Mr Cresswell, Hawthorne Primary School, Cardiff

"I am delighted at the impact the chess sessions are having on the children’s learning. The learning and playing of chess has so many positive features ..." [read more]

Lesley Leckie, Headteacher, Trelai Primary School, Cardiff - We introduced chess to our two year 4 classes at the beginning of Spring term for one hour a week during timetabled maths sessions. It immediately captured the children’s interest especially the boys -39 of them compared to only 14 girls in the cohort ..." [read more]

Jane Evans, Headteacher, Kitchener Primary School, Cardiff - "We are delighted that CSC introduced chess into our school in September and the first term has gone exceptionally well. The children have really enjoyed it and learned a lot ..." [read more]

Mr Volk, Birchgrove Primary School, Cardiff - "Our chess club has recently expanded to 2 classrooms each Tuesday lunchtime and includes a variety of children of all levels of academic ability, differing backgrounds and ethnicity ..." [read more]

Sue Jones, Headteacher, St. Paul's Church in Wales Primary School - "It is a pleasure to let you know the difference learning to play chess has made at St Paul's C/W Primary School ..." [read more]

Cardiff Qualifier of the Welsh Chess Junior Grand Prix

Tim and I are very pleased to report that pupils from the following CSC Schools entered the Cardiff Qualifier of the Welsh Chess Junior Grand Prix held on Saturday 20 October.

St Paul's had 10 entrants - Outstanding win for Blake who was a joint winner of the B Section. First tournament for Conor who came joint 2nd in the D Section.

Lakeside had about 6 entrants - first tournament for all of them - Joshua came joint 2nd in the D Section.

Ton Yr Ywen had 1 entrant - first tournament for Dan who missed the first 2 rounds due to a football match and still scored 3½ out of 6!

Hawthorn had 3 entrants - Francis was the outright winner of the D Section with 6 out of 6.

Peterston Super Ely had 2 entrants.

Joint winners of the B Section - Restricted to Players Graded 1450 or Below.

Blake Fisher aged 8 in Year 4 at St Paul's with two older boys from Monmouth School in Years 8 and 10.

Section D Winner and Runners-up from CSC schools

Francis Howells-Price (green top) of Hawthorne (Year 5) - outright winner with 6 out of 6 Joshua Jones (tallest - just) of Lakeside (Year 5) - joint runner-up with 4½ out of 6 Conor O'Leary (shortest - just) of St Paul's (Year 3) - joint runner-up with 4½ out of 6.

Sarah Kett,

24 Oct 2012

St Paul's at the British Championships!

St Paul's Primary School in the Grangetown area of inner-city Cardiff has been an amazing part of the CSC success story. As their official Tutores, Sarah and I, along with their inspirational Year 6 teacher Adrian Jones, simply got them started and have since watched with delight as the whole school has taken to the game in a way no-one here could have believed possible.

They have absorbed chess into the school's 'bloodstream' and a huge number of pupils play it at every opportunity and they continue to reap ever-bigger rewards .... in all sorts of ways.

Quite apart from the chess prizes (Welsh Primary School Team Champions, several 2nds and 3rds in Welsh Individual Age-Level Championships and 6 or 7 children training with the national squad) the school is also benefitting from improved behaviour, concentration skills and focus on classroom activities. The Welsh Education Inspection team (IESTYN) which visited recently commented very favourably on the chess they saw being taught as well as giving overall ratings well above the average for this part of the city.

Although many, many children play and are doing well - 86 out of a total of 150 entered the school championship, and up to 20 play in local external tournaments ! - there is one particular boy who is showing exceptional promise. After only about 12 months of playing, Blake Fisher (8) of Year 3 finished 2nd in his age-group at the Welsh Championships and has started to play and beat decent adult players (1500-1700 rating) in competition at the Cardiff Chess Club. When the time came for the British Championships at the start of the summer holidays we felt it was an opportunity he just couldn't miss.

His parents are still in complete amazement at his achievements and know nothing of the chess scene or these events so I took a last-minute decision to just drive him, his mother and two other very promising Cardiff boys (from other schools) up myself. Newcastle is a long way from Cardiff (!) but 7 hours later we made it and dropped by at the Championships to give the boys a quick view and then checked in to our hotel.

