Kids Talk about Chess: Cute Video from Vancouver Chess School!

Chess Blog for Daily Chess News and Trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2013

Hello everyone,

It's always fun to see what kids say about chess. Here's a cute video from Vancouver. Check out the full post. There's a great video with Chess Queen teaching chess to kids as well.

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Chess Club for Autistic, Gifted Children in Tasmania - Video

Chess Blog for Daily Chess News and Trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2013

Hello everyone,

It is so fulfilling to find news about chess healing and helping people live a better life, particularly children. Here is one such nice chess video: A chess club for autistic and gifted children in Tasmania is becoming very popular. Here is the ABC News Video. 




From Alexandra Kosteniuk's
www.chessblog.com
Also see her personal chess blog 
at www.chessqueen.com
Don't miss Chess Queen™
YouTube Channel

How to Teach Your Kids the Basics of Chess

Chess Blog for Daily Chess News and Trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2013

Hi everyone, 

We have here a nice article by Kenney (Ken) Myers who is very active in the care industry which includes childcare, senior care, pet care, and other types of in-home care services. In addition to running multiple websites and businesses in this industry, he also participates in various coalitions and organizational boards. Ken loves writing articles on helping kids learning on new subjects.

We share one nice article from Ken's blog: How to Teach Your Kids the Basics of Chess

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Moms and dads who enjoy the game of chess are often anxious to teach it to their offspring. It is a wonderful bonding experience, and makes for fond memories and family traditions. A child will look back tenderly on his Sunday afternoon chess matches with Mom or Dad. Other parents are not chess players themselves, but have read about the multitude of benefits the game can offer to children. According to The Learning to Think Project, a Venezuelan study done from 1979-1984, chess instruction increased elementary school students’ IQ after less than one year of instruction. A German study published in 2010 by the Department of Neuroradiology at Tübingen University showed that chess exercises both sides of the brain, increasing innovation. Dr. Robert Ferguson of the US showed in 1982 that chess increases creative thinking and originality in children, while a study in New Brunswick, Canada in 1992 found that fifth grade students experienced gains in math scores proportionate to the amount of chess that was taught to them. With all of these benefits, it’s no wonder that parents want to teach this valuable game to their children.

Whatever your reason, teaching chess to your child is a sharp idea, however it’s also a complicated pastime. It is not easy to sit down with a little one and just play. There are a variety of game pieces to consider, and each one must abide by its own sets of rules when it comes to how it can move and take out its opponents on the board. For this reason, you have to teach chess slowly, step by step.

Teaching Your Child Chess in Nine Steps

• Get to Know the Pieces – First, introduce all the characters or pieces to your child. Make sure he reaches the point that he can identify each piece without prompting before moving on to the next step.
• Learn the Objective – Tell your child that the object of the game is to protect your king at all costs. Show your child a chess board that is set up, and throw around different ideas about how you might keep the king safe. Don’t worry that your child’s ideas might not work within the framework of the game. The idea is to get your child interested and thinking strategically.
• Play with the Pawns – This is the first time your child will actually get to the play the game a bit, so make it fun! Teach him how pawns move and how they capture their opponents. Then, play chess with only pawns in play. Do this for several games, until your child has mastered the pawn.
• Add the Knights – Once your child has mastered the pawns, add the knights to the mix. First, teach them how the knights move. This is a little complicated, especially for younger kids. Therefore, you’ll want to practice moving the knights around the board first without playing the game. Once your child has mastered their movements, play a game with both pawns and knights until she’s comfortable with the movement. This may take time, so be prepared to spend as long as it takes for your child to become familiar with these pieces.
• Learn the Bishops – Now it is time to teach your child how the bishops move and how they attack. Play a few games with just the pawns and bishops. Then, play some with pawns, bishops and knights.
• Add the Rooks – The rooks are the last of the chess court before the King and Queen are presented. Teach your children how the rooks move around the board, and have your child practice their movements. Add in the rest of the pieces and practice moving them around the board to achieve different plays.
• Present the King – Remind your child that the King is what you are trying to protect in chess, and what you are trying to capture on the other side of the board. Teach the meaning of “check” and “check mate,” and how each apply to the game. “Check” is a warning that your king is in imminent danger, whereas “check mate” signals the end of the game. Practice identifying places where you would need to say check and then rehearse moving the king out of harm’s way.
• Meet the Queen – At last, it is time to meet the most powerful player, the Queen! Show your child how special the Queen is, in that she can move as far as she wants to and in any direction unless one of her own subjects is in her way.
• Now to Play – You and your child have reached your ultimate goal, playing a full game of chess. There is nothing left for you to do now but have fun. It is a good idea before each game to ask your child how each piece moves and remind him of anything he may have forgotten. As long as your child is moving the pieces correctly, do not worry too much about his strategy. He will develop this on his own, over time. If you find it is still a bit arduous for him to keep track of all the game pieces and how they move, revert back to the simpler games with just one or two pieces and play that way, slowly advancing back to a full chess game.

