Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Chess in grades 2 and 3 (one hour a week)

I just stumbled onto a organized effort to have 2nd and 3rd graders playing chess for one hour a week in the regular school schedule.

Here is the link to the First Move program:

http://www.af4c.org/club/scripts/section/section.asp?NS=FMPI

They list a lot of schools in the Seattle area as being part of this program.
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1 comment:

  1. Sudhakar KudvaJanuary 13, 2009 at 1:06 PM

    Dan -

    One of the officers of the Oregon Scholastic Chess Federation evaluated this program at Clatskanie, OR, and came out with very favorable impressions. Another foundation in Oregon, Chess For Successs, has been running a program at Title 1 schools in Portland. Theirs is a before or after school program, and they do run competitions. Both AF4C and CFS are steps in the right direction. There is incontrovertible evidence that chess helps with overall academic achievement, both verbal and quantitative.

    For more info on how Chess For Success runs their programs, view their website:

    www.chessforsuccess.org

    Outside the academic circles, scholastic chess is big in the state of Washington. Majority of the clubs are run by parents or chess professionals. Only a few clubs are run by teachers. Last year's K-6 championship event, again run by professionals, had nearly 2000 qualified participants. The Northwest scholastic chess database has over 10,000 scholastic players. Those who would like to participate can get information from the Washington High School Chess Association website:

    http://www.whsca.org/WHSCAhome.html

    Sudhakar

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