Why chess deserves a place in schools
In Armenia all six-year-olds study chess; in UK schools it ‘fell off a cliff’ in the 1980s. But its educational benefits are plentiful
Jonathan Calder
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 7 February 2012 13.30 EST

Primary school children in Armenia have more to contend with than just the three Rs. From the age of six, they all study chess as a separate subject for two hours a week. Chess is important to the very identity of this landlocked little country. Armenia suffered massacres and repression in the 20th century and has recently experienced an economic collapse. Yet in the 1960s, it provided the Soviet Union with one of its succession of world champions in the shape of Tigran Petrosian. A master of defence, his relentless grinding down of opponents made him the Geoffrey Boycott of the chessboard. And today, Armenia – with a population of just 3 million – holds the men’s world team title.

So it was no surprise when an official of the Armenian education ministry told the Associated Foreign Press that teaching chess in schools would “create a solid basis for the country to become a chess superpower”. But there is more to it than that: Armenia is one of a growing number of nations hoping to see wider educational benefits from encouraging chess in schools. India, Turkey and Norway have all made similar moves recently, and a summary of research produced by the Quad Cities Chess Club in America talks of enhanced mental abilities and an improvement in conventional schoolwork.

This is not a new idea. The Soviet dominance of the game was rooted in the new regime’s embrace of chess immediately after the revolution. The game was seen as a cheap way to bring culture to the masses and display the new state’s superiority to the decadent capitalist west. “We must organise shock brigades of chess players and begin the immediate realisation of a Five-Year Plan for chess,” declared Nikolai Krylenko, the father of Soviet chess – some years before Stalin had him arrested and shot.

The international master and chess journalist Malcolm Pein, a gentler soul, is one of those who want to see the game flourish again in British schools. “There is no other activity that costs so little to organise and that cuts across so many barriers,” he says. “Age, sex, race, religion … they mean nothing in chess. Anyone can enjoy it. Around 500 million people in 167 countries play the game and only football can rival that. Yet it has long been in decline in our schools.”

Two years ago, Pein’s organisation, Chess in Schools and Communities, launched a pilot programme involving 60 primary schools and 6,000 children. By 2015 it aims to have introduced the game to 17,000 schools and to have a million children playing. It is an ambitious target, but so far they are on track. Chess is still played by many British children, and Pein praises the Delancey UK Schools Chess Challenge. However, his impression is that many of the 2,000 schools that take part come from the private sector.

Does this mean British chess has always been confined to a social elite? Pein suggests not. Talking about the match held by radio between Great Britain and the Soviet Union in 1946, he says: “Yes, the British team were all Oxbridge types – probably because everyone else was too busy earning a living. But if you look at photographs of the audience, they don’t look particularly middle class.” My own experience as a member of the feared Market Harborough team of the 1980s bears this out. When we won a trophy, it would be engraved with the names of all its previous holders. Until the 1960s these were overwhelmingly works or company teams: after that they barely featured. Looking at those trophies was like discovering a lost culture.

Chess held on for longer in state schools. Pein dates its decline – “it fell off a cliff” – to the 1980s, a decade that saw the narrowing of the curriculum and a subsequent disaffection among teachers. But it may not be too late to reverse that decline, because the memory of the benefits and pleasures of chess lingers. “When I talk to headteachers,” says Pein, “they often say: ‘We always had a chess club when I was at school. Why haven’t we got one now?’”

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk

Chess daily news from Susan Polgar

MANHATTAN — In just three short weeks, chess prodigies from across the city will head upstate to Saratoga Springs for the 45th annual New York State Scholastic Championships.

The competition, which will be held March 3 and 4, typically attracts roughly 2,000 players ranging from kindergartners to high school seniors.

“It’s a lot of fun for the kids,” said Shernaz Kennedy, a children’s chess coach and women’s international chess master who once played chess for the U.S. Olympic team. “They should be in top form.”

