We are highly accomplished, nationally and internationally awarded, metro Detroit chess team that prides itself on not only teaching young minds the game of chess, but instilling key life skills and high ethic character and values.

The Detroit City Chess Club has been active for more than a decade with an increasing number of members. Coach Kevin Fite started the program at Duffield Middle School and has now expanded and taught at over ten schools.

This very active program travels to at least eight cities nationally to compete in chess tournaments. The value of giving young minds the opportunity to travel outside of the city, compete with players from all over the world, is incredible....and costly.

Over the years our highly decorated team has won 1st place national titles in various levels within the United States Chess Federation (USCF) elementary, Jr. High and high school tournaments as a group and individual players.

Most recently, this past weekend two of our players won first place titles, in the two top divisions, in a Canadian tournament with very stiff competition. It was great to hear a young Detroiter say, " Beating the Canadians made me feel like Bobby Fisher must have felt beating the Russians against Spasky in the 1970s." Comments like these represent the goal of our program. Although chess is a one on one game, they play as a team, think critically and represent a greater good. Awesome!

Our program, gratuitously has been hosted at the DIA for more than 10 years. While the numbers of players and the travel for tournaments have grown, unfortunately the sponsorship, has not.

This year, we are proud to be hosting Michigan's very first International Chess tournament, sponsored by the USCF. Our goal is to host tournaments in the metro Detroit area (instead of always travelling to other cities.) This is a big win for Detroit, Michigan, US, and especially the area's young minds. This grant would help us with the cost of the venue.