Steve Schneider began working with children and chess in 1974. At that time in Georgia, there were no more than 3 tournaments opened to scholastic players per year. Now, there are often more than 3 scholastic tournaments per week.

Over the 25 years that he has worked with children and chess, he has developed a system that works well to train players. To encourage more young players, he started after-school chess leagues and team tournaments. Today there are thousands of scholastic players and hundreds of events for them to play in across the state.