Why chess deserves a place in schools | Jonathan Calder

In the study of chess in Armenia every six years in schools in the UK that "fell off a cliff" in the 1980s. However, their educational benefits are many

the primary school children in Armenia

face much more than the three Rs as young as six years, all studies of chess as a separate component of two hours per week. Chess is important for the identity of this small landlocked sea Armenia has suffered massacres and repression in the 20th century and has recently experienced an economic collapse. However, in the 1960s, the Soviet Union has provided a succession of world champions in the form of Tigran Petrosian. A master of defense, his relentless grinding down opponents made the Geoffrey Boycott chessboard. Today, Armenia - with a population of only $ 3 million - has the title of the men's team in the world

So it is not surprising when a Ministry of Education of Armenia told The Associated Press Foreign Affairs and failures of education in schools would "create a solid basis for the country to become a chess superpower. "But there's more than that Armenia is one of a growing number of nations with the hope that the benefits of higher education to promote Chess in schools. India, Turkey and Norway have recently taken similar steps, and a summary of reports prepared by the Quad Cities Chess Club in the negotiations of the United States to improve the mental capacity and improving traditional duties .

This is not a new idea. Soviet domination of the game is based on the embrace of the new system failures immediately after the revolution. The game was considered an inexpensive way to bring culture to the masses and show the superiority of the capitalist West decadent new state. "We must organize shock brigades of chess players and begin the immediate implementation of a five-year plan for chess," said Nikolai Krylenko, the father of Soviet chess - a few years before Stalin the , was arrested and shot

• The international chess master and journalist Malcolm Pein, a gentle soul, is one of those who want to see the game flourish again in British schools. "No other activity that costs so little that the organization transcends the barriers of many," he said. "Age, sex, race, religion ... mean nothing in chess. Anyone can enjoy. Approximately 500 million people in 167 countries in the game and football can not compete with that. However, long been in decline in our schools. "

Two years ago, the organization of Pein, chess in schools and communities, has launched a pilot program involving 60 primary schools and 6,000 children. In 2015, claims to have introduced the game to 17,000 schools and one million children playing. This is an ambitious goal, but thus far are on track. Chess is still played by many British children, and praised the school chess Delancey Pein UK. However, his impression is that many of the 2,000 schools participating in the private sector.

Is half British chess has always been limited to a social elite? Pein suggests not. Commenting on the match on the radio between England and the Soviet Union in 1946, said. "Yes, the British team were all Oxbridge types - probably because everyone was too busy to make a living, but if you look at pictures of the audience who are not primarily the middle class." My own experience as a team member of Market Harborough fear in the 1980s confirms this. When we win a trophy to be engraved with the names of all previous owners. Until the 1960s were mostly works or equipment of the company after all seems. Regarding the trophies was like discovering a lost culture.

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