Homepage | Updated 02 October, 2014 Your browser does not support inline frames or is currently configured not to display inline frames. "Chess in school has been popular with parents who see it as a very valuable experience ..." - Sue Kitchen, HT, Stalyhill PS . Now Open: London Chess Classic Ticket Office and Festival Entry 25.9.14 - Chess in Schools and Communities is pleased to announce the opening of the 6th London Chess Classic Box Office where you can buy Spectator Tickets for the Chess Classic and enter Festival Events online. Free School Chess Events 01.10.14 - The 6th London Chess Classic takes place at Olympia from Saturday 6th December to Sunday 14th December 2013. CSC school events at previous Classics have proved great successes and we are pleased to announce that we shall be running them again this year. Click here for further information | Free School Events Registration | Training Course in Leeds We are pleased to announce a course for new tutors in Leeds. Book your place online here More courses to follow soon. Yes2Chess Team Final, London 8.7.14 - Yes2Chess is an Internet Chess Community for primary and elementary schoolchildren, which offers pupils the opportunity to play chess online with children from other countries and also to compete in a tournament. This innovative event saw the participation of primary and elementary schools from eight countries: UK, Germany, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Denmark and the USA. The qualifications took place in a moderated area on Playchess.com, and the grand prize was an all expenses paid trip to London for the finals, which took place on Tuesday 8th July. Congratulations to the winners, Private Gymnasium Brecht School from Hamburg. Photo Gallery by Ray Morris Hill | Detailed report by Frederic Friedel of ChessBase | View all results from the Final. There were 8 tournament zones: Denmark, Germany, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom, United States. The international finals brought the 8 winners together. They played in 2 groups of 4. Match results: Group A | Group B Final Group Tables: Group A | Group B There were then a series of playoff matches. The winner of each group played off for 1st place. The runners-up played off for 3rd place. The third placed teams played off for 5th place. The fourth placed teams played off for 7th place. Playoff results: 7th place | 5th place | 3rd place | 1st place | The 1st place playoff, i.e. the Final, was a 5-0 victory for Privates Gymnasium Brecht (GER) over Columbia Grammar Preparatory (USA). We would like to extend our congratulations to all the competing school teams in the final: Denmark: Skolen på Nyelandsvej Germany: Private Gymnasium Brecht Norway: Lassa School Portugal: Associação Escola 31 de Janeiro A Spain: Zola Villafranca M Sweden: The English School, North United Kingdom: St. Bridget's Church of England Primary School United States: Columbia Grammar and Preparatory School Yes2Chess Yes2Chess is a fun and exciting way for children to play games, learn new skills and meet new people from around the world. Yes2Chess is an Internet Chess Tournament that will be running during the 2013/14 academic year. This innovative event will see the participation of primary / elementary schools from eight countries: UK, Germany, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Denmark and the USA. Find out how your school can get involved . Sunrise, Florida USA is a Chess City! Broward County in South Florida USA is embarking on a huge chess in schools and community project. As well bringing chess to 10's of 1000's of children they are encouraging everyone to play. WSVN -- King, queen, pawn and bishop are all terms for the game of chess. Now elementary school students in Broward County are learning to play chess in addition to reading and math! 7's Lynn Martinez shows us in today's Parent to Parent. These third graders are making bold new moves. That's because students at Discovery Elementary School in Sunrise are now learning the game of chess. The school was chosen to be part of a pilot program last year. Related video and article Read more ... Baltic Summer Chess Camp 2014 23.8.14 - The first International Baltic Summer Chess Camp was held in Riga during August 13-16. It was an intensive and enjoyable experience which will invigorate the chess practice of the 14 children who attended including Megan Richards (Cardiff) who benefitted from a bursary as CSC Pupil of the Year. Read more ... Sally Clifford | 5 September 2014 Game of kings can help pupils think in new ways It is one of the oldest and most enduring board games. Pupils at Horton Park Primary School in Bradford help to improve their education and social development through the ages-old game of chess. Dating back more than 1,000 years, chess continues to challenge and intrigue