Family who are hoping to
show young people how much fun chess can be
Jan 3 2012
You don’t need to be an intellectual
genius to play chess, Cathy Owen meets one
Cardiff family hoping to show young people
how it can be both fun and beneficial WHEN
Tim Kett was four years old, he begged his
parents for a chessboard.
The 2nd CSC Manchester
Junior Congress took place
on Saturday 17 December at
Ashton Bridge Club with a
record 53 entries. 12 local
schools were represented
with the year group prizes
being well spread between 8
of the schools.
The children some of whom
only learnt the moves in
September played 6 games
each and in between the
rounds a quick tips coaching
session was held. Many of
the children asked when the
next event was to be held -
we expect that this will be
at Easter
- David Hardy
Swansea Schools Report 2011
22
November 2011
Swansea Chess Academy Wales has four
schools enrolled on the CSC programme.
Lessons to reach an estimated 200+ children.
In this Autumn term I have started teaching
at two of the schools with Ian Eustis
(retired teacher and Director of Junior
Chess in Wales in nearby Pontardawe) lending
support in Craigfelen Primary.
Gors Community Primary School (Townhill
Swansea) focuses on years 3 and 4.
Craigfelen Primary School Clydach (North
Swansea/ Lower Swansea Valley Region) caters
for years 3/4/5 and 6.
Deborah Evans, Geraint Davies MP
and Garry Kasparov with children
from Gors Community Primary School,
Swansea
As expected Chess activity has been well
received in the schools with some children
bursting at the seams! Teachers, children
and parents are enthusiastic and friendly.
Staff support the lessons; very helpful when
organizing the worksheet activity that I
like to mark on the spot to reinforce
learning. Also there are some children
(varying ethnic groups) with language and
learning difficulties where support from
staff has been essential.
Some children can play reasonable moves
but generally I am continually learning
myself in how to best improve teaching
delivery. The CSC resources are solid.
Typically, as in all teaching subjects,
activities that work well with one group
don’t necessarily work as well with a
different group. For instance, I played a
simul with one group and was able to
assess/correct illegal moves etc with
individuals but with another group the
exercise was laboriously difficult for many
of them. The main skill is keeping the
children in a frame of mind where they feel
they are improving and enjoying.
Future developments
Both schools have expressed an interest
in having a school match helped by the fact
that some of the staff have worked in
schools together previously. Some children
may attend a CAW private run extra training
day in March.
One school is prepared to try out an
after school club.
As a practicing Artist (www.beehappenings.com)
I would like to introduce
art/craft/design/creative writing and
presentation skills but haven’t caught my
breath long enough yet to sit down and
workout a plan of action for this. Possibly
I would be able to apply for local funding
relating to the Arts to do a one-day
workshop. Visuals in the school and creative
development would add another dimension to
the Chess Project. I am still aiming to put
in an application for the 2012 London
Olympic Aspire Mark project linking
qualities needed by the chess player to
sports person qualities.
Trip to the Houses of
Parliament
On October the 18th we took some pupils
from Gors Community School and Craigfelen
Primary School to Westminster for the CSC
First Birthday event at the House of
Commons. Wallis Thompson from Craigfelen was
on-air with Nigel Short and myself being
interviewed by Radio BBC Wales Breakfast
Show ‘Good Morning Wales’ before we caught
the train from Swansea Central that morning.
The Swansea Evening Post reported the
event and published
the above photo, (Craigfelen in Red
Jayden and Wallis and Gors in Blue Lauren
and Annie) which has hopefully helped raise
the profile of chess for schools in general.
A really memorable and fun day out. The
award ceremony at school later in the month,
when the children received the certificates
and medallion momentum from CSC, meant that
the whole school could join in the
celebration and take a pride in the Chess
Project at their school.
Our Westminster trip attracted the
attention of the local press. The Hartlepool
Mail printed one article before the event
and one after (copies below). The originals
were in full colour.
It is great that we are still managing to
get our chess news into the papers, four
terms on from the initial coverage we
enjoyed.
Meanwhile, we
have achieved another notable community
breakthrough. Redcar Chess Club are going to
open their doors early every week to provide
a suitable playing environment for our more
experienced players. As we have several
schools in the Redcar area, it is hoped that
this new collaborative venture will be a
considerable success. I wonder which of our
CSC juniors will be the first to make a
debut in the local chess league?
