Introduction
The London Chess Conference is one of the premier international conferences for Chess in Education. This year’s event, from March 17-19, 2023 brought together experts and leaders involved in the use of chess for educational purposes, including representatives from the Education Commissions for FIDE and ECU in order to establish a co-operative working practice.
This was the first in-person meeting of the conference since before the Pandemic. This was reflected in the energy and enthusiasm of both presenters and attendees.
All sessions were recorded and available for playback (see below).
Aims of the London Chess Conference
- To inform attendees about the latest developments in the teaching of chess in schools
- To hear from experts regarding their views on Chess in Education pedagogy
- To share best practice in the teaching of games in schools
- To identify projects for collaboration between countries
- To provide insights to chess teachers around the world
- To incorporate the themes of STEM and Early Years
- To provide training in connection with chess and education
Sessions
Each day featured a different theme. Here are some of the highlights with Youtube links to video of each conference session. Sessions listings include the approximate time the session starts on the video.
Friday, March 17, 2023 – Use of Chess in Pre-school / Primary
Session 1
- Victoria Winifred: Using Chess to Promote Literacy in Pre-schoolers (starts at 22:13), …
Session 2
- Think Like a Child; Teach Like an Adult; ERASMUS CGS Project (Italy), …
Saturday, March 18, 2023 – Chess and STEM (science, technology, engineering, math)
Sessions 3 & 4
- (starts at 22:03) Jerry Nash: Problem Solving Prediction Activity – how chess develops critical thinking through “beyond the board” applications
- How to Grow Scholastic Chess,
- Bring Chess Diagrams to Life (report from Poland on an early AI app)
- 44:20) Alexey Root: Chessable Research (with commentary about the male/female chess performance gap); availability of chess research awards for universities
- Technology: Mike Klein: insights from adapting ChessKid for schools and teachers
- Other chess and technology presentations
Sessions 5 & 6
- Various presentation on chess in robotics and artificial intelligence
- Multiple presentations on teaching math with chess
Sunday, March 19
Sessions 7-8
- Chess Teacher Training – