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 Saturday 13 March 2010 at 4.00pm to
finalize its constitution and plan for future 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