CSC is up-and-running with four schools
signed up to the programme in Cardiff. In
this Autumn term we have started teaching at
two of them:
Kitchener Primary School in the Riverside
area and Mount Stuart Primary in Butetown.
In both schools we have been welcomed by
helpful teachers and hugely enthusiastic
pupils – their excitement is so rewarding
and delightful. They’re probably just
naturally polite but they make us feel like
the morning or afternoon we spend with them
is the highlight of their school week.
The mixture of Year 3 and Year 4
children, almost without exception, had not
played any chess in their lives before.
Although they had heard some of the names of
the pieces only a couple had any idea how
any of them moved.
Over the next few weeks therefore we took
them slowly and steadily through (in order)
the Pawns, the Rooks, the Kings, the
Bishops, the Knights and the Queens.
In each case we would learn how they
moved then play mini-games using just those
pieces or those pieces plus pawns so that
they gradually came to master them.
Now at last they are able to play “proper
chess” and once we return from half-term
we’ll be getting engrossed in the mysteries
of opening (develop those bishops and
knights) and middlegame tactics (watch out
for forks and pins). We can’t wait and
neither can they!
Future developments
We are building up towards a Junior Team
Tournament taking place in Cardiff on the
3rd December and will have teams there
representing each of the four CSC schools.
Our next report will be all about that – a
first taste of tournament chess for most of
the children. In January we will be adding
two more schools to the weekly teaching
rota:
St Paul’s Primary School in
Grangetown and Hawthorn Primary School
in Llandaff North. We have started
supporting these schools already and
established chess clubs there, but we look
forward to giving all Year 3 / Year 4 pupils
the opportunity to learn the game.
Trip to the House of
Parliament
On October
the 18th we took some pupils from St Paul’s
up to Westminster for the CSC First Birthday
event at the House of Commons. Here is a
shot of the children lining up for Garry’s
signature
A fantastic day was had by all and the
four children; Euan and Matthew Richards,
Eve Farrow and Owen Stanley all gave great
account of themselves in the simultaneous
display by Nigel Short.
Finally here are the four St Paul’s
children posing with their MP Alun Michael
(Lab, Cardiff South and Penarth). All in all
a great start, and we look forward to
helping take CSC from strength to strength
here in Cardiff.
Our trip to Westminster to take part in
the CSC's birthday celebrations had taken a
lot of planning and everyone was very
excited at the prospect of enjoying a
fantastic day
Our party of 10 had a very early start to
the day but nobody minded that. From the
moment we boarded the train at just after
7.30 a.m. to the minute we arrive back on
Teesside - 14 hours later - every second was
packed with fun and excitement. Most of our
children were visiting London for the first
time. 'Will we see the building with the big
clock?' one asked; 'Indeed we will - that's
exactly where we are heading!'
Once in London, we took a route on foot
through Green Park and St. James's Park,
passing Buckingham Palace, Horse Guards
Parade, Downing Street, Westminster Abbey
and various other famous bits and pieces
before arriving at The Palace of
Westminster.
Once inside, it was time for chess, of
course. Our children couldn't wait to start
playing games against each other, taking the
opportunity to sharpen their skills before
facing the mighty Grandmaster Short, who was
set to play the juniors in a simultaneous
display. Nigel went on to win all of his
games over the course of the afternoon, but
he did have help from a variety of people,
including MP Rachel Reeves, IM Malcolm Pein,
GM Jonathan Rowson and even GM Garry
Kasparov!
We met our local MPs in addition to a
gallery of chess stars and fellow students.
A group photo with Grandmaster Kasparov was
a particular highlight. Victoria was even
interviewed for 'Newsround'.
The chess celebration had been a great
success. After a quick look upstairs in the
House of Commons it was time to head back to
King's Cross (stopping only at McDonald's).
Our children still hadn't had enough
chess. While the adults in our party would
rather have had a sleep, we watched instead
as the children played game after game on
their portable sets.
And then, after four trains, four tubes
and a fair bit of shoe leather, the day's
journeys were at an end (well, not quite for
the Throston party, who still had a taxi
trip to come).
What a fabulous day! Thank you to all of
the organisers who made it possible and
thank you too to the wonderful people in my
group (June, Andrea, Neil, Chloe, Jack,
Leah, Frankie, Victoria and Caitlin). Same
again next year...!?
