English Chess Forum

I am currently researching chess scholarships in educational establishments (from kindergarten to university) worldwide.

For the UK, Millfield, Oakham and Woodbridge schools spring to mind.

There must be others, can anyone help with more information?

Further afield I can think immediately of one in Australia, one in Moscow and two(?) in Texas. I expect to find out a lot more about Texas and the USA when I present a keynote at the Koltanowski Chess in Education Conference in Dallas on the 19th of this month.

Yateley Manor:
http://www.yateleymanor.com/school/prospectus/sport.htm

The University of texas has a very extensive and generous chess program
http://www.utdallas.edu/chess/scholarsh ... ships.html

It looks like they have 17 student on the program at the moment. Eight are rated over 2400! but I also noted one was rated 1291

Here at Millfield over the last couple of years we have set our maximum scholarship (for anything) at 15%. In the last month it has decided to retain a 50% chess scholarship. In large part this was because I was able to show that the chess players had made a huge contribution to Millfield in a lot of different ways. In particular, the chess players were often top academic performers.

Kevin O'Connell wrote:I am currently researching chess scholarships in educational establishments (from kindergarten to university) worldwide.

For the UK, Millfield, Oakham and Woodbridge schools spring to mind.

Also Wellington College. Many independent schools take chess into account in the award of scholarships. For example Hampton School

But do you need the word 'scholarship'? At Wilson's School our top six players average 165, and we have 20 players graded 100 or more. Being a state school there are no fees, so no scholarships are needed.

Thanks for the replies so far.

Yes, both UTDallas and Texas Tech (Susan Polgar, also Dallas), together with the University of Maryland, are the largest and best known among US scholarships (so far I have uncovered 25 from 15 different institutions there).

Yes I need the word 'scholarship' - it is specifically that area that I am researching (nothing to do with chess excellence or quantity of chess in educational establishments).

Harrow School offer a scholarship which is awarded for demonstrated excellence in a field. Chess is quoted as a possibility and certainly Sebastian Pozzo gained it for that reason.

Does the well-known Catholic Boarding School (I've forgotten the name) still support chess with chess scholarships?
Kirsan probably offers some chess scholarships.
Ignatius Leong may be a source of information in Singapore.
Depending on your definition, there are definitely chess scholarships in China, contact Abigail.
Does the very large Sandford(?) Scholarship in the US still exist? That was to puruse a chess career.
The John Robinson Trust awards a £2000 scholarship annually. Current holders Howell, Fan Zhou £1000 each.

Stewart Reuben wrote:Does the well-known Catholic Boarding School (I've forgotten the name) still support chess with chess scholarships?

Clearly not that well-known then!

Stewart Reuben wrote:Does the well-known Catholic Boarding School (I've forgotten the name) still support chess with chess scholarships?

Stonyhurst College?

http://www.stonyhurst.ac.uk/news/?pid=1 ... toryid=165

(OK, I realise that isn't really a picture about chess scholarships, but it shows chess can be fun!)

The boards were the right way round in every case in those photos.

Alex Holowczak wrote:

Stewart Reuben wrote:Does the well-known Catholic Boarding School (I've forgotten the name) still support chess with chess scholarships?

Clearly not that well-known then!

Ampleforth

http://www.college.ampleforth.org.uk/

Stewart Reuben wrote:Does the well-known Catholic Boarding School (I've forgotten the name) still support chess with chess scholarships? .

Ampleforth College? I don't think they offer chess scholarships now. Nor do Oakham School.

Neill Cooper wrote:

Stewart Reuben wrote:Does the well-known Catholic Boarding School (I've forgotten the name) still support chess with chess scholarships? .

Ampleforth College? I don't think they offer chess scholarships now. Nor do Oakham School.

Any idea when both those stopped? I found a report on the Ampleforth one in 2001 here:

http://www.pressrooms.net/ampleforth/chess/

"the Ampleforth Junior Masters, a major tournament that in its second year has become the de facto British junior championship. First prize is worth almost £18,000 including a two-year scholarship to Ampleforth College's mixed sixth form [...] Chess players aged ten to 16 from all over the United Kingdom, including boys resident in Belgium and the United States, accepted the challenge issued by the British Chess Federation to leading juniors."

Sounds impressive, even it is (apparently) no longer running. I still can't get my head round the idea of playing a chess tournament to go to a school...

Re Dupree, a trust for playing chess was held to be educational, but the judge was concerned that this should not put the law of charity on a slippery slope that would recognise draughts, then bridge, then stamp collecting and so forth. It is doubtful that darts, noble sport though it is, would be considered to be as educational as chess. Recently there was an attempt to include billiards and snooker in the same way.

That trust provided money for young men to spend on their education. They qualified from their results in chess tournaments in the Portsmouth area. Julian Simpole, Geoff James were certainly recipients. I don't know if it still disburses funds. Probably the money ran out after 40-50 years.

But the judge's decision was the basis of all the chess charities until very, very recently. And, yes, it was for young MEN.

In theory, Hampton Court House offers chess scholarships, but only to children with a proven record at national level and a commitment to ongoing chess tuition. As yet there have been no takers but if anyone's interested they could PM or email me for further information.

Thanks for the additional responses. There will probably be a small mention in next Saturday's East Anglian Daily Times. In due course the information will all be included in a global report on the cis.fide.com web site.