This significantly changes your objectives as a classroom teacher when introducing or exploring this game. Allow the students to place themselves into these broad groups. As they play, encourage them to play against students in the same division. This division will also give you a way to run a tournament that you might want to use as a culminating activity for chess or other games. Chess category for more handy resources.
Games records moves using a simple letter and number coordinate system.
Students don't need to understand the code to play the game, but they do need the code to understand the way the moves are recorded. Chess is another game that is suited to team play. Teams can suggest strategies in writing, but can t just tell the player what to do. Most papers have a daily chess challenge, where an arrangement is given that would result in a checkmate in a specified number of moves if the reader makes the right move. You could post the challenge and give students time to respond with what they think the correct move should be.