MP Rachel Reeves visits Valley View
School Chess Club
14 October 2011
Next week, two pupils from Valley View
school will join schoolchildren from across
the country in Parliament, for a Chess in
Schools event with Gary Kasparov and Nigel
Short. In advance of their visit, Rachel
today visited Valley View School to meet the
students learning chess, and to play against
12 of them at once!
Although none of them quite managed to
beat Rachel, all the pupils had a great
time, as did Rachel;
"It's great to see young people engaging
in chess, which helps to build their
problem-solving and logic skills, as well as
being great fun. I'm looking forward to next
week, when I'll be able to host some of my
local schoolchildren in the Parliamentary
event."
The 17th Yarm Chess Championship took
place at Yarm Preparatory School on Saturday
8 October. For the first time, we focused
solely on the Primary and Preparatory age
groups.
I was anticipating an increase in entries
at this level due to my work with the Chess
in Schools and Communities charity so when
Johannes Grundmann of Yarm School and I
started the initial planning for the event
back in the month of June, it was agreed to
postpone the Secondary School section until
later in the season.
My hopes were not in vain. The tournament
attracted entries from no fewer than 30
teams and 13 teams were making their debuts.
Each team consisted of four players, so we
had 120 children playing chess.
The last time I had a similar number
juniors in one tournament was back in 1993,
at the height of the publicity generated by
the Kasparov - Short World Championship
match. Even then, the tally of 130 children
was boosted by the addition of sections for
Under-13s and Under-18s, so 120 players from
the Under-9 and Under-11 groups we had at
Yarm makes it our biggest Primary event to
date.
By coincidence, the two Grandmasters met
in another match on the same weekend as our
tournament (a Blitz match, won narrowly by
GM Kasparov).
We like to give some of the children the
extra responsibility of being a team
captain. Their job is to organise their
teams and report the results directly to me
This works well, despite the occasional
misreported result (a couple of
inadvertently (?) reversed 3-1 scorelines
led to one or two crossings-out on my
pairings!).
Royal Grammar School (Newcastle) won both
the Under-9 and Under-11 sections of the
tournament (they have a habit of doing
that!). For our CSC teams from Whale Hill,
Ings Farm, Throston and John Emmerson Batty,
the emphasis was very much on gaining
valuable experience Only Redcar's John
Emmerson Batty Primary managed to stop RGS
making it a clean sweep for the top three
places. They were making their tournament
debut and produced a terrific team effort,
finishing third in the tough Under-9
section. Captain Nina Pattinson was the only
person in either section to take anything
from an individual encounter with an RGS A
team player; she drew - by stalemate!
As more of our players gain the
confidence required to play in tournaments,
so our numbers will continue to grow. It
will be interesting to see how many teams we
can attract to the tournament in 2012.
22 Sept 11 -
There was a big turnout for the
course for school teachers and teaching
assistants at Hyde in Manchester on 22
September given by John Foley, the CSC
course director. David Hardy, the local CSC
chess tutor organised the event and welcomed
over twenty participants. We spent an
intensive day learning how chess can be made
exciting for primary school children.
The course started by confirming the
benefits of chess for developing thinking
skills such as concentration and analysis.
Links to the school curriculum were
identified. The 15% improvement in academic
performance associated with playing chess in
schools was noted. The structured course
then proceeded at a fast pace with an
emphasis on practical classroom exercises.
The basic principles of teaching chess were
communicated in a lively way using a chess
demonstration board, a flipchart and a
projector.
The attendees tried out instructional
chess variants such as mini-games which
gradually lead children up to the orthodox
form of chess and beyond. They learned the
distinction between material and spatial
concepts in child development psychology.
They explored the use of coloured blocks to
illustrate which squares are attacked and
also to depict the fascinating geometrical
contours generated by individual pieces.
Much fun was had acting out fundamental
concepts such as checkmate – an exercise
always popular with children. The CSC
primary school curriculum was explained. The
social aspects of chess were emphasised with
sessions on the touch move rule and chess
etiquette. By the end of the course, some
participants were avidly playing exchange
chess which is popular in junior chess.
Course handouts included the curriculum and
the teacher’s guide.
The participating schools included: St.
George's CE Primary School, Holden Clough
Primary School, St. Francis Xavier's
College, St. George's CE Primary School,
Millbrook School, Greenside Primary School,
Holy Trinity CE Dobcross, Waterloo Primary
School, Hey with Zion Primary, Stalyhill
Junior School and St Peters RC HS.