players and now the benefits of this strategic game are being explored in education – and with great benefits according to the chess experts who are instrumental in introducing chess into the classroom. Nick Mullan, an accredited coach with charity Chess in Schools whose mission is to highlight the game’s educational and social benefits, has played on and off for years after learning it during his school days. Read more ... Related video: Chess to get minds of young moving Chess and politics 'are linked' 15.8.14 - There is now an all-party parliamentary group on chess, which will be chaired by Labour MP Yasmin Qureshi. Malcolm Pein and Labour MP Maria Eagle discuss the link between chess and politics. | Runtime: 4 mins 32 secs. Presenter - Evan Davis More about this item Local MP visits CSC in Tower Hamlets 16 May 2014 Your browser does not support inline frames or is currently configured not to display inline frames. On Friday 16th May 2014 Rushanara Ali - the MP for Bethnal Green and Bow – visited Bonner School in Tower Hamlets and saw the CSC programme in action. CSC’s work in Bonner School is funded by a generous donation from Investec, and we were delighted that Susie Robbie was able to represent the organisation on the day. After the visit, Rushanara Ali MP said: "I am delighted to see young people building important skills through playing chess. I was delighted to attend Bonner school in my constituency and see the children learn how to play chess as part of their enrichment activities. It was fantastic to see young people develop their skills." Please click here for more details. By Graeme Paton, Education Editor 16 Apr 2014 Chess 'should be compulsory in primary schools' The former president of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers calls for chess to be introduced in all state primary schools to boost children’s concentration levels Fewer than 1-in-10 pupils in state schools currently get access to chess at school Pupils as young as seven should be given compulsory lessons in chess amid claims it boosts concentration levels, numeracy and reading comprehension, according to a teachers’ leader. Primary schools should give all pupils at least one term’s worth of chess in an attempt to get them interested in the game at a young age, it was claimed. Hank Roberts, former president of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, said Britain was one of the few European countries that failed to recognise chess as a sport or fund a proper “in-school programme”. He insisted the game was hugely popular in private schools but too many in the state system failed to offer it to pupils. Read more Photo | GETTY IMAGE 6 April 2014 | Frances Ivens and Henry Readhead Smart move, young man Schoolchildren are flocking to take up chess, and the resurgence of the game is boosting them socially and academically. Chess players at Melcombe Primary School overseen by Jason Kouchak from the Chess in Schools & Communities charity Chess has long evoked images of surly Russians hunched over a board. But a resurgence in the game termed by one former champion “the gymnasium of the mind” is taking place in British schools. Next month, an all-party parliamentary group on chess aims to meet for the first time, having gained the support of more than a dozen MPs. According to Yasmin Qureshi, MP for Bolton South-east, who has helped to set up the group, it will “work to promote chess and the benefits brings”. The group plans to lobby for chess to be recognised as a sport and to highlight its importance in early learning and primary and secondary education. The group follows the establishment in 2010 of the Chess in Schools & Communities (CSC) charity, the brainchild of Malcolm Pein, an international master and director of the London Chess Classic tournament. Read more ... Photo | Jeremy Young Newham Primary Schools’ Team Chess Tournament 2014 The second CSC Newham Primary Schools’ Team Tournament was held at the Old Town Hall in Stratford on March 27th 2014. Sir Robin Wales - the elected Mayor of Newham - opened the event, and spoke of the formative experiences he had on his school chess team. Graeme Betts - Newham’s Executive Director of Strategic Commissioning and Community – also visited, and was extremely pleased that the CSC programme in Newham was going so well and that such tournaments were taking place. Alison Davenport and her team were fantastic and CSC hopes that they can host events at the Old Town Hall in the future. Tournament Report Photo © by Ray Morris-Hill | More here Chess in Schools and Communities wins Innovative Project Award 10th July 2013 The Earl of Wessex presents the Innovative Project Award to Chess in Schools and Communities Chief Executive Malcolm Pein, alongside Sam Franks (Hiscox). On 9th July 2013 Chess in Schools and Communities (CSC) was