The Rotary Club of Wakefield

[John Upham]

Is any member of this forum aware of the "Chess Education Initiative"?

See http://www.rotarywakefield.org.uk/proje ... nship.html

[Richard James]

I am very well aware of the Rotary Chess Initiative, of which this is part. I'm on my way to school now but will reply in more detail later.

[Richard James]

The Rotary Chess Initiative was essentially a grandiose but poorly thought out scheme to promote mass participation in chess by providing free sets for every school in the country. Does this sound familiar? It worked up to a point here in Richmond because of the support of Richmond Junior Chess Club and because I was being paid to do the work, but eventually the money ran out. But in the rest of the country, by and large, not much happened because there was not the local infrastructure and support to make it happen. Rotary Internationial British Isles went along with it to humour Stanley Grundy but never spoke to me even though I was on their doorstep and quietly pulled the plug out when Stanley died a few years ago. This Wakefield event may well be its last bastion.

If we don't study history we are condemned to make the same mistakes over and over again.

[Matthew Turner]

This is my understanding of the situation. I think Rotary have a number of national initiatives that they wish to pursue, but each local Rotary club is basically autonomous and can decide to what extent they pursue these objectives. Most Rotary Clubs will not choose to do anything about chess, unless they have a member who is particularly keen. However, if there are any Schools who wish to set up chess clubs and need help with financing the purchase of boards and sets then they would be well advised to approach their local Rotary Club. I am not sure if chess set for Schools is still one of Rotary's initiatives, because I think they change every few years, however, if it is then they are almost duty bound to provide a School with support.
This is one of many reasons why the Chess For Schools project is a bit silly, because every School, however underprivileged, would be able to get money for chess sets. The problem is finding suitable people to run clubs etc.

[Richard James]

This is my understanding of the situation. I think Rotary have a number of national initiatives that they wish to pursue, but each local Rotary club is basically autonomous and can decide to what extent they pursue these objectives. Most Rotary Clubs will not choose to do anything about chess, unless they have a member who is particularly keen. However, if there are any Schools who wish to set up chess clubs and need help with financing the purchase of boards and sets then they would be well advised to approach their local Rotary Club. I am not sure if chess set for Schools is still one of Rotary's initiatives, because I think they change every few years, however, if it is then they are almost duty bound to provide a School with support.
This is one of many reasons why the Chess For Schools project is a bit silly, because every School, however underprivileged, would be able to get money for chess sets. The problem is finding suitable people to run clubs etc.

Yes, Matthew, this is my understanding as well. I rather suspect the chess sets for schools is no longer a Rotary project as it was very much Stanley Grundy's idea and after he died no one high up in Rotary was interested in pursuing it. After his death the Rotary Chess Website had an obituary up for a time, but then the site was taken down. A quick google suggests that there may still be a few other local junior tournaments sponsored by Rotary Clubs.

One reason for starting chessKIDS academy was so that it could be taken up by Rotary as a means of enabling all schools to deliver chess education. But unfortunately Stanley didn't understand what I was trying to achieve so I didn't receive the support I was hoping for.

Of course what we really need is not free chess sets but proper structured chess education pitched at a level which 7-year-old children can understand.

[Peter Turner]

Hello Richard

Prior to becoming Director of Junior Chess I helped the then JD (Brian Jones) with chess in schools. One of my early endeavours was to meet Stan Grundy and others concerning the Rotary International Chess in Schools Project. My memory is that we met at the first UK Chess Challenge, it may have been called Rotary UK Chess Challenge. Hopefully Richard will know about this. On behalf of Rotary I organised several junior tournaments in North Lincolnshire. I had a list of all the Rotary Clubs in England and should a school ask BCF for chess sets I would give them the contact details for their nearest Rotary group. I'm amazed that this may still be active in some areas.
As mentioned above chess sets has never been the problem, it is indeed people to organise the chess. Finance for chess equipment also should not be a problem, approach any Rotary group, RoundTable etc and they are very generous in their response to any requests for help where youngsters are involved.

Regards

Peter T

[Richard James]

Hello Peter

Yes, you are right. Stanley Grundy was instrumental in the development and expansion of what is now the UK Chess Challenge, a competition about which I have very mixed feelings. I was not involved in any meetings, though, and was only vaguely aware of what was happening.

Stanley was a very generous and kind-hearted man, but unfortunately he never really understood what I was doing. Shortly after the Richmond Chess Initiative started he summoned me to his office and told me he was going to make me rich. But then he started to talk to Mike Basman while being patronising and dismissive about chessKIDS academy and the other chess education resources I was producing.

I spent 15 years involved with school chess clubs, originally paid for by the RCI, and then, when the money from that source was no longer available, by the schools themselves. It soon became clear to me that this sort of club did not produce children with a lasting interest in the game, and that a very different approach was needed if we wanted to promote chess in primary schools. An approach based on structured education rather than teaching children the moves and then putting them into competitions.