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+--- Thread: Big IT breakthrough for schools chess!? (/thread-851.html)
Big IT breakthrough for schools chess!? - Craig Pritchett - 15-01-2014
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On the face of it, this new Barclaycard + Playchess sponsored open EU schools competition, is something that schools ought to jump at.
ChessBase (who run Playchess) have always offered schools in Scotland (free) access to play chess on the internet going back even as far as the late 1990s ... Douglas Bryson probably knows most about this). But the stumbling block has always been lack of permission by schools to use these facilities by the Educational IT bodies on (important!) child protection grounds.
The new yes2chess initiative would appear to have solved this problem. At any rate, it maintains that free access to schools will be private to properly monitored schools entrants only.
Assuming that to be the case, I would have thought that many schools all over Scotland would be interested in entering this event. It perhaps has particular attraction for the many schools who set up clubs in the Highlands and Islands and other remote areas of Scotland, who are currently severely handicapped in playing against other schools.
Might the facilities eventually permit EU national competitions to be established (subject to appropriate privacy and monitoring), such as a Highlands and Islands team and/or individual championships?
I would urge anyone with any questions about this to contact Malcolm Pein, who has been central to setting the agreement up (details at the yes2chess website).
Re: Big IT breakthrough for schools chess!? - Matthew Turner - 15-01-2014
This was very heavily flagged up at the London Classic. It is very, very, interesting. I think we still await quite a lot of the flesh on the bones, but if there is the weight of Barclaycard behind it then it is very encouraging.
Re: Big IT breakthrough for schools chess!? - Linda McCusker - 15-01-2014
Disappointed that it has been restricted to primary schools
