Suffolk Chess

Junior Chess in England has long sought a big-name sponsor.   Now, thanks to the hard work of Chess in Schools and Communities' (CSC) Malcolm Pein, Barclaycard have signed up to support the 'Yes to Chess' initiative.

Yes2Chess is a free online schools’ community, which primary schools from the UK, the USA. Germany, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and Denmark will be eligible to join.   Each school may sign up to 100 pupils to the Yes2Chess server, where they will be able to play chess against children from other countries in a safe environment.   Only children who are registered to Yes2Chess by their school teacher or chess tutor will have access to the server, and there is no chat function.   No information on individual pupils will be captured, including pupils’ names.   Each child will have a unique username to which only their schools will have access.

Later this year, a series of online lessons will be issued, which can be enjoyed from the comforts of home or school.

Yes2Chess will also be hosting an online tournament, which will allow schools to put their chess expertise to the test.   Every school can enter an unlimited number of teams, each consisting of five players, who must have been born after 1 January 2002.   The winning teams from each country will receive an all-expenses-paid trip to London to take part in the final.

Click here to sign up for Yes2Chess.

Read more about the initiative here.