Lockdown Blog Part Three

A new edition of my lockdown blog is now available.

Click here.

CSC Chess at Home: Lesson 10

Today brings a brand new chess lesson to the CSC Chess at Home page.

If you would like to know about the best ways of starting a game then please head for Lesson 10, which comes in the form of a worksheet, Kahoot! quiz and my latest YouTube video:

Chess at Home

If you have missed any lessons or simply need a refresher then the first nine lessons are on the same page.

'Who wants to be...'

'Who wants to be...'

...one in a million?

Please write the answer on the back of a £20 note and send it to me at the usual address.

When you have done that, please click here to read the second post in my new CSC blog.

Brand New Lessons: YouTube, Worksheets and Kahoot! Quizzes

On Sunday the news broke that CSC had teamed up with ChessKid to offer one million free online accounts.

CSC CEO Malcolm Pein appeared on Sky News yesterday to talk about the project and the footage can be seen here.

It is now time to highlight some of the other projects we have been working on since the start of the emergency.

Head to the special Chess at Home section of the website and links will be found to no fewer than three brand new series of instructional chess material.

There are worksheets, Kahoot! quizzes and YouTube videos, all consistently themed across the first nine lessons.

The YouTube videos were created by me and here are the direct links to each one.

The Pawn

The Rook

The Bishop

The Queen

The Knight

The King

Check, Checkmate and Stalemate

Pawn Promotion

Castling

Hopefully all of the new resources will help to demystify chess and make the game extremely accessible to people of all ages.

CSC ChessKid Plans Unveiled

CSC have been working on many new plans since the start of the emergency.

YouTube videos and Kahoot! quizzes are all ready to roll and will be made available very soon.

Today's article in The Sunday Times highlights another major aspect of our major new initiative - no fewer than one million free accounts on ChessKid, valid until 25 July 2020.

From The Sunday Times
Page Four, 19.4.2020

Of particular interest to CSC Teesside are the concluding two paragraphs, which feature Jessica, one of our star junior players from The Links Primary School and Catherine, who has been a very active supporter of chess over the course of this school year.

Thank you, ladies, for putting Teesside on the map once more.

Jessica - one in a million - enjoying using ChessKid

In the words of Malcolm Pein, CEO of CSC:

“Our initiative is designed to help parents keep their children engaged constructively in these difficult times in an activity that is also fun. We’d love to enable every child in every school and household to learn and explore this wonderful game of limitless depth. The charity has seen how learning chess can give some children who do not excel in other areas the chance to shine and the game’s universality makes it an ideal tool to improve social mobility.”

For further details, please visit the special Chess at Home section of the CSC website and the two ChessKid sections, one for schools and one for parents.

We have many more announcements still to come, so stay tuned...

Chess For Life Interview

Today I was interviewed by Natasha Regan and Matthew Sadler for their Chess For Life video series.

Please click here to see the interview - and don't forget to subscribe to the channel.

New Blog

A new blog has been launched over at the Chess in Schools and Communities website, to start the ball rolling on a wealth of new projects.

The first post can be found here.

International Chess Challenge: Further Captures

We are pleased to report that our International Chess Challenge has resumed following a couple of weeks' readjustment due to the unusual global circumstances.

This is the last reported position. Black had just captured a knight with 11 ...Bxf3.

Hutt International Boys' School (New Zealand) v The Links (England)

Since then we have had these moves:

12 gxf3 

Capturing the bishop and dealing with the threat of 12 ...Bxd1

12 ...Nxd5

Capturing the pawn, stopping 13 dxc6 and establishing material equality.

This morning I received the latest move from Richard Catterall in New Zealand. His pupils spent some time deciding between exchanging the queens with 13 Qxd8 - bringing the game closer to the endgame - and keeping the queens on the board. They eventually chose the latter option.

13 Qe4

Hutt International Boys' School (New Zealand) v The Links (England)

A very interesting move, keeping as much tension on the board as possible.

Now let us see how The Links pupils will respond.