Doha: The Qatar Chess Association (QCA) yesterday launched the second edition of Chess in Schools Project which comes within the framework of the partnership between QCA and the Ministries of Sports and Youth and Education and Higher Education.
The project witnesses the participation of a number of public and private schools, as the chess and education course is held at the Chess Training Center and includes topics on the basic principles of the game’s rules as well as the most important positives of practising chess by school students and the methods of teaching the game.
The course also touched on several other topics related to arbitration rules, in addition to the training and qualification aspect for teachers to manage school chess teams and to organize annual tournaments between different school teams.
QCA President Mohammed al-Mudhahka said that the course is one of the basic pillars for developing and spreading the game of chess in schools and creating a broad base of female teachers capable of training, managing and arbitrating various game activities.
He explained that the school championships are likely to start in April and May, noting that QCA’s current strategy is to organize age group championships on an ongoing basis, to build a chess generation in Qatar, and to hone the talents produced by these championships.
For his part, Hamad al-Tamimi, Executive Director of QCA, said that the chess in schools project comes within the federation’s goals aimed at spreading chess culture in schools.
He stressed that the project in its second edition aims to increase the base of practitioners of the game from the age groups participating in local championships and increase the number of players registered and classified by the international chess federation. He said yesterday: “We are working to have schools interact with the federation’s vision, by allocating some classes to practice chess, and we have succeeded in introducing chess to several schools in the country during the past years.”