If your child is not interested in chess and longs for you to release him to his trusty gaming console instead, be sure to speak chess in his language. Tell him each chess piece has special moves, and that the two teams are “battling” for the king. You can even purchase software and handheld console games that teach chess to children and help them develop their strategic thinking for the game in a manner that makes sense to them.

Remember, your child does not have to be Bobby Fischer in order to reap the many rewards that chess has to offer. Simply learning the game and spending time practicing it is enough to raise IQ, improve memory and enhance creativity. It’s also a special hobby that the two of you can share and enjoy together.

Also see a nice video featuring Chess Queen™ Alexandra Kosteniuk




From Alexandra Kosteniuk's
www.chessblog.com
Also see her personal chess blog
at www.chessqueen.com
Don't miss Chess Queen™
YouTube Channel

Children's Chess - One great story, Two great videos

Alexandra Kosteniuk's Chess Blog for Daily Chess News and Trivia (c) 2013

Hi everyone, 

Teaching children how to play chess is a gift for life. We love to pick up stories about children learning chess. Here's one from about Oak Park students learning human chess. Click on picture to watch video.

Abraham Lincoln elementary teacher makes all the right moves to broaden game's appeal

Normally sedate, the game of chess takes on a different feel at an Oak Park school playground, where teams of kids holler out moves and play by jumping spaces on a painted grid.

Fourth- and fifth-graders recently squared off for their first game of what Marvin Childress, a fifth-grade teacher at Lincoln Elementary School, calls human chess. Childress used the life-size version as a way to get more students, especially girls, interested in the game.

Last year, the school's 50-member chess club included about 15 girls. Childress, who is the club's coach, believes making chess an active, social occasion will make it more accessible.

"This is an opportunity to take a game that's built for two people and open it up to 32 people instantly," Childress said. "I just think that, that's cool, that the sheer concept of it is pretty neat."

Fourth-grader Allyson Rumoro was among spectators speaking or yelling suggestions for moves to two more seasoned players who directed classmates on a newly painted blue-and-yellow grid during an introductory game last week.

"I think it will be more fun to play," said the 9-year-old, who was a member of the club last year and plans to join again this year.

Childress came up with the idea in the spring.

With the help of a local Girl Scouts troop and a Parent Teacher Association, he was able to get the $750 needed for paint, labor, and blue and yellow vests marked with the names of chess pieces. A special-education teacher mapped it out and an art teacher led a small crew who painted the chess board, which includes images of the school's lion mascot. Administrators and teachers said the board was a popular spot the first week of school.

"There's a lot of kids out there playing, and a lot of them are girls," said Jennifer Zarosl, a substitute teacher who helped complete the board.

Gabriel Sparkes, 9, a co-captain of the chess club, said he struggled to concentrate while directing a team but learned from students suggesting different moves.

"They were teaching me to play better," he said.

If the program hooks more students, they'll have to submit to the rigor Childress imposes on players. He said he sometimes removes key pieces from his best players' arsenals to teach them not to overvalue the pieces.

