From Inmate to Checkmate: Chess perks up life inside

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.

You can read the full article in The Guardian here.