Media In the Media (o) In the Media UK Prisoners compete in World Prison Chess Championship Our involvement in the recent World Prison Chess Championship was recently covered in the Guardian Newspaper. You can read about the article here. Queen's Gambit: Chess on the rise due to the drama series The pandemic made it harder for us to teach chess in person but the game’s popularity has skyrocketed! Listen our CEO Malcolm talk about the chess boom on BBC Breakfast. 'Chess makes me feel less angry' Children at Sacred Heart primary school in Liverpool have chess lessons alongside subjects like English and Maths. The school is one of the 800 primary schools now putting chess on the curriculum. Watch the BBC video to hear why children at Sacred Heart enjoy playing chess. St Georges Hall Chess tournament on Merseyside Live Chess in Schools and Communities Chief Executive Malcolm Pein was interviewed by Alice Oliver of Merseyside Live at the 5th St Georges Hall Chess Tournament. Alice Oliver gave a CSC chess pupil a game afterwards but they did not go easy on her! You can watch it here. Magnus Carlsen runs the defence ragged World Chess Champion Magnus Carlsen visited Manchester take on the Liverpool FC's finest up and coming premier league footballer Trent Alexander-Arnold in a chess game. A showcase match in the run up to the World Chess Championship this November in London 2018. Trent had no less than two of England's best prodigal chess players Shreyas Royal and Kyan Bui as his seconds to give him a fighting chance. Trent pays tribute the fun and benefits of playing chess and how it plays into keeping his brain active and the skills necessary to be 1st class football player. You can watch it here. From inmate to checkmate: chess perks up life inside Tuition scheme for prisoners may be rolled out across Britain Carl Portman – who claims channelling aggression and learning to lose gracefully are key benefits of the game – taking a chess session in a UK prison. Photograph: Courtesy of Carl Portman Inmates in two of Britain’s highest-profile prisons are learning chess as part of a new pilot scheme designed to combat boredom and channel aggression. The programme began earlier this month inside HMP Wandsworth, one of the country’s most crowded jails, and HMP Isis, for young male offenders. But the aim is to roll out the scheme across Britain, with 50 prisons actively teaching chess by 2020. As well as relieving the inevitable isolation and boredom that comes with staffing pressures and prisoners locked up for long periods, Malcolm Pein, the chief executive of the charity running the scheme, says chess offers inmates critical skills for life on the outside. Read the full article here Judge sentences youth offenders to chess, with promising results. An alternative sentencing practice for young offenders in Alberta, Canada has taken off. Involving chess as a means of rehabilitating the young who engage in non-violent crimes. A scheme lead by the University of Lethbridge and the Justice Ministry of Alberta. The Teenagers come along once a week alongside their probation officers and learn the valuable life skills of problem solving chess can offer them. You can read more about the story here. True Grit is the predictor of success Helen Barrett at the Financial Times expands on how chess fosters the quality of "true grit" which is a great predictor of an individual's future success. You can read the full article here. Chess Lessons for Life and Business Shahar Tzafrir, a Partner at the venture capital firm TLV PArtners talks about how playing chess has honed his business skills. You can read the full article here. Jacob Maslow talks about the work of CSC and how playing chess has strengthened his family bonds and business strategy. To view the whole article click here. Good work of CSC recognised by the National Education Union The NEU passes resolution calling: “For the government to recognise the potential of the game of chess to aid children’s intellectual development and improve socialisation by seeking to give every child the opportunity to learn how to play at school.” With an article explaining why, you can read here. On International Women's Day, excellent chess news from Pakistan. 14 year old schoolgirls from SMB Fatima Jinnah Girls School are defying expectations about women in their conservative country and now regularly outshine the men in national school chess competitions. You can read more about it here Grandmasters in demand as chess craze hits schools Sky News visited a CSC chess lesson at work in Miles Coverdale Primary School in Shepherds Bush. There they saw just how thoroughly the children enjoyed their lessons and how demand for more chess is outpacing supply. "A shortage of tutors is preventing children in state schools from learning chess. British International Master Malcolm Pein, who founded the charity Chess in Schools, says a resurgence in the game's popularity has seen experienced teachers being poached by public schools that can pay more." You can read the full Sky News Article here Chess on the rise in primary schools- Channel 5 News Channel 5 News visited Chess in Schools and Communities in action at St. Francis RC Primary School, Newham. CSC Chief Executive Malcolm Pein explains how the uptake for chess in state primary school is booming; and how now the charity is on the hunt for more chess tutors to work in schools and libraries like St. Francis RC. The video shows CSC coached primary school pupils proving their chess skills and giving Channel 5 presenter Ruth a