We hope more schools can attend next time
for this well-received course.
CSC
Teesside Report, Sept-Oct 2011
Following a fantastic first year and a
good summer break, it was back to school for
the start of a new term – and of course,
hundreds of new chess players.
Yes, it was back to basics, starting with
the humble pawn and its confusing way of
capturing pieces in a different way to its
normal move. After all, in chess not
everything will be straight forward.
There are differences this year. We have
started up chess clubs in nearly all of the
schools to cater for the children who were
in last year’s classes. This should ensure
continuity and hopefully embed very strong
chess roots into the schools, eventually
making chess an essential part of their
general school culture.
We have some more new schools on board
too as the CSC continues to grow. It’s all
very exciting.
Last year’s players will be able to test
their strength at the forthcoming Yarm Chess
Championship, which is open to Primary and
Preparatory school teams of four players. I
have always enjoyed using chess to break
down the barriers between schools. It will
be very interesting to see how our new teams
fare against some of the more experienced
players.
There's a very special celebratory event
happening in October and no doubt a full
report will follow soon.
Meanwhile, here are a few photos from the
Summer Chess Masterclass I ran in August at
Ings Farm Primary School. A good time was
had by all!
How time flies! Suddenly
we have completed the first full year for
the Chess in Schools and Communities project
- and what a terrific year it has been!
The final month saw a
further increase in activity rather than a
quiet winding down. Extra events included:
1) A CSC Training Day for
teachers, which was presented by John Foley.
This was well attended and we have received
very positive feedback from all concerned.
John made the day fun and
instructive. Activities included basic games
of Fox v Hounds, role-play, chess variations
and a wide range of excellent ideas on how
to teach chess to children.
There's no doubt that all
of the teachers who took part in the
training felt much more confident by the end
of the day. We are hoping to run a similar
event next year.
2) A number of our
players in action at the Derby 'Gigafinal'.
None of our new stars were outclassed and
they thoroughly enjoyed the experience. They
are all looking forward to the 2012 UK Chess
Challenge (and so am I). Congratulations and
thanks to Mike Basman for continuing to run
the world's biggest (and best) chess
tournament.
3) Whale Hill Primary and
Ings Farm Primary ran special Parents' Days
towards the end of term.
Parents, Grandparents,
Uncles and Aunts were all made very welcome
as they were able to find out for themselves
what our chess scheme was all about.
Some of the adults were
brave novices at the start of the day and
the children were magnificent as they set
about explaining the basics to their pupils.
However, some were already good players and
questions were asked about local chess
clubs.
It was great to see the
community aspect developed and we will
definitely be repeating days such as these.
4) For the last couple of
sessions in the schools, we put some of the
chess variants we had discussed at the
training day to good use. The children
really enjoyed getting to grips with the
likes of 'Cross Chess' (or 'Exchange
Chess'), 'Suicide Chess', 'Check Chess',
'Crusher Chess' plus one or two more.
The photos show some
'Cross Chess' encounters in action at
Westgarth Primary School.
Our recent team
tournament certainly caught the imagination
of the local press. We had coverage in three
newspapers and all of them included
photographs with their reports.
Let's hope there's plenty
more coverage to come as our players
continue to achieve such wonderful things
(hopefully to be continued at the
forthcoming 'Gigafinal'!)
The final term of the
school year saw the introduction of yet
another new event for our eager chess
players. All of the schools involved in the
Teesside branch of the project were invited
to participate in The First CSC Teesside
Chess Championship, with Whale Hill Primary
as the venue. Teams consisted of four
players and the championship was run over
two rounds using the Jamboree system.
Ings Farm, Throston and
John Emmerson Batty moved ahead of the pack
after the first round. The latter faded
slightly during round two, but it Ings Farm
and Throston both kept up their terrific
early pace. Indeed, they went on to share
first place with a magnificent score.
Final scores
7½: Ings Farm, Throston
4½: John Emmerson Batty
3½: Pennyman, Whale Hill
1½: Caedmon
(A couple of our schools had
calendar clashes and were unable to play.)
So Ings Farm and Throston
will now share the new trophy until next
year. Members of the winning teams received
medals too.
It was very good to see
teams from our schools united for the first
time and to see how far the children have
progressed since learning the basic moves
back in September. They all mixed together
extremely well and now they have lots of new
friends from all over Teesside.
We had plenty of success
stories at the York 'Megafinal'.
