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