run for her money! If you are interest in becoming involved, please complete the tutor application form here. Shortage of tutors keeps the return of school chess in check Greg Hurst, Social Affairs Editor February 7 2018, 12:01am, The Times The game’s return to favour is being driven by young people and the internetALAMY As experts in chess, the game of strategy and planning, they maybe should have seen it coming. A boom in the board game across state primary schools has led to a shortage of tutors, according to the charity that provides teachers. The return of chess to favour after two decades in the doldrums is being driven by the internet and young champions, and the charity Chess in Schools and Communities has become a victim of its own success. The group led the introduction of lessons and clubs in hundreds of primary schools, but is now finding that it faces competition for tutors from wealthy families willing to pay substantially more than £50 an hour for lessons. Grandmasters can charge £150 an hour. Malcolm Pein, its chief executive, said it was able only to offer pay similar to that of teaching assistants, equivalent to £110-£125 a day, making recruitment a constant struggle. “The only limiting factor for us is not the demand from schools because we get requests every day,” he said. “It is just whether or not we have a tutor in the part of the country where the school is located.” Among the charity’s supporters is the chess foundation formed by Garry Kasparov, the Russian exile and former grandmaster, who said in December that chess was an important counterpoint to smartphones and helped children to make independent judgments. Demand for private tutors is expected to surge later this year when Magnus Carlsen, the 27-year-old Norwegian world champion, defends his title in London in November. Ilya Merenzon, chief executive of World Chess, said: “When we took the last world championship to New York there was a chess boom. There are not enough chess teachers now and they charge $100 (£72) per hour. The same happened in Russia and Norway.” Lord Price, the former trade minister, who wrote a book, The Foolish King, to encourage children to play the game, said that school chess clubs could have a powerful impact in encouraging pupils to think strategically. “It is hard to pull people back to chess if they are not a regular player when they have left school,” he said. The Delancey UK Schools’ Chess Challenge, which is open to children aged seven to 17, attracted 1,280 entries last year from schools and clubs, involving almost 40,000 young players. 'Chess makes me feel less angry' - BBC News Education Chess in Schools and Communities teaches chess in schools in the UK. The charity says the game helps children think more strategically and logically, making them more employable in the future. How chess can teach us that failure is not fatal - City AM It was Winston Churchill who said: “success is not final; failure is not fatal. It is the courage to continue that counts.” That quote encapsulates an attribute that educational psychologists recognise we need to instil in our children. This is sometimes referred to as “grit” – the ability to cope with adversity. Grit is required to succeed in life, and particularly in business. In order to succeed in an increasingly competitive modern commercial world, employees need a wide range of skill sets. Continue reading Schools teach chess to help 'difficult' pupils concentrate - The Observer The year 3 pupils at Park End Primary School in Middlesbrough are a bit of a rowdy bunch. Headteacher Julia Rodwell describes them as “a complex and difficult group”. Put them in front of a chess set though, and silence descends. “The first time I saw them playing chess, I was absolutely gobsmacked. Their concentration is incredible – I’ve never seen anything like it in any other lesson,” says Rodwell. Park End is one of 800 primaries to add chess to its curriculum – a threefold increase over two years. A desire to improve maths and problem solving is part of the motivation, but as schools grapple with screen addiction and short attention spans, chess is also seen as a way to encourage “digital detox”. Rodwell has been so impressed that all her staff have now been trained to teach chess. For her, the way chess has brought children out of their shell has been overwhelming. “Teachers rush over to me saying, ‘come down and look at this child – she can’t do simple sums, but she’s beating everyone in the class at chess!’ “We’re in a very deprived area, so chess is not something our children have traditionally come across – but we’ve embraced it as a whole school,” she says. Up and down the country other schools are embracing it too, with 20 signing up every month. “Children are born into a world of touchscreens and instant response. Playing chess encourages them to sit down, concentrate and think hard, instead of tapping away,” says Malcolm Pein, founder of Chess in Schools and Communities, the charity which devises and runs the classes. Continue reading Chess is making a classroom comeback - ITV Tyne & Tees News It's a board game that's centuries old, but perhaps surprisingly it's making schoolchildren on Teesside put down their iPads and smart phones. Chess is enjoying a resurgence in fans, and is being used in some North East schools to help youngsters develop their maths and thinking skills. Rachel Bullock from Tyne Tees TV went along to Park End Primary in Middlesbrough to see how the ancient game is faring amongst modern players. Manage Cookie Preferences