Following hard on the
heals of Victoria Lynn's 'Suprema' success
at the Newcastle 'Megafinal' earlier in the
month, our schools came away with four more
trophies.
Leah Kay (Whale Hill) and
Frankie Whelan (Whale Hill) were the winners
of the Under-7 Girls and Under-7 Boys
respectively. Faye Thompson (Whale Hill) is
the new 'Under-11 Suprema' and Chloe Holmes
(Ings Farm) captured the Under-9 girls;
title.
We look forward to seeing
them in action at the 'Gigafinal' in July.
Chess in Schools and
Communities was proud to organise its first
tournament, the first chess event in
Liverpool for Primary Schools for many
years.
The venue was St.
Michaels Catholic Primary School, Guion St.
and the teams enjoyed the superb facilities
and hospitality that the hosts offered. The
format of the competition was a 4 Round
Swiss for the 8 teams each with 6 players.
It was thought that any of the four Year 5
or Year 6 teams could win, whilst younger
players would gain valuable experience as
they fought for the Year 2-4 prize.
Monksdown took an early
lead, but the second round saw them defeated
by Wellesbourne 3½-2½ as St. Margarets beat
Northway 4-2. In Round 3 Monksdown beat St.
Margarets 4-2 in what proved to be the
decisive match. After 3 rounds it was
incredibly close as Northway and
Wellesbourne led with 13 points, followed by
Monksdown with 12½. Meanwhile Sacred Heart
(Year 2) led the race for the best Year 4 or
below prize, just ahead of St. Michaels and
Blueberry Park.
The standard of chess was
high as experienced onlookers marvelled at
the way the children played an opening,
castled, spotted forks and back-rank mate
tactics and so on. It is difficult to
believe that last November none of these
children had ever played chess.
So the scene was set for
the last round. The 2 leaders met as
Northway beat Wellesbourne 4-2 but Monksdown
won 5-1 to take the trophy and gold medals,
only a half-point ahead of Northway with St.
Margarets a further away in third place.
Only 2 game points separated the top 4
teams. St. Michaels just shaded Sacred Heart
for the Year 2-4 medals.
The tournament was a
great success as players and teachers said
how much they had enjoyed it. Everyone is
looking forward to much more chess next
year.
Prize-winners
1st
Monksdown
2nd
Northway
3rd
St. Margarets (Anfield)
Year 2-4
St. Michaels
Winners:
Monksdown Primary
School,
2nd place:
Northway Primary School,
3rd place: St. Margarets
(Anfield)
Primary School,
1st
place (years 2-4) St. Michaels
Primary School.
Victoria Lynn of Throston
Primary School won the U-9 Girls' section of
the Newcastle 'Megafinal'. She was one of
ten Throston players in action. Michael
Anderson and Caitlin Jobling both won
certificates and all of the children
thoroughly enjoyed the experience.
Victoria is looking forward
to testing her strength at the 'Gigafinal'
in July.
All of our other schools
are eligible for the York 'Megafinal' (June
12) so we are hoping a few more Teesside
players can match Victoria's excellent
achievement.
Proud winner: Victoria Lynn of
Throston Primary School
I was delighted that 4
children from Sacred Heart (Year 2) went to
the Oldham Megafinal last Saturday and 3 of
them won rosettes (at least 3½/6).
But I am thrilled that
Emily Adams (no relation to a certain
Cornishman) won the U7 Girls Suprema title
and trophy. Knowing the strength of Primary
School chess in Ormskirk, Manchester and
Oldham (CSC, 3Cs, etc.) this is a tremendous
achievement.
Suddenly we are two thirds
of the way through the school year.
Not so long ago we were
teaching the very basic moves to classrooms
full of complete novices. Now our young
chess players have experienced the highs and
lows of tournament chess for the first time
and some have achieved qualification for the
‘Megafinal’ stage of the UK Chess Challenge.
The ‘Megafinals’ will be
a tough test of their new skills but the
excitement and experience should stay with
them for a very long time.
As we head into the third
and final term of the year, the thought
occurs that the older (Year 6) children will
soon be leaving Primary life behind and
(hopefully) spreading a little chess around
in their new Secondary schools.