Childress said chess teaches important skills, including organizing, planning, decision-making and overcoming adversity.

"Chess is definitely a metaphor for life," he said. "Sometimes in life, you just have to be strategic."

Some of the club members are selected to compete with other Oak Park schools in the spring. Last year, his team finished fifth out of seven teams.

"My players don't always win, but they know how to lose with pride," he said. (wjventeicher@tribune.com/Copyright © 2013 Chicago Tribune Company, LLC)

Here's another truly fun chess video for children 

From Alexandra Kosteniuk's
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Also see her personal chess blog
at www.chessqueen.com
Don't miss Chess Queen™
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9-Year-Old Chess Expert Carissa Yip Making Waves in the US

Alexandra Kosteniuk's Chess Blog for Daily Chess News and Trivia (c) 2013

Hi everyone, 

CHELMSFORD, Mass.—Only three years or so since first picking up the game of chess, 9-year-old Carissa Yip can already look down at 93 percent of the more than 51,000 players registered with the U.S. Chess Federation.

She has risen so far up the rankings that she has reached the expert level at a younger age than anyone since the chess federation began electronic record-keeping in 1991, a new level she reached in recent weeks.

Her father, Percy, who taught her until she began beating him within a year, said she could reach master level in as soon as a year.

“Some never reach master level,” he said. “From expert to master, it’s a huge jump.”

But Carissa, who will be a fifth-grader at McCarthy Middle School this fall, has improved by leaps and bounds.

She first played competitively at the MetroWest Chess Club and Wachusett Chess Club, at the latter of which she’s the top-ranked player. Last fall, she competed in an international competition in Slovenia, and in December, she’ll play the World Youth Championships in the United Arab Emirates.

Carissa is hesitant when asked about her accomplishments, saying she doesn’t spend much time thinking about them.

But she also set a goal for herself this year to reach 2,100; an expert is anyone over 2,000. Anyone at 2,200 is a master. She also wants to one day become the first female to win the overall championship — not just in the female category, her father said.
“It’s not like the rating matters,” Carissa said.

She later demonstrated her ability by playing with her back to the board, reading her moves to her father and keeping track of the whole board in her head. She has been called an intimidating player in an ironic way, because she’s far short of even 5 feet tall.

Her U.S. Chess Federation ranking places her in the top 7 percent of all players registered with the group and the top 2 percent of female players.

Closer to home, Carissa has impressed others who have been playing chess for far longer than she has been alive.

“This was not a record she won by a few days,” said Nathan Smolensky, the president of the Massachusetts Chess Association. “It was a significant margin. So it’s very impressive.”

Among other younger stars at the Boylston Chess Club in Somerville, where Yip has played, most are in their teens and are boys, Smolensky said.

“Even they say they were nowhere near this strength when they were that young,” he said.

Carissa also has three years to reach the next level, that of master, in time to set the record for youngest to reach that step as well, Smolensky said. Five-time U.S. women’s winner Irina Krush has the record for becoming a master at age 12.

George Mirijanian, program director for the Wachusett club and past president of the Massachusetts Chess Association, said Carissa and Percy Yip, both Wachusett members, both got a standing ovation when they arrived at the club last week after Carissa reached expert level.

“In my more than 50 years with the club, I had never witnessed such an exuberant outburst from club members,” Mirijanian said. “They are really proud of Carissa and what she has accomplished.”

From Alexandra Kosteniuk's
www.chessblog.com
Also see her personal chess blog
at www.chessqueen.com
Don't miss Chess Queen™
YouTube Channel

Alexandra Kosteniuk Defends Master Thesis on Preschool Chess Education

Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2013

Hi everyone, 

Chess Queen™ Alexandra Kosteniuk has successfully defended her thesis about the pre-school pedagogical technology for chess that she has developed. She did so on June 10 at the Moscow State Academy of Physical Education and Sport. Read all about the 12th Women's World Chess Champion's latest achievement at her personal blog Chessqueen.com. 


