Youth training and chess courses in the Ruhr 55

Learning chess in the Ruhr mostly means joining a club's youth group. A large share of the clubs train children and juniors, usually in the late afternoon before their club night, and many take their young players to youth leagues and junior tournaments. Times and age groups are listed on each entry where the club gives them.

Outside the clubs, the Volkshochschule Essen, the city's adult education centre, has offered evening chess courses for beginners and for advanced players, and the Wilhelm-Hansmann-Haus in Dortmund runs a chess course for people aged fifty and over. A Realschule in Essen and a Gymnasium in Gelsenkirchen have chess working groups and carry the title of a German chess school; they are open only to their own pupils.