Bulgarian school puts chess on the curriculum

Bulgarian school puts chess on the curriculum
Pupils playing chess at the Eurostandard High School in Sofia
Eastern Europe | 29.10.2011

In a classroom on the top floor of the Eurostandard High School in central Sofia, a group of pupils are laying out chess sets ready for their next lesson.

At the beginning of the school year, these pupils became the first in Europe to take chess classes as an obligatory subject. It's a pilot project initiated in partnership with the European Chess Union. The program is designed to promote chess among young people throughout Europe.

"We care about our children of the new generation in Europe, so of course we want to give them the best, that's why we need to promote chess," Boyko Hristov from the European Chess Union told Deutsche Welle. "That's why our partnership became a reality."

Privileged few

The children at Eurostandard are the lucky ones. It's a private high school, which specializes in preparing elite students for careers in banking, finance and insurance. There are just 50 pupils, aged 14 to 18.

Hristov hopes this school will be the first of many. He said the Bulgarian Ministry of Education has expressed an interest in introducing chess classes in the public school system, but there's one major stumbling block.

"Of course, the Bulgarian state has to find the money to promote chess in our schools," Hristov acknowledged.

The state would also have to find space for chess in the national curriculum. Currently, Bulgarian children have three hours of physical education a week. Hristov has suggested that the third hour could be lent to chess lessons. He sees chess as a kind of exercise for the brain.

"We treat chess like a sport, not just like a game. It really is a sport, because we train our muscles, but our brain is part of our body, the same as our muscles. It just has a different function," said Hristov. "There's a lot of research which shows if you train your brain, it will be in good condition for longer."

In Bulgaria, the National Olympic Committee has even been fighting for chess to be recognized as an Olympic sport.

Winning support from Brussels

In September, the European Chess Union presented their program for "chess in schools" to the European Parliament. Apparently it was received with "great interest."

However, chess is already a popular pastime in eastern Europe. In the Balkans, children are taught to play at a young age. In Bulgaria, great chess players like Veselin Topalov have become national heroes.

By contrast, in western Europe, there is less of a tradition of chess playing. It may be harder to convince schools in countries like France and Germany of the need to treat chess as anything more than a hobby.

The European Chess Union would argue that chess is an important tool for developing strategic thinking, logic and concentration skills among all youngsters. At the Eurostandard High School, two 17-year-olds give their thoughts on the subject.

"I like it as an idea in school because chess is developing your thinking skills and your mental condition," explained Stefan. "It's great to play in school."

"It's a great idea because it exercises your brain," said Christian. "But I don't like it personally. It's OK for entertainment."

Author: Joanna Impey, Sofia
Editor: Martin Kuebler

Source: http://www.dw-world.de

Chess In Schools in Israel - A progress report

Mr. Kirsan Ilyumzhinov
FIDE President

Chess In Schools in Israel - A progress report

Dear Mr. President,

Since your visit to Israel and your very important and crucial meeting in Jerusalem on December 19th 2010 with Mr. Shoshani the Director General of the Israeli Ministry of Education a substantial progress has been done in the project that has become one of the priority projects of the Israel Chess Federation.

Your actual financial support enabled us to overcome several common bureaucratic obstacles.

Detailed negotiations with the Ministry officials have ended by signing an official contract between the Chess Federation and the Ministry of Education. Following that contract we met with local municipalities (all of them in the periphery) in order to decide where to start the chess in school project which was defined –during the 1st year - as "pilot project" (it was agreed that based on the success of the "pilot", the project will be tripled during the 2nd year).

Due to the importance of the project, the Managing Director of the Israel Chess Federation and a special skilled project manager are running the project.

During 2011- 2012 school year the project will be operated among pupils of the 2nd grade in 10 local municipalities all of them are in the periphery. Among the 10 municipalities, 3 are Arab municipalities (1 in the south among the Beduines-the project there already started and has received compliments due to its uniqueness and the unprecedented phenomena and 2 in the north of the country).

In several municipalities we have started our activity by training special chess instructors (many of them are students in the universities).

Now while the holidays season among the Jewish population in Israel is over we shall start our activities in the classes (among the non Jewish we already started). November 6th was set up as the official opening day of the Chess in Schools project. The chess lessons will last until the end of the school year on June 30th 2012.

Altogether we shall teach chess in 120 2nd grade classes - that will be considered by the Ministry of Education as "pilot" .

Dear Mr. President, we are very proud that together with you and the Ministry of Education we are able to run such an important project.

We are looking forward to enlarging the scope of the project with Fide and the Ministry of Education (that based on the success of the pilot has already committed itself to triple the project).

Thank you again, Mr. President, for your initiative and support.

Yours Sincerely,

Yigal Lotan, Adv
General Manager

Download the letter here