From Alexandra Kosteniuk's
www.chessblog.com
Also see her personal blog at
www.chessqueen.com
Don't miss Chess Queen™
YouTube Channel

Moody Manor Kids Learn Creative Thinking through Chess <-- Video

Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2013

Hi everyone, 

 

Students enrolled in a creative thinking program had the chance on Monday to tell Toledo Mayor Mike Bell themselves. Here's the nice video with these 'chess children'! Don't forget to send your chess videos to Chess Blog.




From Alexandra Kosteniuk's
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Also see her personal blog at
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Don't miss Chess Queen™
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Cool Chess Documentary on Children and Chess

Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2013

Hi everyone, 

 

Here is a super chess video on children and chess. It covers the Chess for Change programme in South Africa, children playing chess in the Bronx area in the US and more. Playing chess an-hour a-day is great for children. Sit back and enjoy the video.

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More good work with chess and children!

Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2012

Hi everyone,

Here is another story about the success of chess with children. In Spring 2010, three UA student volunteers working in Tuscaloosa Magnet Elementary School had the idea that by teaching children chess, they can change lives. They began with 12 sixth graders.

The program that evolved from that idea, Every Move Counts, is an initiative of the Center for Ethics & Social Responsibility that provides UA students with the opportunity to teach chess to children from four local schools while receiving class credit.

 

Olivia Grider, one of the programme coordinators, spoke out on the benefits for the children involved.
“For the kids, research shows that this improves standardized test scores in both Math and English, basically it improves all critical and analytical skills as well as the ability to focus. So overall, it helps the kids improve in all facets,” Grider said.

“They aren’t just teaching them a game, they are teaching them skills for life,” said Grider.

We couldn't agree more. You can read the full report here.

From Alexandra Kosteniuk's

www.chessblog.com

Also see her personal blog at

www.chessqueen.com

Washington Parks Chess Academy teams wins three titles!

Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2012


Hi everyone,


Metro Detroit school chess team has won three chess titles & focus of new documentary: Lunchtime is usually when children take a break from the books and give their brains a rest. However, that’s not the case for dozens of students at Washington-Parks Academy!





Read more here.




From Alexandra Kosteniuk's
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Also see her personal blog at
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Jersey City chess teacher gets heavyweight boxing champ to say chess is cool!

Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2012
Hi everyone,

This is an innovative approach adopted by a chess teacher in Jersey City. He has got former heavyweight boxing champion Larry Holmes and a McDonald’s franchise owner to drive home the message that chess is a “cool” game for urban teenagers.

 

Former heavyweight boxing champion Larry Holmes has a message for teens - chess is a cool game. 

Three months ago, chess instructor Bobby Stewart started the weekly McDonald’s Chess Cafe at the 390 Martin Luther King Drive in partnership with the McDonald’s franchise owner, the Quintana Organization. Stewart provides free chess instruction to local children, teenagers and adults every Thursday, from 6 p.m. to 11 p.m., and the second and fourth Saturday of each month from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Kids get to eat for free.

Looking for innovative ways to introduce chess to children and teenagers, Stewart invited Holmes to speak to the kids at the McDonald’s on Feb. 25. Kids packed the restaurant for a chance to meet the legendary boxing champ and win prizes that included McDonald gift certificates and a pair of signed boxing gloves from Holmes, Stewart said.

“Chess is looked upon as a geeky and nerdy type of game, and we want to change that,” Stewart told The Jersey Journal. You can read full story here.

From Alexandra Kosteniuk's
www.chessblog.com
Also see her personal blog at
www.chessqueen.com

Cebu City's remarkable chess experiment in schools!

Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2012

Hi everyone,

We found this interesting report on a chess 'experiment' in Cebu City. It has really taken chess to the kids. 

Chess with tansan pawns

With tansans (bottle caps) as chess pieces and cardboard sheets, Cebu City children learn to play chess for free.

