For teachers interested in using chess for it’s associated academic benefits there are two new courses available this year:

The first course, Chess 4 Fun, is for teachers who are new to chess. The focus is on playing mini-games. The games are easy enough for senior infants to play.

The second course, Our school chess club, is for teachers with some chess knowledge who want to give their students the ability to improve their playing skills, organise chess club activities and have a school chess team.

Thanks to our sponsors everyone participating in these programs will be given their own personal chess set. And your school will also get Chessossity.com free.

Contact your local Education Centre or email us at mfl@movesforlife.ie to register.

Congratulations to the first ever winners of the “Irish Schools Online Chess Championship” .. St. Mary’s BNS, Rathfarnham, Dubllin.

In second place were St. Laurance’s NS, Greystones, Co. Wicklow and in 3rd place were St. Patricks NS, Galway.

These schools were not the only winners. During a time of Covid-19 we all got to learn and play on lichess.org. We really want to thank lichess.org for providing us with a platform that has us enjoying the trills and spills of blitz chess. And many players who practiced daily have become better chess players. There was a massive increase in the standard of play this year.

This year we had 6 sections, and we are delighted announce that we have prizes for the first 3 teams in each of our 6 sections. The top 3 in each section are listed here .. http://movesforlife.ie/comharlinn-challenge/. And for any school team that didn’t finish in the top 3 there is a STAR PLAYER prise for the most improved player on each of those teams. Every school team wins something.

These prizes are being posted to your schools for September. This will allow each school to make presentations to their chess stars and take a picture or two of the school chess team.

Thank You !! to everyone who made this happen, from our brilliant commentary team, the hard working NS teachers, the coaxing coaches, the proud parents, our super sponsors and, of course, to all our young chess stars. Enjoy your holidays and we look forward to more chess adventures with you next year !!

Teachers we are giving free access to all students who wish to enter this All-Ireland Championship.  There are prizes for the best puzzles solversin every school, plus county & national champions.

Email us at mfl@movesforlife.ie  tell us your names and which school you teach at.  And we will send you a password.  Then follow these how-to videos:

(1) Free access to Chessossity for Teachers:  video-1

(2) Free access to Chessossity for Students: video-2

Students earn points for every puzzle they solve.  The highest points socrers will become national Champions.

Here is some game analysis by Brendan from Round 2 ..

The scores are now published on the Comhar-Linn-Chess-Challenge page.

Here is a video from Round 1 with game analysis by Scott & Diana.

Their game analysis highlights the importance of king safety, good development & “sneaky play along diagonals“.