Before that, we still
have an action-packed term ahead of us. The
chess work has become more advanced and the
children are steadily improving their skills
and increasing their knowledge. They are
enjoying tackling tougher sets of chess
problems and looking forward to the next
challenge. After the ‘Megafinals’ we are
hoping to develop a series of inter-school
matches within our clusters. The social side
of chess should never be underestimated; I’m
a great believer in mixing up people from
different schools and seeing how they adapt,
make friends and learn from each other.
Meanwhile, there’s no
doubt that chess is having an impact on
their lives. At Whale Hill Primary School
the other day, I was delighted to see the
chess players dressed as Kings and Queens
(luckily, on Royal Wedding week, they didn’t
look out of place once they left the chess
room).
The RAC (Royal Automobile
Club) has a long association with chess. As part
of the celebration of their centenary they
gathered 10 top British players for a 100 board
simultaneous exhibition on the 16th April. A
team of 10 children representing CSC from
Ravenscroft School and William Patten School
were invited to play. Everyone had a lovely day!
The Grandmasters were all England
internationals: Mickey Adams (British Champion),
Luke McShane, David Howell, Julian Hodgson, Gawain
Jones, Nick Pert, Stephen Gordon, Jon Speelman,
Simon Williams and Jovanka Houska.
Parents and
Children look on as I give a demonstration
lesson
It was a normal Wednesday afternoon at the
CSC headquarters and I had set off to do my
weekly lesson at Ravenscroft Primary School
in Newham, one of five schools the charity
supports in the borough. However, the school
had other plans!
It was the first week back after the
Christmas break and the children were still
buzzing from the highlight of a visit from
Santa Claus and the sparkling lights on
Christmas trees. There were cries of: “I got
an amazing chess set for Christmas!” or “I
got Chess on the Wii” and “I got Chess on
the DS”. It seemed that chess presents were
a big thing on their Christmas wish list.
[continue
reading]
We'd been 'threatening'
our players with the impending arrival of
the UK Chess Challenge for quite a while and
now it is here. The children are in a state
of real excitement as they experience
tournament chess for the first time in their
lives. 'Even when you are World Champion', I
told them, 'you will always remember that
the UK Chess Challenge was your first eve
tournament'.
It is easy to forget that
the vast majority of our players knew
nothing about chess until a few short months
ago. Now they are having their vocabularies
extended too, with words such as 'Megafinal'
and 'Gigafinal'.
It will be an interesting
test of skill and temperament. Who can keep
their nerve and continue to win games? Who
will be able to recover from frustrating
defeats?
The highs and lows of
competitive chess have entered their lives.
It's going to be quite an experience for all
concerned.
Chess in Schools &
Communities ran some tournaments at the end
of the spring term (early April). The first
two of these, the
NEWHAM TOURNAMENT tok place on
Saturday 2nd April 2011 at Ravenscroft
Primary School, Carson Road, London, E16 4BD
and the second event, the
HACKNEY TOURNAMENT
on Sunday 3rd April 2011 at William Patten
School, Stoke Newington Church Street, N16
0NX.
December and January proved
to be challenging months in more ways than
one.
The month of December, of
course, decided to ‘play white’ and became
one of those annoying opponents who seem to
have white far too many times in a row. For
a couple of weeks, the vast majority of our
schools found themselves up against an
unstoppable foe and had to shut up shop and
resign for the duration.
Things changed for the
better towards the end of the month, but
then the schools closed again for the end of
term. A disjointed time for chess, but when
things actually went ahead the sessions
themselves went very well. Sometimes it was
possible to introduce new people to chess
(when some of our established players where
either still snowbound or rehearsing for
Christmas plays). Good use of the chess
equipment was doubtless made during many
indoor playtimes and lunchtimes, so chess is
slowly but surely become a real part of the
internal culture for all of the schools we
attend.
January brought a return
to slightly warmer times and the promise of
a tough working term, with plenty of new
concepts and ideas to test the children.
‘Stalemate’, ‘castling’
and ‘en passant’...for those who found the
concept of ‘check’ somewhat baffling, these
ideas must have seemed like chess from a
distant galaxy. ‘En passant’ appeared to be
some sort of magic trick; even the noisiest
of children fell silent and open-mouthed. We
must invent more rules like that one.
A group pronunciation in
your actual French conjured up something
akin to an audio tribute to ‘Allo Allo’.
This led on to a
discussion about which other foreign words
still survive in our language, producing
some great answers from imaginative minds
and a chat about why ‘serviette’ was once
considered a rude word at the dining table.
Almost without exception,
a lesson in stalemate will lead on to a
practical example appearing later when the
children play their games.