 

In six months, 43,000 kids were playing the board game. The cost? A transportation allowance for volunteer coaches from City Hall, bread snacks donated by Julie’s Bakeshop and canned goods from Virginia Foods.

It started with volunteers from the Cebu Chess Federation going around schools in all 16 districts of Cebu City to teach chess basics to physical education teachers and school coordinators.

They were taught how to play as well as coach and arbitrate. After two months, the volunteers started teaching schoolkids. Sports Commissioner Eduard Hayco said they couldn’t have pulled off the chess program without the help of the Department of Education (DepEd).

DepEd Cebu City Schools Division Superintendent Rhea Mar Angtud issued a memo to include chess in the PE curriculum in all schools. Volunteer teachers learned from each other in solving problems such as the lack of volunteer teachers and chess sets.

From this was adapted the strategy of letting the best of the students teach others. Another brainstorm was the idea of making their own chessboards and chess pieces as school projects.

A simple cardboard sheet became a chess board. Bottle caps became knights and rooks. Hayco said he used the same principle of volunteerism which brought dancesports to the barangays.

“Twelve years ago, Mayor Tom (Osmeña) gave a direction to me to bring the elegance of dancesports to the barangays as a means of transforming the kids in a positive way, and that a grassroots approach was also a more effective way of discovering good athletes,” Hayco said.

Hayco also gave the Philippine Sports Commission food for thought in his speech when he said they don’t need a Class A coach to teach.

“If you classify coaches by A, B, C, D with A being the best, you can have the C and D coach to teach the beginners and the B coach for those who have potential and the A coach for the prime team.” 

   

                                                       Correspondent Mars G. Alison

From Alexandra Kosteniuk's
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Also see her personal blog at
www.chessqueen.com

With chess, thinking and fun unite

Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2012

Hello everyone,


We have more chess news coming in about children having fun with this beautiful sport.

During last week’s tournament that wrapped the Emily Bailey Arts Residency, local chess mentor Omar Durrani counseled Antioch School students on their chess moves. Counterclockwise from bottom left are Marin Wirrig, Ceron Gomez, Henry Wirrig, Tim Bold, Tahlia Potter and Lida Boutis. (photo by Diane Chiddister)

A game of chess is like “a mind martial arts,” according to Kaden Boutis of the Antioch School’s Older Group. To Zenya Miyazaki, chess “exercises your brain. It makes you expand your thinking.” And to Sulayman Chappelle, chess is an opportunity to see how people think differently, how “everyone has a different strategy.”

These Older Group boys began lobbying about a year ago to make chess the focus of the school’s annual artist-in-residency, according to OG Teacher Chris Powell. Specifically, the boys wanted to bring to school instructor Omar Durrani to teach chess to Antioch School kids during the annual Emily Bailey arts residency. And that’s exactly what happened, with Durrani wrapping up his three-week residency on Friday, Jan. 20. You can read the full story here.

From Alexandra Kosteniuk's
www.chessblog.com
Also see her personal blog at
www.chessqueen.com

Chess great Kasparov takes game to kids in Africa

Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2011

Hi everyone,

Chess great Garry Kasparov watches Grade 6 pupils at the Zamintuthuko Primary School in Mamelodi make their moves with the educational project Moves for Life. Photo: Thobile Mathonsi.


We found this nice article on chess great Garry Kasparov's visit to South Africa. The chess legend visited Zamintuthuko Primary School in Mamelodi and Hoërskool Waterkloof as part of his partnership with a Pretoria-based chess educational project, Moves For Life (MFL).

Kasparov’s visit to the country is to link his Kasparov Chess Foundation to MFL to extend the successful MFL formula to other African countries. MFL was launched nationwide last year and has expanded to over 50 schools across the country.

Principal Matome Ramokhufi said the pupils had already shown improvements in their level of concentration in class. “The project also assists in the pupils’ level of critical thinking as chess helps them to think outside the box. “We are already seeing improvements in their work in maths and science.”

