The Gift of Chess

CSC tutors are a talented bunch of people. Amongst them you will find artists, musicians, playwrights and film-makers. Now we can add children’s author to that list of creative roles: CSC tutor Hari Neocleous has just had a wonderful book published and what’s more, it all about chess!

The Gift of Chess invites young readers on a magical journey through the timeless world of chess — a game filled with wonder, wisdom, and imagination. More than just a book about moves and pieces, it explores the deeper lessons chess can teach us about creativity, courage, patience, friendship, and life itself. Hari uses her great experience as a primary school teacher and a chess tutor - she works for CSC at One Degree Academy in north London - to ask meaningful questions: Why do we play? What do we learn? How can chess help us grow?

We were very fortunate to have Hari at our recent ChessFest school days. Each day after lunch, the children gathered on the lawn around our giant chess sets to listen to her read through the book which is hot off the press - the first editions were only printed last week. Hari then stayed around to sign a copies of the book which we presented to each school to take home to their libraries. The story certainly went down well with our audiences. If you’d like to meet Hari and hear more about her book, she’ll be signing copies at ChessFest in Trafalgar Square on Sunday 12th July. Thank you, Hari!