English Chess Forum

One potential market that I fear I've failed to exploit is the of children that are "Home Educated" or "Home Schooled".

I have struggled to promote events to their communities as they tend to be closed shops.

Any advice from those who have been successful in this regard?

John Upham wrote: ↑

Thu Jun 11, 2026 10:53 am

One potential market that I fear I've failed to exploit is the of children that are "Home Educated" or "Home Schooled".

Are there that many?

There have been examples of children who have been chess players before being home schooled.

One example that got quite a bit of publicity
https://www.dailyecho.co.uk/news/559114 ... -champion/

Sir Demis Hassabis was home schooled for a while, but that may have not have had much to do with chess,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demis_Hassabis

Roger de Coverly wrote: ↑

Thu Jun 11, 2026 1:24 pm

Are there that many?

What in your esteemed estimation would constitute "many"?

More than 100
More than 1000?

John Upham wrote: ↑

Thu Jun 11, 2026 2:24 pm

What in your esteemed estimation would constitute "many"?

A Google search for "How common is homeschooling in the UK?" comes up with an estimate of 1.5%. Thus if you had 200 entrants for a tournament you might expect an average of 3 per event. But perhaps you get zero.

It does say that the number is increasing.

I played Alan Merry in 4NCL - even beat him - and seem to recall he was home-schooled, but I may be wrong.

Its a shame that this subject elicited zero useful replies. I must conclude that no-one has any interest in these potential players.

I think we have a couple turning up for our junior early evening coaching sessions but unsure how they have found us (or the other way round). That is a at a medium sized Lancashire town. Multiply that across the country and it's a good number.

Paul Ashton wrote: ↑

Fri Jun 12, 2026 6:14 pm

but unsure how they have found us (or the other way round).

This is precisely what I was alluding to so thanks for your constructive response Paul.

Much more positive than the "Do we need to bother especially as this has no impact on myself whatsoever" style replies.

I would start with the county.

We home schooled our kids for about 2 years. A combination of moving, the local school being oversubscribed and Covid all played a part. In Bucks the process that we followed (not sure it was absolutely mandatory) was to notify the council and then they sent out a representative (recall it was really only a two member team for this department) to meet us and the children at home. Part wellness check and part just to make us aware of resources and activities that were available in the county.

Thanks John. I've done a bit more homework. At present we have 16 regulars at our weekly junior coaching sessions. Two of those are home schooled. They found us rather than the club go looking. This suggests that with focussed effort we could draw in a few more. Again, extrapolation to a national picture suggests it is a sizeable number.

As you can see from my current Guardian column https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2026/ ... -botvinnik
the three greatest rising talents in world chess at the moment are all home schooled.

Leonard Barden wrote: ↑

Sat Jun 13, 2026 12:00 pm

As you can see from my current Guardian column https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2026/ ... -botvinnik
the three greatest rising talents in world chess at the moment are all home schooled.

Thanks Leonard. I wonder if any organisers have found a reliable method of marketing their event to this group of potential players / customers?

GDPR would prevent the local authority giving clubs names but maybe Brian's experience provides a clue. We inform local authority that chess training is available at a local club and let them add it to their list of resources.

Paul Ashton wrote: ↑

Sat Jun 13, 2026 3:55 pm

GDPR would prevent the local authority giving clubs names but maybe Brian's experience provides a clue. We inform local authority that chess training is available at a local club and let them add it to their list of resources.

Seems reasonable.

My challenge is to invite them to the Hampshire Megafinal. Struggling to know where to start.

Leonard Barden wrote: ↑

Sat Jun 13, 2026 12:00 pm

As you can see from my current Guardian column https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2026/ ... -botvinnik
the three greatest rising talents in world chess at the moment are all home schooled.

Interesting. Leonard goes on to say (in his column):

The three super-talents Erdogmus, Oro and Shogdzhiev are all home schooled. This is a stark contrast with Germany’s world No 6, Vincent Keymer, who had to complete his final state exams a few days before a world championship qualifier.

England’s rising talent Supratit Banerjee, 12, has to prioritise his Sutton grammar homework before spending a couple of hours on chess, while Bodhana Sivanandan, England’s top-ranked woman at 11, has achieved all her successes while a pupil at a state primary school in Harrow.

I wonder what a look at the educational background of the UK's GMs would tell us, and how it has changed over time? Some obvious trends and similarities, but some not so obvious aspects might come out of a closer look.

Could start with the following:

Mickey Adams
Nigel Short
Mathew Sadler
David Howell
Gawain Jones

(Just don't mention St Paul's School for Boys! )