Ramokhufi said before the project was implemented at the school, teachers had realised that pupils did not always follow the rules and steps of problem solving in maths and science.

May all the kids of the world learn chess - that's our fond wish. If your school or local club is running a chess programme, do share your activities with Chess Blog.

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Brooklyn Castle - the lovely chess film about junior high with highest rated chess team in the US!

Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2011

Hi everyone,

We have an update about a nice chess documentary - Brooklyn Castle. It’s a great film about a low-income junior high school in Brooklyn that has the highest rated chess team in the whole country. Wow.

Here's the trailer from www.BrooklynCastle.com. They are also rolling out our outreach campaign (which will focus on getting more chess programs in schools throughout the country).  

Finishing Brooklyn Castle (Formerly Chess Movie) by Rescued Media looks at the challenges and triumphs of a champion public school chess team hit hard by budget cuts.

The project page is here.

ABOUT THIS PROJECT

THE STORY:

Brooklyn, New York’s I.S. 318 is a junior high school where over 65% of students are from homes living below the federal poverty level. It also has the best junior high school chess team, bar none, in the entire country. They win nearly every tournament they play in – and regularly beat out schools, and other students, with a lot more resources. Despite being underfunded and underserved, I.S. 318 is home to some of the highest ranked students in the country. In fact, if Albert Einstein, who was rated 1800, were to join the team, he’d be fifth best. We followed the lives of five of these amazing kids – Alexis, Justus, Patrick, Pobo and Rochelle – for a year and saw their triumphs and struggles, both on and off the chessboard, and marveled at how they handled both.

Brooklyn Castle is a documentary that is as much about the ability for public schools to do great things when they have the resources as it is about these five young lives. In 2003, I.S. 318 was listed as a “school in need of improvement.” Today, it’s one of New York City’s best, and its students matriculate to some of the most prestigious high schools in the country. The chess program has led the school to create a vibrant and varied afterschool program which John Galvin, assistant principal, credits with creating the “culture of success” at the school. But what we learned in making this documentary is that even with a staff that cares and students that work hard, a lack of resources can undermine even the most hard-won achievements. Budget cuts now seriously threaten the very existence of I.S. 318’s afterschool programs. The demise of these incredibly necessary programs is certain to have serious consequences for both I.S. 318 and its students.

WHERE WE ARE WITH THE FILM, AND HOW WE’RE USING IT:

Brooklyn Castle is near completion. We're raising these funds, partly, for the finishing touches that make a film look, feel and sound like a movie, and they include final music scoring, final animation, sound mixing, sound design and color correction. Once accepted into a film festival, we are launching a robust audience engagement and outreach campaign that has three goals: 1) to get people talking about how incredibly important afterschool programming 2) to inspire the creation of more afterschool programs in schools across the country and 3) to influence the resources that are allotted for these programs – a really timely goal, because in recessionary periods like the one we’re in now, these programs are the first to go. We’ve partnered with education organizations like the Afterschool Alliance, as well as chess organizations like the United States Chess Federation to mention just a couple. But we still have a lot of work to do. With the help of our partners, who know a lot more about this stuff than we do, we’re going to do a 10-city screening campaign which will target principals and administrators of underserved schools to inform them how to create and maintain chess and other quality afterschool programs at their schools. We’ll also give them tangible tool kits – including success stories, testimonials, and step-by-step guides – and discussion guides and DVDs for screenings at their schools and/or local community spaces. We’re designing a mobile app that will let people donate directly to schools in need of funds for their afterschool programs. And we’re working with local programs in cities throughout the country to get administrators and funders in rooms together, so they can talk about how incredibly important these programs are.

We are seriously and earnestly committed to the idea of having Brooklyn Castledo more than just tell a story – we really want it to have a genuine, positive impact, and we feel confident that if we work with people and organizations that share our goals, it will.

