Manners everyone can see

When you are kind at the board, people want to play you again. Chess manners are small things you say and do. You use them in a chess lesson and when you play a game. You can learn them all in just one game.

Before, during and after

Here is what good manners look like.

• In a lesson, raise your hand when you want to say something. Let the coach finish talking first.
• Before the game, shake hands and say "good luck".
• During the game, sit still and wait quietly while your opponent thinks.
• After a win, shake hands and say "good game", and never tease the player who lost.
• After a loss, shake hands and say "good game" too, and then ask for a rematch.

Noise makes it hard for your opponent to think. In tournaments, being quiet is even a real rule.

The handshake

The handshake says: we play hard, and we stay friends. Hold out your hand and look your opponent in the eye. Then say the words, so they know you mean it. The rule book of chess, called the Laws of Chess, never mentions the handshake. But FIDE, the world chess federation, still expects it at its events. Players shake hands all over the world. The very best players do it, and now you do too.

What if my opponent has no manners?

Sometimes an opponent sighs, taps the table or laughs at your move. Keep your own good manners anyway. Stay calm until the game is over. Afterwards, tell a grown-up what happened. At a tournament, you can also tell the arbiter, the chess referee.

How you get the sticker

This is a sticker you never ask for. Your grown-up or coach watches how you behave in lessons and at the board. When they have seen good manners again and again, they hand you the sticker. If you have no club yet, then your grown-up at home watches, or your teacher at school. Did you have good manners like this before you had the passport? It still counts.