What happens during chess club?

The weekly chess club meetings are broken up into two portions. First, the coach teaches a lesson.  The lessons begin with rules and basic strategy, and as the weeks go on they become more advanced. For the second half of each meeting, the students are broken up into pairs to play a ladder game. Each player is paired against an opponent of similar skill. The students may also learn how to write down their moves (which is called taking notation). Students who are active in tournaments often use club ladder games as a chance to practice taking notation.