaments across the state.
He has spent the past year teaching and developing chess programs across South Brooklyn. A self-taught player himself, he knows what curiosity and stubbornness can do for a student who is willing to keep going.
Curriculum
Children do not simply play games for an hour. Each stage has material to cover, and a coach knows exactly what your child has learned and what comes next.
Intro
Under 300 Elo
Intermediate
300–700 Elo
Advanced
700–1200 Elo
Highly advanced
Above 1200 Elo
Master games we study
Advanced students work through annotated classics rather than abstract exercises — Capablanca on deflection, the Opera Game for development and the pin, Fischer–Spassky on color complexes, Kasparov–Karpov on the knight outpost, Rotlewi–Rubinstein on active pieces, Steinitz–Von Bardeleben on building an attack. Roughly seventeen games in all, each chosen to teach one idea clearly.
Tuition
$160
per month · billed monthly
Every class at your child's level, plus rated play
Sign up for a free trial lessonParents
In their own words.
Questions
No. Strategic Beginnings assumes zero experience — we start with how the pieces move. Most children play their first full game within two weeks.
Every session your child's level runs that month — four a week, Monday through Thursday — with two coaches on the parallel strategy sessions. Equipment is provided, in-house rated tournaments are included, and there is no per-class fee. Billing is monthly.
Yes, the trial lesson is free. Your child joins a real session with the group they'd be placed in, and afterwards the coach tells you which level fits.
Nothing to reschedule. Your child can attend any other session at their level that week — there's one almost every day.
By coach invitation, from third grade upward. It runs in parallel with the regular groups rather than replacing them, so an invited player keeps attending their own level as well — at no extra cost.
Yes. The Academy runs its own rated tournaments regularly, and students who are ready compete at local, regional, national and international events with their coach's preparation.
You receive a written progress report every quarter covering what your child has learned, where they've grown, and what the coach is working on next. Coaches are also available after any session.
All sessions run at 23 Brighton 11th Street, Brooklyn NY 11235, and the room opens 15 minutes early so children can settle in. There are no classes on Brooklyn School of Excellence holidays and school breaks.
No. The Chess Academy is open to all children, from any school in the neighborhood.
Enroll
Tell us your child's grade and we'll confirm a session by phone within one school day.
Online forms are temporarily unavailable. Please use the school contact details below.
Contact the schoolIn the live version this sends an email to info.bse23@gmail.com and adds a row to the enrollment spreadsheet. We'd call you back within one school day.
