Chess in the Schools and Communi

Chess in the Schools and Communities Conference

30 August – 1 September 2007

An International ‘Chess in Schools and Communities Conference’ – CISCCON – has taken place in Aberdeen. Speakers at the conference included Susan Polgar, four times Women’s World Chess Champion, three times British Champion Chess Champion Jonathan Rowson, and numerous academics. The event took place at the University of Aberdeen King’s College Conference Centre from August 30th - September 1st 2007.

The CISCCON planning group consisted of three partner organisations: The University of Aberdeen (School of Education), Aberdeen City Council in liaison with Aberdeen Chess Academy, and Scottish Junior Chess. It took over one year to plan the event.

www.scottishjuniorchess.co.uk/cisccon/cisccon.html

Dod Forrest of the organising committee made this statement before the conference: -

“This is the first world-wide conference of its kind to be staged, and gives international exposure to Aberdeen City Council’s acclaimed ‘Chess in Schools’ programme. It has been a real coup for us to attract the calibre of delegates who are attending the Conference: representatives from Australia, Russia, United States, India, Africa and Europe will attend the three-day meeting.”

Speakers explored and shared ideas emerging from recent academic and practitioner research, project evaluation and policy in the field of chess development in education. The main aims of the conference were to explore the particular contribution of chess play within the school and home environment to the development of thinking skills, health and well-being and the creative imagination of children and young people.

The conference was opened by Aberdeen City Council Chief Executive Douglas Paterson, Prof. C. Duncan Rice, Principal of the University of Aberdeen, and Dr Phil Thomas, Chairperson of Scottish Junior Chess.

Here are some of the reports from Susan Polgar’s website, which is said to have more than 1 million hits per day! : -

http://susanpolgar.blogspot.com/search/label/CISCCON

http://susanpolgar.blogspot.com/search?q=aberdeen

http://www.chesscafe.com/polgar/polgar.htm

As part of the Conference a junior programme and Chess Tournaments were arranged. The first event was a Twin City Tournament, with two players from each twin city forming a team. The teams were Aberdeen, Clermont-Ferrand (France), Stavanger (Norway), Regensburg (Germany), and Gomel (Belarus).

This event produced an incredibly high standard of chess and gave our young Aberdeen duo great experience in playing some of the best young players from our twin cities.

Many more of Aberdeen’s young chess stars attended the second event, where they competed with their counterparts from across Scotland and from the Twin Cities in a 2-day open tournament of 7 rounds. Included in this event were two 90 minute coaching sessions by Susan Polgar.

Susan also agreed to play the winner of the second tournament in a 5-minute Blitz game. The news sent a buzz of excitement throughout the playing arena, with juniors quickly checking their scores to see if they were in the running to get the opportunity of a lifetime to play such an illustrious high profile chess icon.

The tournament resulted in a tie between British U15 Chess Champion Connor Woods, and fast improving St Machar Academy pupil Daniel Maxwell. Susan graciously agreed to play both joint winners, so well done to both boys. Needless to say that both Connor and Daniel lost the game against Ms Polgar, but what a fantastic prize for them!

In addition to the chess programme, social events also took place. Around 20 youngsters and half a dozen coaches headed to Aberdeen Beach Amusements on a rather damp Friday evening. However, the weather had no effect on the zizzling atmosphere inside the Codona's complex as the kids - and adults! - enjoyed an evening of pool, bowling, and dodgems. Connor "Woodzy" showed that his skills are not confined to the chess board when he racked up the top bowling score.

During the Saturday lunch break, a Scotland select beat the Twin Cities at football. The match was held at the University playing fields, right next to the chess playing arena.