More than half of the entrants typically hail from New York City’s public and private schools to compete on individual and team levels for the title of state champion.

Many of the children who will participate in the state championships took part in the New York City children’s chess championship on Jan. 28 and 29. That competition was a little less intense, players and coaches agreed, with kids playing matches lasting only 30 minutes each.

The state championship games will go on for an hour at a time, meaning children as young as 4 will have to sit still and concentrate for twice as long.

“It’s your brain against someone else’s brain,” Kennedy said. “You have to be in control of your emotions. You have to be completely in control of everything that’s happening.”

At the city championships, which were held at The New Yorker Hotel, three boys tied for the top honor: Maury Ahram, a fourth-grader from the NEST+m school; Spencer Ha, an 11-year-old who attends the NYC Lab School; and Maxwell Beem, a 10-year-old from the Browning School.

At the team level, the NYC Lab School came in first in the competition.

Now, all the winners — both individual and group — will be heading to the state championships in the hopes of adding a few more notches to their expanding belts.

“I’m probably going to study for my game,” said Ha, who plays chess both at the NYC Lab School and with NY Chess Kids. “Just be prepared. Don’t be nervous and just be on your feet.”

“If you’re not calm, then you’ll just really fail,” he added.

For Ha, the allure of chess lies in the “tactical and strategical thinking of the game,” he said.

“My dream in the chess world is probably just to be a good chess player, just to use chess as a stepping stone for my future.”

Online registration for the New York State Scholastic Championships is open until Feb. 27.

Read more: http://www.dnainfo.com

Chess daily news from Susan Polgar

Hard times for us Texas Tech alums. First, the Red Raiders suffer their first losing football season since 1992. Then the men’s basketball team may not win a Big 12 game — and is proving it each time the Raiders take the court.

Now this. Tech is suffering the indignation of losing its entire national championship chess club. You read it right. The reigning national collegiate champions, and their coach, former world champion Susan Polgar, are leaving for Webster University in St. Louis.

Somehow I feel like I’ve been rooked.

But last Friday, Webster University smugly announced that the Hungarian-born Polgar is moving her Susan Polgar Institute of Chess Excellence (SPICE to the great uninformed) to Webster, and furthermore, taking the whole darn team with it.

Yes, exactly. Goodbye to eight grandmasters — Georg Meier, Wesley So, Ray Robson, Manuel Leon Hoyos, Elshan Moradiabadi, Anatoly Bykhovsky, Andre Diamant, and Demes Boros, plus international masters Vitaly Neimer and Faik Aleskerov. Gone, just like that. They’re all transferring with Polgar.

This is an outrage. This is like Sul Ross stealing not only Nick Saban, but the rest of the Alabama football team. Call the NCAA. Call Interpol. Call Bobby Fischer (scratch that, he’s dead), but call someone.

It’s bad enough that St. Louis ripped my heart out in the World Series. Now the city is stomping on it. Unbeknownst to me and the rest of America, St. Louis is home to the U.S. Chess Championships, the country’s No. 1 rated player, the World Chess Hall of Fame, and a state-of-the-art chess club.

Retired St. Louis businessman and philanthropist Rex Sinquefield built the multimillion-dollar Chess Club and Scholastic Center of St. Louis a few years ago. The club prompted Hikaru Nakamura — the top-rated player in the country and No. 6 in the world — to move to St. Louis.

Mike Wilmering, a chess club spokesman, said the club wasn’t involved in discussions to bring Polgar to St. Louis but was thrilled with the development.

I just bet you are. Why don’t you go ahead and take the iconic Will Rogers statue while you’re at it?

Next year’s Webster team will include those eight ex-Tech grandmasters — something no other collegiate team has ever had, Polgar said. Pouring more salt in Red Raider wounds, the team is expected to be ranked No. 1 in the nation this fall.

Polgar is a five-time Olympic champion. In 1986, she was the first woman to qualify for the Men’s World Championship Cycle. She holds world records for most simultaneous chess games played — 326 — and for most consecutive games played — 1,131.

