Chess in Schools
It is clear that the success of chess is directly related with the development of chess in schools.
With the new We R Europe team, the President will be a consultant for all federations who want to succeed with “chess in schools” projects.
We have a fundamental belief that “Chess in schools” is the main and critical promotional engine which creates a huge awareness and popularity with a gigantic number of children in each country.
We know very clearly that each country, each education system, is different with its own laws and legislations.
Our customised services will include tailoring products and materials to create a model for each federation which wants to undertake this project.
Our position will not be patronage but on the contrary we will be a free consultant and partner.
We would like to refer here some useful material to be shared for readers.
Howard Gardner's Multiple Intelligencies Academic Benefits of Chess
The aim is not to generate grandmasters in schools, the aim is to make chess like painting, music, or native language, a learning course for all children. To give the advantages of teaching chess to our young citizens. To create our “Children of Tomorrow”.
Sure, the result will be a young population learning to play chess and also involving their parents. This will attract sponsors at national and continental level.
And do not underestimate that a big percentage of this population will join chess clubs and federations as members.
Let us share with you what happened in Turkey in the last 5 years with chess in schools.
In the last 5 years more than 200 private chess clubs opened in Turkey... This is only one of them..
The number of children learning chess from 2005 till 2010: 2.250.000 (two million, two hundred fifty thousand). This means around 10 million citizens (including parents and relatives) are related or aware of chess. The Turkish Federation had 174.000 members with the end of 2009. Our aim is to achieve 250.000 members by the end of 2010.
The budget of Turkish Chess Federation is just around 6 million Euros. Many elite players have been developed thanks to the budget! The biggest bank in Turkey, IsBankasi, became sponsor of Turkish Chess Federation (1.2 million USD per year). Federation has become a prestigious sports organisation in Turkey and we have access to Government, sponsors and media. The next step is “Chess in Clubs”!
We propose two main models for chess in school:
- Small or developing nations - chess in school project: If the population and size of the country is small like Andorra, Malta, Luxembourg, Faroe Islands, Guernsey, Jersey, San Marino, Iceland etc. then the best model is to create chess in school in central clubs and to send trained teachers to schools from this institution, similar to the Singaporean model. The next step will be to create school chess clubs in every school and to organise regular competitions.
- Big countries - chess in school project: If the country has a big territory and big population, like Russia, Poland, Turkey, Ukraine then the model is to create chess courses in each school. For this, the federation will be in charge to train normal school teachers and certify them for teaching chess. The aim of the federation is to be the regulator in this project and the result will be to create a mass number of children. According to the success of marketing the “chess in club” phase the federation will get a great benefit.
We will be with you all the time, at your service, for chess in schools and chess in clubs projects with each willing federation.
Our success in our federations is the guarantee of our promises.
Winning is a habit, Success is a choice
