Free Chess Sets for all Schools in North Wales

[Andrew Camp]

About a year ago, the North Wales Junior Chess Association competed for a grant from Lloyds Bank in order to fund a project to provide schools in North Wales with free chess boards and sets. We failed in that attempt but due to very generous sponsorship from Chessmaze International (also sponsors of next year's Welsh Chess Championships), this project is now up and running.

Last weekend, emails were sent to all primary schools in Conwy, Denbighshire and Flintshire offering equipment free of charge to all schools who were running a chess club or were prepared to start one up. Over the next two weeks, the remaining primary schools in Anglesey, Gwynedd and Wrexham will also be contacted. Then all secondary schools in North Wales will receive the same offer.

In the first twenty four hours, we have received requests from twenty schools across the region from willing and excited Headteachers all eager to take advantage of this offer. We hope to receive many more. If you know anyone that works in schools in North Wales, please encourage them to take up this offer.

We have discovered a few decent young players in North Wales recently and we hope this will help us to find many more. Some will be competing in this year's J4NCL in the newly reformed Welsh Dragons squad that I now manage. It appears we will have seven teams at weekend one!

None of this would be possible without the incredibly generous support from Chessmaze International and it is a thrill to report something so positive in junior chess.

Kind regards to all.

[John Upham]

A wonderful story and one which deserves to be repeated elsewhere.

Well done!

[Bobjones]

On a much smaller scale, the Bury Knights Junior Chess Club (in Bury St Edmunds) have upgraded their stock of sets and boards and are distributing their redundant old equipment to local primary schools interested in setting up chess clubs. See http://www.suffolkchess.org.uk/2014/09/ ... hools.html for the latest school to take up the offer. A third school will benefit next Monday.

[Gareth T Ellis]

The next batch of emails will be going out to the rest of the schools after Easter, this should help break our target of 100 new schools running a regular chess club in North Wales.