Next day was the U8 Championship and apart from our 3 among the 45 competitors there was also Venetia Sivarajasingham, the current Welsh U8 Champion. Blake got off to a sensational start and after 3 rounds was on 3/3 and playing the No.1 seed. The game was an absolute humdinger with the other boy's Tutor after the game whistling through his teeth in pure relief - he knew just how lucky his lad had been to survive Blake's attack!

I really do think that if Blake had won that one he could have gone on to something seriously sensational. As it was he was a bit deflated and lost rd 5 too before coming back to win Rd 6 and finish with 4 out of 6. This was the top score of all the Welsh players including Venetia who had seemed invincible and way above all other Welsh players a few months back.

Over the next two days the boys played the U9 championships as well and Blake again did brilliantly - seeming almost to improve game-by-game. He finished with 4/7 amongst again about 45 contenders. This time there were 8 Welsh players (all private schools apart from our 3) and he was the second best after a Year 4 boy from North Wales who scored 4.5/7.

His finishing positions for the record were =9th in the U8's and =14th in the U9's. These were the official British Championships, and despite the distance most of the really strong kids from all over England were there.

Blake's temperament for chess is ideal - he is concentrated and intensely focused during every game, his eyes never leave the board. His attitude and approach are phenomenal too, many kids his age have to be made to practice and study after the games but most of the time away from competition he was just begging to be taught more opening variations, get out the boards even during meals or failing that to play against anybody's mobile phone app!

Chess at St Pauls is doing lots of good in lots of ways for lots of children .... and we hope that even more will be inspired to take up the game as Blake goes on to even greater heights in his final 3 years at the school. Next year he's targetting being British Champion and we would love to take him on from there to European or World age-group championships !

Tim & Sarah Kett

14th Sept 2012

Cardiff Schools – Easter 2012 report

CSC in Cardiff has just completed its second term and already scored an amazing success. One of our schools – who have only been playing the game for 5 terms have just become the Welsh Primary School Chess Champions!

We currently have four schools signed up and receiving a weekly lesson; they are:

Kitchener Primary School in the Riverside area

Mount Stuart Primary in Butetown

St Paul’s Primary School in Grangetown

Hawthorn Primary School in Llandaff North.

Most of the children had never played any chess before but now that we’ve completed two terms the over 200 pupils in the chosen classes all now know the moves, some basic openings, tactics (forks etc) and checkmates and, most of all – “to take the other guys pieces when you can!”

The enthusiasm of the children continues to delight and motivate us. We are always greeted with a cheer when we arrive in the morning. At first some of the teachers might have doubted how long the thrill would last – but now they’ve got past being surprised at how well the children focus on the game!

We’re also learning all the time and refining and improving the way we teach. Every week we try to mix up the format between Individual and Team exercises, written work and group demonstrations, over-the-board play and computer chess etc etc. We always look for ways to link with other educational areas e.g. maths (calculating values of pieces captured ) or by writing down their moves etc etc.

We’d be very happy to discuss all this with other CSC teachers and share our experiences further.

What many love most of all, of course, is pure competition and the joy of winning – and apart from regular Class v Class matches within schools we encourage our Schools to play matches against each other and for pupils to take part in local competition.

Tournament News

Cardiff & Vale. The number of children participating in this popular event had always been fairly steady around the 200 mark, this year thanks in large part to CSC and a general recent increase in chess teaching in the city, the numbers almost topped 300!

At all our CSC schools there has been some participation now in external chess activity and, although its still fairly limited in most of them, one of the Cardiff CSC Schools has achieved phenomenal success already.

At St Paul’s Church-In-Wales Primary School chess has become, not just a part of everyday life, but one of its primary activities and a driving force behind the schools success. There are fewer than 200 pupils at the school and yet 50-60 regularly attend chess club and 30+ have competed in tournaments so far this year.

Matthew Richards (U11)

Euan Richards (U11)

Iestyn James (U11)

Eve Farrow (U11 Girls)

Blake Fisher (U9) and

Kane Summerhayes-Bainbridge (U9)

have all been selected for the Welsh national Age-Group squads and last weekend a fabulous season was capped by the school finishing joint first at the Welsh Primary School Teams Championship!

If one part of CSC’s mission is to show how chess can bring mainstream success within the grasp of inner-city schools, this is an amazing ‘bullseye’ for a first season on the programme ! The Welsh School Team title has always been the preserve of the elite until now - no state school had ever won it before!

Tim & Sarah Kett

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.  More here.

Cardiff Schools First Half Term report

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.

Tim & Sarah Kett

26th Oct 2011

Click to see this report on our News page