Yes2Chess

[Chris Fegan]

What is Yes2Chess?

Yes2Chess is a free online schools’ community, which schools from the UK, the USA. Germany, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and Denmark are eligible to join. Each school may sign 100 pupils up to the Yes2Chess server, where they will be able to play chess against children from all over the world 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. We do not capture any pupil information, including pupils’ names. Each child will have a unique username that only their schools will have access to.
Later this year, we will release a series of online lessons, which can be enjoyed from the comforts of home or school.
Yes2Chess are also 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 1st January 2002. The winning teams from each country will receive an all expenses paid trip to London to take part in the final.

How do I sign up?

There is a short application form to complete, after which you will receive a link which will enable you to download the necessary software to your school’s computers. The process is very simple and will only take a couple of minutes!

To join the Yes2Chess community, please go to: http://yes2chess.org/uk/register/

[John Upham]

Chris,

BCM, myself and JBCM (especially!) wish you and the Yes2Chess team all the very best with this venture.

It is an ideal compliment to the CSC charity.

I will be encouring all of my schools to get involved.

I assume one individual can be the admininstrator for multiple schools?

John

[Chris Fegan]

Hope you have all seen this

[Matthew Lunn]

Thanks very much John! You are absolutely right that one person may act as administrator for multiple schools.

[David Robertson]

For primary schools.

Again.

[Chris Fegan]

John

Many thanks for your kind comments and continuing support

Chris

[Chris Fegan]

Hi everyone

Have you seen the fantastic video of Yes2Chess on Youtube?

http://tinyurl.com/yes2chessvid

Let me know what you all think

Chris

[Chris Fegan]

Hi again everyone

Yes2Chess is really taking off now.

193 teams have entered

102 schools registered

2261 children participating

[John Upham]

Chessbase uploaded a german language video about Yes2Chess today:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3qGFuQ6JAU

[Andrew Martin]

Has anyone first-hand experience of how this project is working? How are the matches going? I have just entered one of my schools in the hope we can get to the finals in July. Is that possible in such a short time?


My experience of internet-based chess projects in schools has been uniformly disappointing, so I do hope this is a success.

[Chris Fegan]

Andrew

Many thanks for your post and I am delighted that you have entered one of your schools.
I have spoken to Alex H (Tournament Director) and he will be e-mailing you later today with all the log-in details, etc.

I understand your concern from your previous experiences about internet-based chess projects in schools and I think that experience is not uncommon. Hopefully
some lessons have ben learnt to make Yes2Chess a better experience for young people.

Just to update you on the entries to date (as at the start of this week) we have:

208 schools
556 teams
5630 registered users

Chess in Schools and Communities are giving every assistance that we can to help teachers, chess tutors and of course the children in accessing and playing
on the server. There are instructional videos available and CSC Tutors are allocating time to demonstrate the software and helpmate children navigate the system.

We do appreciate the points that you make and are indeed actively working all the time to rectify any problems and improve the software as we go.

I hope that at least some of the above is helpful and may I wish you and your team and young people the very best not only in the tourney but also in enjoying social and friendly chess with other young players on the server.

Chris

[Neill Cooper]

Chris,
Great to hear of the popularity of Yes2Chess. Do keep me informed if/when it is extended to secondary schools.
Are the numbers you give just UK or worldwide signup?
Neill

[Andrew Martin]

Here is my experience so far:

Entering a team or teams is pleasantly easy at the website. Shortly after entering I was contacted very politely and efficiently by Alex Holowczak, the controller and a match was arranged almost immediately with a primary school in Sheffield. Communication was established between all of us and a date and time set for a match. So far, fantastic.

The ChessBase play chess server is being used to host matches and in order to play there you have to download what looks like a watered-down version of the usual client. Nevertheless, upon downloading the client and entering all appropriate passwords, I could not get it to work over the school firewall.

As with a few years back when we tried to involve PlayChess with schools and the ECF ( Internet schools tournament) certain ports have to be open before game playing servers are allowed in and a lot of schools are implacably stubborn about the point that they should not be opened.

Nothing seems to have changed.

Is it just my school that is having this problem or is it mirrored elsewhere? I'm sure if this proves easy to overcome the event will be huge.

[Kevin Thurlow]

" I could not get it to work over the school firewall."

I would think that would be a common problem. I know several teachers who fume because they cannot find information at school as so much is blocked.

[Andrew Martin]

I think it's really important to hear from the organisers on this, because the situation has to have been discussed and, hopefully, remedied. From the stats, many schools have entered, so I would like to hear from them. Maybe it's just my school that is having difficulty. Is it easy to open those ports, particularly if an outside authority controls the school firewall and not the school itself?