Meanwhile, I have
discovered a second ‘Bishop’ to go with the
Bishop and Knight mentioned in an earlier
report. We are slowly building a chess set
of real people.
Thinking of chess sets,
it’s been good to see some of the children
bringing in their remarkable sets from home.
I have seen two Lewis sets, one from the
world(s) of Star Wars and this one, all the
way from Kenya.
The UK Chess Challenge
will start very soon! There are some very
excited children...and I haven’t even shown
them the prizes yet!
The 1st London
Chess Classic Junior Tournament took place on
9th December during the London Classic at
Olympia. There were 6 rounds where children in
each age group were paired against each other.
They played individual games but schools scored
as a team.
Sabrina Chevannes schools
simultaneous
The very athletic Danny
King in full flow
Chess in School and
Communities Coordinator WFM Sabrina Chevannes
GM
Chris Ward giving his next move some serious
thought
The first CSC Manchester
Junior Congress took play on Saturday 18th
December 2010.
Despite the heavy snow
that had fallen the night before there were
34 entries between ages 7-11. All the
children, had a great time and won at least
one game plus there were some notable
performances particularly from those who
didn't know what chess was before September.
We hope to hold a similar
event at Easter by which time the snow
should have gone!
'Check!' It's hard to
remember when we didn't know exactly what
that meant. I can't recall being taught the
concept, so it must have stuck fairly
quickly with me when I was seven.
It's such a strange
thing, though; quite unlike anything in any
other game. Our school lessons have been
focusing on the special qualities of the
King over the last few weeks. He's an old
man, who struggles to outrun a pawn or two,
yet he is also the most important piece on
the whole of the chessboard and despite his
delicate nature he can never be captured.
'Keep him safe!' I
say and I even show them how to castle if I
think they are paying attention. Needless to
say, in the very next practice games we see
the King charging out as soon as he possibly
can, hurtling headlong into inevitable face
to face combat with his opposite number.
Oh well - at least the
juniors are motivated to play 1 e4 rather
than 1 a4. Those flank pawn openings are
useless for developing adventurous Kings.
As the juniors become
better acquainted with the chess pieces, I
am learning more about my pupils and their
schools. There is a boy called Bishop in one
school and one called Knight in another. Two
brothers are the sons of a man I went to
college with in the early 1980s; I haven't
seen him since then. One school secretary
was in one of my first ever junior chess
clubs, back in 1988… '
Onwards! Through the
difficulties of explaining 'check' and
'checkmate'; through the challenges of
clashing with Christmas play rehearsals and
struggles through snowbound villages;
onwards towards the chess competitions we
have promised for next term.
Who will thrive in the
competitive environment, and who will be the
first chess champion of their school? We
shall see…but for now, put that King back on
the board and carry on playing! Didn't I
just tell you they can never be captured…?
The TV personality and music presenter Alex
Zane (pictured left) will be presenting the
prizes at the CSC Junior Chess Tournament
taking place on December 9th as part of the
London Chess Classic at Olympia.
We offered a
number of FREE sessions in the
October
2010 half term chess
camp for children aged between 7
and 11.
They were held at;
Ashton Bridge Club, Carr Street, Ashton
Under Lyne,
OL6 8ES.
CSC's first half term
chess camps in Manchester proved to be a
great success. Over the 2 days just over 40
children attended the sessions which
involved formal coaching plus lots of
competitive play. The level of play improved
dramatically over the sessions.
The children had the
chance to use chess clocks for the first
time and some were able to write their games
down. They really enjoyed playing on Fritz &
Chesster and by the end of the each day
everyone wanted to know when the next one
would be held.
Next chess camp:
Date & details to follow soon.
We are now coaching in 17
schools throughout Tameside and Manchester.
Half of a school term has now flown by. To
say it's been a busy one for Chess in
Schools and Communities is a massive
understatement.
It's been very interesting to see the
different rates at which children absorb the
new information. Some of my students have
needed extra time to master the basics of
the first few pieces (especially the
Knight), while others have managed to to
sail all the way through to delve into the
mysterious nature of the King.
Practice games involving armies of pawns
against Rooks, Bishops, Knights and Queens
have proved to be very successful teaching
methods. Some students were disappointed to
find out that the King, such a powerful
piece in many respects, would lose a battle
against just two pawns in most cases.