Polgar said she was grateful for her team’s stint at Tech, where it grow from “literally nothing” in 2007 to its status today. But in the end, she felt that St. Louis was a better home.

I’m not sure we’ve heard the last of this. While many ex-students feel like a pawn in this sordid mess, I wouldn’t expect Tech chancellor Kent Hance to take this lying down. Hance hails from another U.S. chess hotbed, Dimmitt, and may have one or two unexpected moves up his sleeves.

Normally, I would say let’s get Webster on the football schedule and exact some revenge, but the way the 2011 season ended, I’m not so sure that’s a wise move. But, please, Webster, leave our meat judging team and Law School moot court team alone. Right now, that’s about all we got.

Source: http://amarillo.com

Chess daily news from Susan Polgar

PanARMENIAN.Net – From September 24-October 13, Armenian grandmaster Levon Aronian will participate in Chess Grand Slam 2012, to be held in Bilbao, Spain.

Aronian will rival Norwegian grandmaster Magnus Carlsen and Vladimir Kramnik (Russia), winner of Viswanathan Anand – Boris Gelfand pairing, as well as of winners of Linares and Bazna International Chess Tournaments, armchess.am reported.

Source: http://www.panarmenian.net

Chess daily news from Susan Polgar

New In Chess has regular contributions from all the world’s best players. Garry Kasparov, Vishy Anand, Veselin Topalov, Magnus Carlsen, Levon Aronian, Vladimir Kramnik, Peter Leko, Alexei Shirov, Judit Polgar. You name them, we have them. Perhaps that’s why New In Chess is also their favourite chess magazine!

http://www.newinchess.com

Chess daily news from Susan Polgar

EIGHT-year-old Sophie Davis has brought down many kings, defeated their queens and killed off their loyal subjects.

The Altona school girl has mastered the art of chess and last month took on some of Australia’s best junior chess players in the National Age Championships.

Sophie placed third at the event making her coach, who is also her father, very proud.

The leading Hobsons Bay chess player, Tony Davis, said the competition was more stressful for him than for Sophie.

“As a parent you have to stand right back and watch from a distance – it was very stressful,” he said.

Tony, who not only coaches Sophie but a team of students from her primary school, said chess is a great sport which encourages concentration and can help children excel in other subjects.

“Chess is very easy to learn but very difficult to master,” he said.

Sophie, who also excels in martial arts said she was surprised to do as well as she did in the tournament.

“Chess is beautiful in some ways and its fun,” she said.

Sophie said beating other children doesn’t stop her from making friends with them.

“Mostly when I beat people that’s when we become friends.”

Tony said as much as he’s proud of his daughter’s achievements he’s never pushed her into playing chess. “She’s grown up with it – it’s a part of her life but I don’t try and push it.

“She advances in karate as well.

“But chess is a lot like martial arts – the aim is to gain the initiative over your opponent.”

Source: http://www.starnewsgroup.com.au

Chess daily news from Susan Polgar

SMALL-TIME chess clubs are proliferating all over Manila, spawning games in the parks under the trees, bridges and outside doors of residences to accommodate players who battle each other in one of the toughest mind games in history. Chess and mind games patron and supporter Aurelio de Leon said chess is abloom again mainly due to the popularity of young players in the likes of Grandmaster (GM) Wesley So, the highest Federation Internationale des Echecs (FIDE) or World Chess Federation-rated Filipino with 2653 ELO points.

“The thought of seeing young geniuses like So, and John Paul Gomez being at par with the best in the world excites Filipinos who are adept in chess and the native game dama. Imagine them going home with big prizes as international champions when they are just in their teens,” said De Leon. International Master (IM) Marlon Bernardino, who has accompanied some of the leading national players in local and international sojourns, said chess is big in the Philippines because of the efforts of the current National Chess Federation of the Philippines (NCFP) and the talents of the young turks. Bigger media exposure and support from the private and public sectors have encouraged the skilled and talented youthful generation to pursue their dreams of making it to the world competition where they pit abilities against the older ones who have one way or the other have become their mentors, opponents or coaches.