presented with the Innovative Project Award at the 2013 Sport and Recreation Alliance Awards sponsored by specialist insurance company Hiscox. The award was presented to the charity’s Chief Executive, Malcolm Pein, by HRH The Earl of Wessex at St. James’s Palace in London after the charity impressed the judges with their ground-breaking initiatives over the past year. With studies showing a clear link between playing chess in primary school and improved concentration and educational attainment, CSC has doubled in size in the past year ... Read more ... CSC on BBC Breakfast TV Chess in Schools and Communities launched it's first Charity-Public-Private initiative in a ground breaking project to teach 20,000 children how to play chess in London Borough of Newham. BBC Breakfast TV featured the launch on Wednesday 13 March 2013. More here ... Chess in Schools and Communities launches first Charity-Public-Private initiative Chess in Schools and the Communities (CSC), a UK registered charity and Newham Borough Council are working together with East Village in an innovative project to deliver chess to all 64 primary schools in Newham and teach 20,000 children to play the world's most enduring game. The 'Urban Chess' program was launched on 13th March. East Village celebrated its sponsorship of CSC, by welcoming local schools to Stratford Library for a fun and educational morning of chess games and classes on a giant board - led by British Champion Grandmaster Gawain Jones. Read more ... Royal Commended Performance 2012 25th July 2012 Chess in Schools and Communities received the Royal seal of approval on 19th July at St James’s Palace. Chief Executive IM Malcolm Pein received the ‘highly commended’ award from HRH Prince Edward the Earl of Wessex at the Sport and Recreation Alliance's Community Sport and Recreation awards ceremony. The award was made in recognition of CSC's 'innovative work in schools'. Read more ... Press releases: CSC | SRA | ECF | Strasbourg Visit Report Wed 15th Feb 2012 CSC is working with the Kasparov Chess Foundation Europe and European Chess Union (ECU) on a political campaign to garner support for chess to be introduced to schools Europe-wide. The focus of the campaign is a written declaration which can be found here http://www.kcfe.eu/wd50 . Malcolm Pein, CEO of CSC and Rudi Valcke, chess teacher (BE) explain the benefits of chess during the Chess in School seminar at the EU (on the left, Garry Kasparov) This was sponsored by 5 MEPS from the UK, Finland, Italy, Bulgaria and Malta. Written declarations need the support of half of all MEPs before they can go before the European Commission for consideration and possible action. For the last 6 months Garry Kasparov and his team, aided by the office of Bulgarian MEP Slavi Binev have been working tirelessly to secure the signatures of 380 MEPs. I am delighted to report that to date 377 signatures have been received! Thanks to all those who wrote to their MEP's. Read more ... First birthday reception for the charity Chess in Schools and Communities 18 October 2011 Rachel Reeves MP, Member of Parliament for Leeds West, hosted our first birthday reception in the Jubilee Room at Westminster on Tuesday. A huge thank you to Rachel who recently visited one of our schools in her constituency to give a simultaneous display. Despite not having played competitively for many years, she remains a very good player and even Garry was impressed. Children from Teesside, Leeds, Manchester, Liverpool, Swansea, Cardiff, Bristol, Barnet, Hackney, Newham and Hammersmith and Fulham were accompanied by their teachers and parents. Every child got the chance to take on Nigel Short in a simultaneous display. Rachel spoke about how learning chess at an early age had helped her. CSC are also grateful to the 13th World Champion Garry Kasparov who came to London and spoke at the event as well as making many media appearances. Thanks also to Nigel Short who played the children and a few MPs without losing a game! Your browser does not support inline frames or is currently configured not to display inline frames. Grandmaster Jonathan Rowson and our Field Worker England international Sabrina Chevannes, also made some moves. There was an outstanding performance from Matteo Walls of William Patten School in Hackney who nearly drew. I played a few moves and came to his board to find the position completely equal after about 30 moves – well done! Rachel’s colleagues in the Labour Shadow Cabinet; Angela and Maria Eagle also attended the event. They, like Rachel, were strong junior players but in my home city of Liverpool. Photos © Ray Morris-Hill Malcolm Pein, Chief Executive. Click to see more photos from the event . Charity Commission: 1133120 © SC Chess in Schools and Communities © 2021 | CSC is not responsible for the content of external sites top ^