THE ASK:

You knew it was coming…

The thing is, all of this takes money. Not only the finishing touches to the film, but to pay for campaign materials – the paper, the printing, the DVDs – and travel to host these community screenings. We’ve done a lot so far with our own resources in order to start building this campaign and we’ve gotten help from people like the Fledgling Fund. We plan to use Kickstarter funds to keep the momentum of our campaign going strong – up until and extending beyond the premiere of the film. We would appreciate any help, at all, you would be willing to provide us. And thanks so much for your time!

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Cool chess photo of the week!

Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2011


Hi everyone,

Warrnambool East Primary School chaplain Janet Ferguson calls it therapy as she teaches life skills to challenged children.

"It shows them strategies, leadership skills and how to handle emotions," she said. "The rules never change, they learn to handle the challenges and plan ahead. "I use chess as part of an enrichment process to help children with social issues. "They see that it's not just a game for nerds. They enjoy it and then can go on to play in bigger games including on-line international challenges.

"Next Monday five of pupils from Warrnambool East grade six will travel to Melbourne for state championships where they will meet polished performers from some of the more privileged private schools.

Read the full story here.

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Chess Champs Rise From Migrant Worker Community

Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2011


Hi everyone,


Here is a nice audio link and transcript.


Mendota, Calif. is a town of droughts, industrial agriculture and high unemployment. But it has recently been recognized as the home to a group of Latino high school boys who've won a state title in chess. To learn about the boys' achievement, guest host Tony Cox speaks with the triumphant team's coach Vaness French and one of its members Chrispin Reyes.

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Children and chess in the curriculum video news story

Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2011


Hello everyone,


We love all those nice stories about chess and children so here's a cool news story video about chess in the curriculum in the US. Enjoy.

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Chess, children and grown-ups: All fun, age no bar

Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2011

Hi everyone,

Chess sees no age and here is more proof. Below is a photo of first-time chess player and Jersey City Board of Education member Sean Connors laughing after losing to a 10-year-old at the The Kings Knights Chess Club'€™s Hudson County Chess Tournament at the Brennan Courthouse in Jersey City on April 2, 2011. (RICHARD J. MCCORMACK PHOTO).

We found this photo to go with a very nice article here. It is very heartwarming when public figures and adults take upon themselves the initiative to help children evolve with the beautiful game of chess. The Hudson County Chess Tournament was held on Saturday in Jersey City. The tournament was sponsored by the county and the Jersey City-based Kings Knights Chess Club which gives kids the opportunity to master and enjoy the game.

Some prominent figures like Hudson County Executive Tom DeGise, Chair of the Hudson County Freeholders Bill O'Dea, Jersey City Councilman Steve Fulop and Jersey City Board of Education member Sean Connors participated in the event, which is held annually. That's great encouragement for the kids. You can read the full article here.

We invite your chess club stories that celebrate chess to feature here on www.chessblog.com. So keep writing in.

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Kids checkmate life's troubles with chess!

Chess news and chess trivia blog (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2010

(From top) Students from Future Hope School who participated in The Telegraph Schools’ Chess Championship and Diptajeet and Yudhajeet Dey. Pictures by Amit Datta

Hello Everyone,

We found this touching story about orphans and visually challenged kids trying chess in India. It is about 10 orphan kids and two visually challenged brothers who participated in a schools' chess tournament in the Indian city of Kolkata. Chess is surely about hope.

Surojit and Susant are among the 10 orphans from Future Hope School who debuted in The Telegraph Schools’ Chess Championship. “I had picked up how to move the different pieces from friends at the home but did not know how to write the moves as the games progress. I learnt that watching my opponents and wrote down my moves the third game onwards,” said Surojit after his second game of the day on Friday.

The other hightlight at the tournament this year — which saw the participation of 480 children, 100 more than 2009 — included the performance of the Dey twins - Yudhajeet, who is blind, and Diptajeet, who is partially blind.

“We had never participated in such a high-profile tournament. There are many good players and it’s a nice feeling to beat some of them,” said Diptajeet, who shifted from an English-medium school to study with his twin in the Sreerampur Mahesh High School, where the medium of instruction is Bengali.

You can read the full story here.

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