Category Archives: Teaching Materials

Which Workshops for You?

Chess and Society, Chess in Schools, Community, Early years, Evaluation, Federations, Prisons, Programme, Social Enterprise, Strategy, Teaching Materials, The Future of Chess in Education

During the parallel sessions of the conference you will have a choice where to go to. Here are brief summaries of the workshops in chronological order.

Saturday afternoon

Chess in Education Strategy This two-part workshop picks up key issues from the first plenary session and addresses how strategic processes can be organised and communicated within organisations and towards stakeholders. (15-16 and 16.30-18)

Chess in Communities Chess projects that are serving social purposes in its immediate surroundings require a different outlook than competitive chess. Three project leaders share their challenges and provide inspiration. (15-16)

Chess in Prisons Chess has been a popular pasttime of prisoners for a long time. Recently it has been picked up as an intervention to educate inmates and young at-risk delinquents. Prison chess leaders come together to exchange experience and develop a joint research project. (16.30-18)

Sunday morning

Large Scale School Chess Events They are a corner stone of promoting and marketing school chess. Presentations on the UK Chess Challenge, Belaya Ladya, Linkes Alsterufer gegen rechtes Alsterufer, Schack4an and the K12 (Super)Nationals will elaborate what makes each of theses events special, and maybe why none has a conference attached to it yet. (9.30-11)

Business Development How can you put your school chess project or teaching business on firmer ground and make it more efficient? Neil Dietsch, who after a long corporate career is running school chess in Alabama, will conduct this hands-on workshop (9.30-11)

Book Presentation: The Learning Spiral Kevin Cripe, a retired teacher who is now running a chess project for disadvantaged kids in Panama, will present and discuss his new book on chess didactics. (10-11)

Teaching Coding and Computer Skills through Chess Strategy games, and chess in particular, provide a great pathway to introduce young students to coding and teach them other computer skills. Boris Raguet, a French teacher and teacher trainer, shows how this can be accomplished. He will be introduced by David Kramaley. (10-11)

Sunday afternoon

Early Years Chess Starting out on chess with preschoolers or first graders comes with special challenges but also with opportunities to use chess to promote basic numeracy, literacy and psycho motor skills. (13.45-15.15)

Making School Chess Research More Relevant Most studies of school chess have concentrated on cognitive benefits and simple comparisons with control groups of children that didn´t learn chess. While their results may be useful for marketing, different research questions and methods are required to improve the quality and efficacy of school chess. (13.45-15.15)

Promoting Social Skills through Chess Initially often targeted at mathematic and logic skills, those who teach chess in schools often find that social skills are promoted equally or even priorily. (13.45-15.15)

Workshops provide ample opportunity to answer questions, discuss and start cooperating

More About IT

Chess and Society, Chess in Schools, Scholastic Chess, Speakers, Teaching, Teaching Materials

The conference is not far away and NOW would be an excellent time to enrol if you have not already done so.

IT will feature prominently on the programme and here is a teaser as to what to expect:

  • Chess Explanation Engine using Artificial Intelligence (Decode Chess)
  • Embedding chess lessons in the classroom digitally (Learning Chess)
  • Chess and computer coding using chess (French Chess Federation)
  • Enhancing memory of chess openings and patterns (Chessable)

This is shaping up to be the best conference yet. We hope to see you there!

Chess exercise design competition

Chess in Schools, Competition, Mathematics, Previous Conferences, Teaching, Teaching Materials

For the third year in a row, we will be running a competition during the Conference. In 2014, the subject was designing a game played on a chessboard. The competition was won by Tatyana Ogneva with her game called “Football chess”; Tatyana took home the £500 prize. Last year, we held a Social Entrepreneur Bootcamp together with a competition for the best social chess project, judged by experienced executives. Luis Blasco, who uses chess to work with children suffering from ADHD, earned £500 for his enterprise “Ajedrez y TDAH”.

We are delighted that this year’s Conference will also feature a competition, and thanks to sponsorship from the European Chess Union the prize fund has been increased to €1,000. The task this year is to come up with the best original classroom chess exercise. There is only one rule: the exercise must involve collaborative problem solving.

Check out the competition page for details — and start creating, just don’t miss the deadline!

Watch this: Hours of Conference Video!

Speakers, Teaching Materials, Video

A great deal of the conference can now be accessed on video thanks to Karel van Delft.

Anna Nicotera discusses the available studies on chess in schools and implications for future research. Susan Sallon studies effects in English primary schools. Roberto Trinchero presents new data from Italy. Giovanni Sala explores metacognition effects of chess. There is also a video on the post conference research workshop.

The conference comes alive with speakers like Wendi Fischer
The conference comes alive with speakers like Wendi Fischer
Bo Johansson considers from an education scientist´s point of view which children benefit from chess and why. His colleague Christina Schenz argues for chess to promote giftedness in all children. Roland Grabner introduces the conditions of successful maths learning and how chess can contribute. David Wells reviews connections between chess and maths. Jorge Nuno Silva takes you by fasttrack through the history of games and mathematical learning. Rob Eastaway shows how simple games (some of which can be transfered to the chess board) convey mathematical insight.

Wendi Fischer presents the holistic approach of the First Move curriculum. Jennifer Shahade tackles gender issues and presents new formats of informal learning through strategic games. And this video highlights the exhibition and exchange of ideas.

Karel van Delft
Karel van Delft
An overview of all videos that are available can be found on Karel´s website chesstalent.com

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Games, Mathematics, Special Needs, Teaching Materials, Video

The festive time is for some of you an opportunity to catch up. We invite you to have a look at the presentations from our recent conference.

Karel van Delft keeps updating his excellent website with materials from the conference. He has added videos from the presentations by Roland Grabner on the Cognitive Neuroscience of Mathematics Leaning, by Jorge Nuno Silva on the history of games and mathematics and by Ed Pogossian on an innovative Armenian chess project with autistic children.

