What is 'Chess for Schools'

OUR AIM:

To establish chess in all schools in this country and raise the status of the game to the level it deserves.

No other game can :- 

• Teach high level concentration skills
• Increase intelligence from day one
• Develop logical and critical thinking to the highest degree
• Provide such huge opportunity to build self-confidence
• Provide ready access to county, national and international honours

How Did it Start:

The start of this project is really rather prosaic, my son, Duncan Christie helped run the chess club at his school.

He came home frustrated one day because the club relied on children bringing their own sets to school and on this day there had been twenty children wanting to play but only three sets available.

The school couldn't provide equipment so I wrote to Peter Wilson at the English Chess Federation to see if the ECF could help. Being a sharp cookie Peter pointed out that I worked in the plastics industry and perhaps was better placed to look at this!? (I had thought that we might produce tiny travel chess sets but Peter put me right here – full-size competition pieces or nothing!!!)

After several e-mails and a lot of guidance I approached my boss to see if our company, Holloid Plastics, could help. The rest as they say is history, now with the help and sponsorship of many companies, great and small we're able to offer chess equipment and coaching to ALL of England's schools, the biggest chess initiative ever undertaken!

The Benefits of Chess Playing in Schools

There really is a plethora of supporting research demonstrating that children who are taught to play chess do better at school – for a selection see the following links:

http://www.quadcitychess.com/benefits_of_chess.html

http://www.auschess.org.au/articles/chessmind.htm

http://www.mathandchess.com/math_chess_benefits_children.html