Chess : A learning tool

Chess : A learning tool
100 Job Opportunities in two years.

“I have won”; a child, holding his opponent’s King in hand, gleefully yelled in excitement. “You cannot capture the King but you must Checkmate him, i.e. trap him under attack without an escape route” I had to explain to him. There are several tricky positions in Chess. ‘Stalemate’ is one such position. A child may have good strength on board but is still unable to trap the opponent’s King into Checkmate and the opponent’s King if left with no further legal move. The game thus ends in a draw. The fascinating part is that children at a young age learn chess very easily.

A Child can learn to imbibe democratic values in a modern society through Chess. Chess is a learning tool, an Indian Game which helps one to develop ‘Reasoning’, ‘Decision making’ and many other abilities. In a simple ‘Pawn Game’ a child can learn simple tricks like for instance the ‘Order’ in which he should move the pawns. He can also decide whether he must block the pawn or can capture it.

Chess is an exercise of infinite possibilities for the mind, one which develops mental abilities used throughout life, the goals of attack and defense, culminating in checkmate, inspire us to dig deep into our mental reserves. Studies have shown that children who participate in Chess are more likely to succeed as adults.

As the child develops his game, he learns that giving a piece to the opponent now (i.e. sacrifice) may help him after few moves. Chess games are played with the use of timer, i.e. Chess Clocks. The child thus begins to learn ‘Time Management’ skills. A 10 year old good chess player knows how many moves he can make within the final 2/3 minutes of the game. Chess is a good tonic for brain. Application of the mind; that is what Chess is!

All students should play at least a few games of Chess every week. Children who are weak in studies must be encouraged to take up Chess. If these children play chess, it will be good for them as well as for the society.

Children must get the opportunity to play Chess Tournaments at least once in a month.

• Do we have the infrastructure in place for children to play chess?

• Is there Motivation to play chess?

Chess as Sport

• At the Government level Directorate of Sports organizes team championships for Inter Secondary School, Higher Secondarily level chess tournament every year.

• There are 450 Middle and Secondary Schools in Goa. Out of these only 30 Schools participate in Inter Secondary School chess tournaments.

Primary School.

• Chess talent can be identified at the age of 6/7/8.

• This spotted talent by the time he is out of Primary School (4th Std) is a recognized good chess player.

There is no system in Goa at Government level to identify chess talent at Primary School level.

Our wonder girls Ivana Furtado and Bhakti Kulkarni have motivated many children to play chess. These two girls have won more National and International medals in 2009 for Goa then all other sportsperson from other individual sports put together. I can see many sparks all over Goa. But owing to the lack of proper training and opportunity, these talents goes in vain.

Chess Training

Educate child about the basics, i.e. Chess Board, Chess pieces and how these pieces move. Any Primary School Teacher can do this. Kindergarten administrators can introduce chess for Upper KG. Playing Pawn Chess Games at this level will be an interesting quiz. College students can use their few spare hours in a week to train children and thus earn some pocket money.

Regular Chess Tournaments for Children

Chess tournaments are played in Swiss League System. It is not a knockout system. In this system every one who has participated in the event gets an opportunity to play all the rounds. First Paring is finalized as per alphabetical order of participant names. All games start together. In the next round onwards, winning players are pitted against each other and players who have lost are drawn to play one another. The System is such that players with equal strength get to play with each other in the last few rounds. Usually every one wins at least one game.

For Chess tournament featuring 25 children, 5 rounds can be completed in 2/3 hours. Such tournaments can be organized in the evening in a garden, below a big tree shade, in apartments parking space, etc. Few parents or Youths can organize such tournaments regularly in their locality.

100 Job opportunities in 2 years

22000 children are born every year in Goa and 88000 children study in Primary Schools in Goa. If all parents of all these children agree to spend Rs.50/- per week on education of Chess of their Child, it is a whopping Rs 44 lakhs per week. This means a Job opportunity to 1100 chess Players with an income of Rs 4000 per week.

It’s true that all parents cannot afford this, and also there is no craze for Chess.

But let us look at this from a different angle. More than 50% of our population lives in and around the 5 Major towns (Margao, Panaji, Mapusa, Vasco and Ponda) in Goa. Even if 10% of parents of Primary Students from these areas are ready to spend Rs.50/- per week to provide Chess Education to their children, it will create Job opportunities to 100 Chess Knowing Youths. In addition there are equal numbers of students studying in Middle and Secondary School.

If we all work together, we can achieve creating Job opportunities for 100 youths in Chess in the next 2 years.

We have to build our Chess infrastructure in Goa. We will have to train youths, Primary/KG teachers to teach Elementary Chess. We also have to organize workshops on organizing chess tournaments, Swiss league system etc. We will have to approach Sports Clubs, Schools, Housing societies, colonies etc and we can help them organize chess training camps, tournaments, etc.

We at Chess Activity Centre are willing to shoulder this responsibility to build chess infrastructure in Goa. We will be organizing chess training workshops for Parents, Teachers, Sports organizers, Event organizers etc. We also want to take Chess Activity Centre to other parts of Goa.

International Centre Goa, Dona Paula has contributed to the promotion of Chess immensely in the last few years and has assured its support in future too. Other institution in Goa will also join us.

Chess Activity Centre members will be meeting on Sunday April 11, 2010 at 11.00 am. at International Centre Goa, Dona Paula Goa. All chess lovers are welcome at this meet.

Shrikant Vinayak Barve

Odlembhat, Taleigao-Goa 403002

Phone : 2451143 Mobile 9403175973