On-line Leagues for Schools?

[John Upham]

I am researching the possibility of running on-line chess leagues for schools.

I am thinking of real time games with say R20 (or less) time controls.

I am hoping that playing on-line will encourage schools to play more inter-school OTB matches.

Is anyone aware of any such leagues?

I am aware of some of the technical difficulties of making this happen.

Your feedback would be most welcome!

[Christopher Kreuzer]

I am researching the possibility of running on-line chess leagues for schools.

I am thinking of real time games with say R20 (or less) time controls.

I am hoping that playing on-line will encourage schools to play more inter-school OTB matches.

Is anyone aware of any such leagues?

I am aware of some of the technical difficulties of making this happen.

Your feedback would be most welcome!

Not aware of such leagues in the UK, but I believe the USCF (in the USA) have online leagues.

[Alex Holowczak]

I know a school near here plays in the British Go League, which is played exclusively online. It seems a perfectly reasonable thing to do, but I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on how you'd implement the idea.

[Neill Cooper]

I don't think there is an online schools league at present.
It has been tried unsuccessfully various time, the last being about 5 years ago based around Chessbase. But the literature at that time did not have a person's name on it. I heard nothing more.

[John Upham]

It has been tried unsuccessfully various time, the last being about 5 years ago based around Chessbase.

I know exactly why this project failed and want to determine if there is motivation to make it work in 2010 and beyond.

If the technical issues can be overcome is there a hunger to make this work?

[Neill Cooper]

If the technical issues can be overcome is there a hunger to make this work?

It will be of more interest to those who do not have a local schools league. Wilson's School played a total of 51 six-board chess matches last year, so we are not in need of more matches!

[John Upham]

so we are not in need of more matches!

Howabout playing other schools from around the globe? OK, there are TZ issues but there are some opportunities here

[Neill Cooper]

How about playing other schools from around the globe?

That could be of interest - though then they would much prefer to travel!

OK, there are TZ issues but there are some opportunities here

I do not know what you mean by TZ issues

My point was that if you want to run an internet based inter-schools league within the UK then it is the schools who do not have an active local schools league (the vast majority)who will be most interested.

[Alex Holowczak]

I do not know what you mean by TZ issues

TZ = time zone

[John Upham]

I have today tested the revised software in a typical English primary school and was able to play on-line with no problems that I noticed.

Speed was fine and there were no restrictions of functionality.

Until recently this would have blocked by a typical stringent school firewall but the code has been re-engineered to use port 80.

In non-geek speak this means that an http client such as Mozilla Firefox (or if not available Internet Exploiter) will be the only requirement to play inter school on-line matches.

If this is of interest to you then please contact me : [email protected]

[Robert Dale]

About 10 years ago, Kasparovchess ran a World Schools Championship online, using ICC. I organised matches at Winston Churchill School, Woking, and Knaphill Junior School, and later at Lincoln Minster School. We were crushed by some Israeli teams, but had some very enjoyable and evenly matched games against several Dutch schools. Winston Churchill reached the European semi-final (!) where we lost to Nottingham High. The only technical problem was the firewall - many schools would not allow access to sites like ICC which allowed online chat - but it sounds like you have solved that problem.