4/8/2020 – Whitney Houston sang “I believe that children are our future. Teach them well and let them lead the way.” With frequent news stories about adult chess cheaters, chess coaches and parents may take a “Do as I say, not as they do” approach to promoting chess honesty in children. WIM ALEXEY ROOT reports. | Photo: Przemek P, via Wikimedia Commons

3/24/2020 – IM Dagne Ciuksyte has represented Lithuania and England in Chess Olympiads. Her peak FIDE rating was 2450. Now she coaches chess, in the shadow of COVID-19. Inspired by a ChessBase article, she is adding “chess writing” to her career. WIM ALEXEY ROOT interviews Dagne Ciuksyte.

3/16/2020 – Miaoyi Lu might be a name well worth remembering. The Chinese player was born in 2010 but is already surprisingly strong. In March, she won a women's grandmaster tournament in Belgrade and that was not her first success — and will probably not be her last. | Photo: David Halter (USChess.org)

2/9/2020 – Last weekend saw some record-breaking numbers in both the Greater New York Scholastic and the Greater Chicago Scholastic chess tournaments. Held opposite Super Bowl weekend, the events attracted over 2000 students to duel over the black and white squares. Garry Kasparov was a special guest. | Pictured: Kasparov making the opening move of the top board of the High School Championship for FM Vincent Tsay, Young Stars Program student and former U12 World Champion. In the yellow shirt, TD Andre Harding making sure everything goes smoothly. | Photos: Kasparov Chess Foundation

10/23/2019 – Islam et al’s research paper on “The Effects of Chess Instruction on Academic and Non-Cognitive Outcomes” uses experimental findings to tell us playing chess does, in fact, make one perform better in other academic fields compared to those that do not play chess. However, it is probably not in the way you think. QIYU ZHOU reviews the findings.

9/27/2019 – The American magazine The Atlantic has published an interview with the Hungarian chess players Judit Polgar and Anna Rudolf in its series "The Friendship Files". Once Judit Polgar was Anna Rudolf's idol; now they are both friends. Earlier this week the magazine also featured a short film by Jenny Schweitzer Bell, and produced by Jennifer Shahade, called "Kid Chess Champions Share Their Secrets" which features a dozen cute kids who participated in the massive National Scholastic Championship in the USA. | Photo: Anna Rudolf

8/13/2019 – A New York-based chess instructor and entrepreneur reports on teaching chess in Tanzania. After working in corporate America, doing enterprise sales for the likes of Oracle, EVAN RABIN rekindled his interest in teaching children and formed Premier Chess in September 2017, quickly expanding to 58 programs. | Photo: Paul Njau

8/9/2019 – The first round of the Russian Superfinals will be held on Saturday, August 10th, in Wotinsk, the Republic of Udmurtia. Vladislav Artemiev and Aleksandra Goryachkina are the favourites. The twelve-player round-robin tournaments are incredibly strong — the Open tournament carries an average Elo rating of 2688! Chess has recently become a compulsory subject in Russian schools, so the pace of Russian players isn't likely to diminish anytime soon. | Photo: Patricia Claros / Eteri Kublashvili

6/25/2019 – Marco Bode is a German football legend, famous for his fair play and his loyalty to his club, Werder Bremen. Bode is also a passionate chess player who is keen to teach young kids the game and to make chess a subject in schools. Last week, Bode's efforts led 1,000 primary school students to play a huge tournament in the center of Bremen. | Photos: Pascal Simon/ Rainer Woisin

5/28/2019 – Armenia has the most ambitious school chess programme in the world. It recently hosted its third international conference and the first meeting of FIDE´s new Education Commission in the ressort town Tsakhkadsor. STEFAN LOEFFLER attended. | Pictured: The final of the Armenian Championship of Primary Schools took place in parallel nearby. | Photos: Armenian Chess Academy

3/26/2019 – Just a week ago, 8-year old Tanitoluwa Adewumi was living in a New York City homeless shelter. But a story in the New York Times about his success at the NY State Scholastic Chess Championship launched the boy to international prominence and prompted a GoFundMe campaign which has raised nearly $250,000 dollars. | Photo: "Just Tani" GoFundMe page

3/8/2019 – Elizabeth Spiegel is a public school chess teacher in Brooklyn, New York. Her program at IS 318 was the subject of the 2012 documentary film "Brooklyn Castle". Recently she was given an award as "Chess Educator of the Year" by the University of Texas at Dallas, which has published her 55-minute talk that contains useful advice for parents and chess teachers gleaned from her 20 years of experience teaching chess. Video and highlights... | Photo: UT Dallas Eugene McDermott Library

2/8/2019 – The 53rd Annual Greater New York Scholastic Team and Individual Chess Championships and a similar event in Chicago were held recently, and the Greater Mid-Atlantic Scholastic Championships is coming up in a just over a week. All are in cooperation with the Kasparov Chess Foundation. | Pictured: (Seated) Michael Khodarkovsky and Garry Kasparov (standing) scholastic coach Michael Ellenbogen and New York scholastic players | Photo: Kasparov Chess Foundation

