K–12 Chess Tournament

The SuperNationals ranks as the foremost competition for young chess players in the country. Kids in grades K–12 from all over the United States travel to Nashville, Tennessee every four years for a weekend long tournament that tests their skills and knowledge of the greatest game. Many winners of this tournament go on to become highly competitive international players.

Chess is an ancient game, and recorded tournament play has been going on for over 100 years. It's popularity exploded in the United States during the 1950s when Bobby Fischer became one of the youngest champions ever.

Chess Pieces

Each of the six different chess pieces has been designed from pure geometric forms in order to appeal to younger children, but each is complex enough to have instant recognizability. These pieces serve as a gateway into the brand identity for the tournament.

The bases of the pieces have different widths based on their importance during play and their heights are in descending order from king to pawn­—from the inside files to the outside. The piece heights and proportions fit the international standards for tournament play.

Logo & Branding

The main logo stems from the merging of two-dimensional chess boards on screens with the height and proportions of three-dimensional pieces. Since traditional Staunton chess pieces have a hierarchy unlike the flat icons used in screens, the pairing of the two creates an interesting perspective. The dimensional piece seen from the side sticks out of the top of flat square seen from above, making the piece a beacon for the tournament. The melding of perspectives speaks to the multidimensionality of playing a game of chess.

The main logo will utilize the king, but it can be used with all the pieces in a system for different tournament types or divisions. The colors can be alternated or reversed to make use of the full color palette. The pieces can also represent various levels within the tournament, creating a tournament hierarchy between the grade levels while still maintaining a consistent branding.

A more illustrative version using the pieces incorporates the player with a clever play on the roman numeral VII, using chess pieces instead of letterforms.

In order to capture the spirit of the chess boom that coincided with Bobby Fischer's rise to fame, Eames Century Modern recalls the same modernist era. This type family pulls from classic mid-century vibes and was designed by Erik van Blokland and released through House Industries in 2010. The family has many styles and weights along with alternate numerals and many ligatures that will work as single typeface for the whole event system.

The color palette uses all the colors associated with chess around the world, but with a bright and energetic twist. While most chess sets are black and white, historically, red and green were just as common. The names of the colors also reflect common materials used to carve chess pieces, like ivory and limestone.

The colors give off a neon vibe and each of the colors has plenty of contrast when used with either ebony or ivory as the foreground color.

Chess Mat

Many players use portable chess mats made from vinyl that can be rolled up and easily carried. The chess mat is a great opportunity to showcase the SuperNationals branding and give the students playing in the tournament a nice keepsake. The mat comes in two variations, one with colored files and the other a more random pattern of colored squares.

Score Card

During matches, players must record the moves from the game on an official scorecard. The scorecard is designed to be on a half sheet of letter paper, so they can be easily duplicated in pairs on a single sheet of paper. The score card features all the required areas of input from each player to keep the scoring concise and easy to understand.

Autograph Book

Since players will be playing dozens of games with people from all over the country, a good way to spread good sportsmanship and help create friendships is to have players sign an autograph book. Players can get signatures from their new friends and exchange information in order to keep in touch after the tournament. The book is a simple stitch bound booklet with grid paper interiors.

Event Signage

With all the rows and rows of tables at the event, large signs on the ends of the tables will help players navigate to the right section during their round. The rows will alternate between lime and coral to help brighten up the room and enhance the feel of the space. Place cards at each board will help players know where to sit once they navigate to their proper row.

Collectible Posters

Competitive chess players keep track of their moves and the moves of their opponent using chess notation. This system uses letters to represent the pieces and an algebraic coordinate system to represent the squares on the board. These posters represent some of the most famous games in chess and are widely know and studied by competitive chess players. To the layman, these posters appear as a jumble of letters and numbers, but to chess players, they are shorthand versions of chess’ greatest achievements.

The posters include The Opera Game—1859, World Championship Game 16—1985, Game of the Century—1956, and Kasparov’s Immortal—1999.

Event Shirts

The shirts would be bright, utilizing the lime and coral event colors, with graphic details in white and black. Two versions of the shirt will be available, one with a chess piece in the front pocket and another with the illustrative logo.

Website and Game Streaming

The new website for SuperNationals will serve as an information hub for the event, where players can sign up for the competition, learn about the venue, and see the schedule for the whole weekend. The site carries the same color palette and type treatment as the logo, and has the additional chess board motif built into the grid structure of the site. The site also has quick access to donation buttons, newsletter sign ups and current player rankings.

The site will also host move by move streams of every single game, so spectators can watch the tournament live from their phone or device of their choosing. The stream will have a player/game search, so it will be easy to find specific games. The game notation would be printable in a format just like the collectible posters, so players can make their own from their best games during the tournament.

Promotional Video

The video plays with th concept of how the pieces move and the around the board movements and creates a more playful and speedy composition. Information about the event appears in different sections of the board, which is panned to create a seamless shot.

The storyboard shows how the logo sits in the same green square as the opening frame, allowing the sequence to form a perfect loop.

The promotional video would be shared on Instagram via the World Chess instagram page to spread awareness of the 2021 tournament. The video would also be posted on the US Chess website, since the contest is held under their supervision and doesn’t have its own website.