To assess the children's ability to work as
a team, I introduced a few sessions of
matches based on the 'capture the flag'
exercises. This worked very well, with some
children responding admirably to their
chosen roles as captains and all of the
responsibilities this entailed. The captains
had to select their players, in turn, from
the rest of the group and maintain a very
high level of concentration and motivation
to be a good example to the rest of their
team.
Another idea I used to create a more
competitive atmosphere was to have the
winning players move up a board and the
losers move down accordingly. The challenge
was to end up on board one by the end of the
session.
A little bit of a competitive edge will be
useful when we start to introduce our new
players to tournament and matches in 2011. I
also think it is important to teach the
players not only how to be good losers, but
how to be polite winners too. 'When it
comes to choosing a school team, I probably
won't consider those who wave their arms
about and tell their opponent they were
rubbish', I tell them. Some will need
extra work in this area!
The concepts of 'Check' and 'Checkmate' will
feature heavily in our sessions between now
and Christmas. Stripped down to the basics,
they are fascinating and unique ideas. Some
children have already been shouting
'checkmate!' whenever they capture a lowly
pawn. Their chess journey is going to be
longer than they originally thought…
Here’s the
first in a series of regular
updates from our area’s branch
of the Chess in Schools and
Communities scheme.
The first
month of chess activity in the
schools was, of course, merely
the tip of a very large chess
iceberg. Many hours had been
spent back in June and July
emailing, phoning and meeting
people from interested parties.
Some leads
went cold, sometimes
unexpectedly. Others emerged
completely out of the blue, with
a chance comment by a third
party leading to another very
important school being added to
our list.
Seven schools
managed to meet our criteria in
full and were ready, willing and
able to free up curriculum time
for the new chess sessions. Top
quality equipment was
dispatched; big boxes of brand
new chess sets, boards,
demonstration boards and
software. The summer break came
and went quickly and suddenly it
was September - time for some
real work!
Armed with a
copy of the new C.S.C.
Curriculum, 22 years experience
of teaching chess in schools, a
sense of humour and yet another
C.R.B. check, it was action
time. Chess in schools
traditionally takes the form of
an after-school club, in which
all members are at least
provisionally interested in the
great game. How would a class of
children, most of whom have no
prior experience of chess, cope
with formal lessons over a
school year?
The session
we conducted throughout
September can definitely be
logged under ‘a flying start’.
The curriculum is a success.
Teaching the children
methodically, essentially one
piece each week, is really
working very well.
In our area,
we have 267 pupils split over
seven schools. Some groups are
straightforward classes,
offering a single year group (we
have all ages from Y2 to Y6).
Other groups are a mixture of
age groups.
The children
are progressing well in all of
our schools. They are generally
very keen students, never short
of an interesting question or
two (...or three or four!).
Here’s some samples....
‘Is there one
called a horsey?’
‘Could you
beat my Granddad?’
‘Is there a
chess club near our school?’
‘Do you know
my Dad? He was the Cleveland
Under-16 champion once.’
‘Can we do
this again later, instead of
science?’
‘When are we
going to battle another school?’
The coaches
have plenty to learn too, such
as the best route from the
staffroom to the classroom (was
it left at the end of the dining
hall, or was that at the last
school...?) and trying to learn
267 new names. I tell them it’s
not fair - they have only one
name to learn and I have 20 -
but they just laugh at me.
So into
October we go, with a large
number of juniors now fully in
control of pawns, Rooks and
Bishops. This next month will
take a Royal turn and we’ll find
out if there really is a piece
called the horsey...
Chess in Schools and
Communities officially starts teaching
in September 2010. However, one school,
Ravenscroft Primary School in Newham,
were lucky enough to be the pilot school
in the scheme and started receiving
chess lessons in June 2010 by WFM
Sabrina Chevannes.
Charity now fully setup,
fully operational and registered with
Charity Commission number 1133120.
Commercial arm Chess Promotions Ltd also
formed as umbrella for chess events.
We have recruited three Field Workers:
Sabrina Chevannes (South and Midlands),
IM Lorin D'Costa (South) and David Hardy
(North).
Projects starting in Newham, Hackney,
Barnet, Birmingham, Manchester and Teesside
in September.
Hammersmith and Fulham and
Liverpool to begin in October.
Pilot Plan finalised and funded to commence
September 2010.
The first CSC Junior Chess Congress will
take place alongside the London Chess
Classic on December 9th.