2/5/2019 – Magnus Carlsen has published a guest post for the website of American business magazine Forbes about his own chess career and the positive effects of learning chess on children and adolescents in general. Chess helps to master other tasks of life, Carlsen is convinced. | Photo: Alina l'Ami

1/10/2019 – Wesley So made his first trip to Africa, as 2018 was drawing to a close, where he served as an ambassador for the sport to great acclaim at the South African Junior Chess Championship. From simuls, Q&As, blitz, and a healthy dose of photo opportunities, the USA' No. 2 player was certainly kept busy, but he also had an experience which was, in his words, "like a dream come true". | Photos: SAJCC Facebook page

9/14/2018 – PRESS RELEASE: Young female players explain the powerful impact of chess in their lives and the challenges they’ve faced in the game in a short video shot at the 2018 KCF All-Girls Nationals in Chicago, Illinois. The project exemplifies the educational mission of the US Chess Federation: “Empowering people through chess, one move at a time.” | Pictured: Cerena, who is featured in the video saying, “Chess is like life for me,” plays against Jen Shahade, executive producer of the video and US Chess Women liaison. | Photo: Rachel Utain-Evans

9/11/2018 – The ActiveKids Chess Academy in Hong Kong hosted two strong events with outstanding players. First, 2722-rated GM Sam Shankland gave a lecture on strategic positions, and then former Women's World Champion Zhu Chen gave a simultaneous exhibition. August has been a busy month for the Hong Kong young chess talents. It was, undoubtedly, a great learning experience. | Photos: Official website

9/10/2018 – Aside from celebrating the tennis victories of Novak Djokovic, Serbia is steadily reviving the country’s old chess glory, etched in chess history by the likes of Gligorić, Ljubojević, Matanović, Matulović and Ivkov, to name a few. Now, three grandmaster friends and colleagues, having shared many years of happiness and tribulations as chess professionals, are creating a platform for chess promotion in the Serbian capital, Belgrade, and further afield in the country. DIANA MIHAJLOVA takes a look in this extensive photo report. | Pictured: Among the winners, IM Umut Atakisi and WIM Sandra Djukic | Photos: Diana Mihajlova

8/21/2018 – Australian Grandmaster DAVID SMERDON is semi-retired from chess after getting married, returning to his hometown of Brisbane to take up a professorship in the School of Economics at the University of Queensland. He still blogs occasionally and recently published a fascinating two-part story about a trip to Kenya, which we bring you with kind permission of the author. | Pictured: Chess players from Alliance Girls’ High School, Nairobi, who sometimes play against their brother school, and they enjoy playing — and beating — the boys. | Photos: DavidSmerdon.com

7/16/2018 – The United States is experiencing a new chess renaissance. There are top tournaments every weekend, with big prizes. Chess centres are also flourishing, and more top players are moving to USA for teaching and playing opportunities. Here, DAVIDE NASTASIO reports on one great tournament already in its third edition, the Carolinas Classic, and interviews one of the organizers, FM Peter Giannatos.

7/12/2018 – The 9th Annual Hong Kong Scholastic Championship took place on June 10 at Kellett School. The activity was a great success, as more than 150 children participated. Individual and team winners received awards after struggling during seven hours of rapid play. A big pictorial report shows that Hong Kong might have a bright future in chess, if these initiatives take root. | Photos: Official website

6/20/2018 – The Kasparov Chess Foundation (KCF) and Saint Louis Chess Club have been running the very successful Young Stars – Team USA program for the past six years. Team USA’s program has helped develop several American chess prodigies from across the country, including the likes of GM Jeffery Xiong and GM Sam Sevian. Young Stars has been capped off with individualized training sessions with Garry Kasparov’s coaching staff and special training sessions with Kasparov himself. | Photo: Andrew Tsay

6/2/2018 – The city of Hamburg, Germany, is shaped by two rivers: the Elbe that runs from East to West and connects Hamburg to the sea, and the more idyllic Alster that runs from North to South through the city. In 1957 schoolteachers in Hamburg had the idea to let schools lying to the right of the Alster play chess against schools to the left of the Alster. In 1958 the first "Alsterufer" match took place. 60 years later it is one of the world's biggest chess tournaments - and a fantastic chess spectacle. | Fotos: Stefan Malzkorn

5/11/2018 – We all know that teaching chess to little kids can be very tricky. People who tried teaching their six or seven year olds will know how the experience can either be a cherishable memory or a slow torture you somehow want to survive, especially with a group of naughty kids. The way the pendulum swings depends on how much you understand them and what your approach is towards teaching. In this article, Arun J, who is a chess coach based in Pondicherry, will share with us some ideas which we can use to help our children to discover the joy of chess.