“Media support has done so much for the players and the sport. Prizes have increased due to media attention which encourages advertisers to shell out financial or logistics help to athletes. Without media help, chess could have both reached its current popularity,” added Bernardino. Asia’s first GM, Eugene Torre, is happy with the way things have turned around for the sport that catapulted him to fame and fortune early in life. No wonder rapid tournaments in companies, Educational institutions and groups are being staged frequently nowadays, wherever and whenever.

A fine sample is the Frisco Chess Club which will stage a rapid chess tournament on Feb. 11 at the Barangay Damayan multipurpose hall in San Francisco del Monte, Quezon City. The one-day event is exclusively only for players whose ratings are not over 2000. The tourney will employ the knock-out system format with a 25-minute time control being held to coincide with the feast celebration of San Pedro Bautista with prizes ranging from P3,000; P2,000; and P1,000 for the top three finishers.

For Schools, the Rector’s Cup Under-16 Rapid Chess Tournament gets underway on March 3 at the Don Bosco Makati. A seven-round Swiss System format where each participant will have 25 minutes to play offers P150 for registration fee where the champion will go home with a trophy and a purse of P2,500; while the second and third placers will pocket P1,500 and P500, respectively. Medals and P500 will also be awarded to the best six years old and below, eight years old and below and 12 years old and below as well as the top lady players. PNA

Source: http://www.goldstardailynews.com

Chess daily news from Susan Polgar

KARACHI: National Master Wasim Akram lifted the 2nd Pakistan Chess Players Association (PCPA) Open Chess Championship Zahiruddin Farooqui Trophy at Beach Luxury Hotel on Sunday.

Demonstrating fine skill and mental brilliance, Wasim, who is ranked No 3 in Pakistan, earned seven points during the championship’s eight rounds to take the crown. Playing at the champions’ table, Wasim was held to a draw in the eighth round by Faraz Saleem as Pakistan No 1 Mahmood Lodhi was also held to a draw by Mohammad Waqar.

British chess grandmaster Dr Nigel Short, the chief guest on the occasion, presented Wasim the big winner’s trophy along with a cash prize of Rs 50,000. “I have been playing chess for nine years now and have played with Lodhi four to five times during this time. Lodhi is a very tough competitor and beating him that day was like winning 50 per cent of the championship itself,” a very happy Wasim Akram, who has also represented Pakistan in Caucasus (Russia) two years ago, told Dawn after the prize-winning ceremony.

Speaking on the occasion, Dr Nigel Short declared Pakistan a “Sleeping Giant” in chess. “It is a great honour to be here. I am a chess lover and it is great to encounter so many other chess lovers here in Pakistan. I can see that Pakistan has great potential in chess but it is a pity that the Chess Federation of Pakistan is not interested in developing the game here. Still, I am glad to see PCPA’s initiative of giving chess players a chance for there are a lot of great players here just waiting to be given an opportunity,” he said.

Stressing on developing the game at the grassroots, he called for sending Pakistan juniors in Asian and world championships and said that he was ready to help Pakistan in developing the sport in any way he could.

More here.

Chess daily news from Susan Polgar

PanARMENIAN.Net – Assistant to the FIDE President Berik Balgabaev has tweeted that World Championship Candidates Tournament will be held in London from October 23-November 13.

However, FIDE official website says nothing on the matter yet. Chess Federations of Azerbaijan and Bulgaria have recently expressed readiness to organize the tournament.

On February 2, Armenian grandmaster Levon Aronian issued a letter to President of FIDE Kirsan Ilyumzhinov and Presidential Council members to notify that he won’t participate in the tournament in case it is held in Baku.

Source: http://www.panarmenian.net

Chess daily news from Susan Polgar

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Chess daily news from Susan Polgar