If you have attended the conference please complete the online questionnaire. It only takes ten minutes, and your replies help us to evaluate the event and plan future events. If you have attended and haven´t received an invitation to our online survey please contact conference@londonchessclassic.com

Conference Videos

Special Needs, Teaching Materials, Video

Karel van Delft (top), Richard James and Dijana Dengler
Karel van Delft (top), Richard James and Dijana Dengler highlighted chess in special needs education

Karel van Delft is posting videos from the conference on a dedicated page of his excellent website chesstalent.com. The Dutch author and psychologist has started with the workshop on Chess for Children with Autism and ADHD, which highlighted how beneficial the game can be in special needs education. There were moving talks by Richard James, by Dijana Dengler, by Luis Blasco and by Karel himself. Stay tuned, as more videos are coming.

Luis Blasco presented on chess for boys diagnosed with ADHD - which in Spanish is abbreviated TDAH
Luis Blasco presented on chess for boys diagnosed with ADHD – which in Spanish is abbreviated TDAH

Presentations Available

Research, Speakers, Teaching Materials

Due to technical difficulties and other commitments we have been slow to share the presentations from the conference sessions and workshops. Please excuse the delay. The presentations page is now updated, and more is coming. We have chosen the pdf format to prevent misappropriation. We have added Presentations in the menu, too.

Malcolm Pein, right, opened the conference
Malcolm Pein, right, opened the conference

Chess and Poker – the Mathematical Brain

Games, Mathematics, Speakers, Teaching Materials

JenPLAGshoot500Poker has attracted a significant number of talented chess players. Poker players are cool-headed and calculate the odds for the prospect of substantial monetary rewards. To survive and prosper they must have a mathematical brain – or must they? The formidable Jennifer Shahade addresses this topic at her conference presentation on Sunday. She is a Woman Grandmaster and twice the USA women’s champion – and a professional poker player. She will host the prizegiving at the English Girls’ Chess Championship on Saturday at Olympia and give a pep talk to the girls.

Jennifer has written two critically acclaimed books exploring the involvement of women in chess. Chess Bitch looked at the histories and personalities of female chess players and Play Like a Girl extracted sparkling gems from female play. Her message is that traditional feminine preoccupations such as fashion and cosmetics are not necessarily in conflict with being an aggressive chess player. She suggests that females are socialised to be less outwardly competitive.

Remarkably, more girls are playing chess in USA both numerically and proportionately than at any time in the history of the USCF. Jennifer predicts that this trend will continue as chess becomes more glamorous and mainstream with the rise of champions like Magnus Carlsen and Fabiano Caruana (who was brought up in the USA although he now plays for Italy).

Continue reading Chess and Poker – the Mathematical Brain →

Digital Assisted Learning

Speakers, Teaching, Teaching Materials

Janos Pallagi profile picture
János Pallagi Developer of LearningChess.net

The conference has a panel debate on digital assisted learning on Saturday afternoon: ‘Promises and Limitations of Digital School Chess’ which will be an opportunity to discuss a topic which is becoming increasingly important to the teaching community. Schools are gaining experience in how to integrate online curricula into the classroom but there are many issues to be resolved. Digital applications supplement the traditional methods and teachers value the structure and insights these can bring especially as the applications evolve through feedback from many users. Teachers feel more effective and better able address the diverse range of abilities and interests of their children. Schools are exploring which systems to use and the best way to introduce them. On the panel are János Pallagi, who developed a chess learning system (that he will present on Sunday morning), Mads Jacobsen who heads the Danish Scholastic Chess Association, and Melissa Remus Elliot, the Headteacher of Heathside Preparatory School in London who strongly promotes chess for educational purposes.

An example from LeaningChess.Net
An example from LearningChess.Net

János Pallagi´s LearningChess system arose from a project at Pipacsvirag Secondary School outside Budapest. János Pellagi, an IT specialist, worked with Erzsébet Sarlós, the school Director, on a Chess and Logic Curriculum which breaks new ground. The accompanying software was further transformed into a chess learning application system. This has been translated into English and made free for schools (see video). Already, a couple of thousand children are using it worldwide. The system has evolved so that pupils can track their own development and teachers can monitor the progress of their pupils and their strengths and weaknesses. The evidence suggests that tools such as this can improve attainment in chess, logic and mathematics.

Award-Winning Family Business for Early Chess

Teaching Materials

Chess wasn´t supposed to be suitable for pre-teenage children only a century ago. Since then it has not only entered primary education but the game is now reaching preschool. Some chess schools and teachers have started to focus on very young children. Suitable materials for kindergartens and infant schools have recently come up in numerous countries. To feature this development we introduced a workshop “Early Years Chess”, giving opportunity to some of the pioneers to present their approach.

(From left) Ariela, Boris, Lior and Luba Alterman work together as a family
(From left) Ariela, Boris, Lior and Luba Alterman work together as a family

Among these pioneers are Boris and Luba Alterman and their company Chess in a New Way. Hundreds of Kindergartens and Primary Schools in Israel are using their materials, curriculum and trainings for educators.  Boris estimates that they are reaching close to 20,000 children. A Christian school in Ramle encouraged them to translate their textbook from Hebrew to Arabic.

Shortly after Boris and Luba returned from our 2013 conference, Chess in a New Way was voted Israel´s best small business among many hundreds of applicants. This ensured a lot of attention and publicity.

Chess World AppChess in a New Way is truely a family business. Their daughter Ariela is working in the company and will also come to London to show and explain their materials in our exhibition. Their son Lior, a programming genius who has started a professional IT career at 15, has developed an app called Chess World which started sales just in time for our conference.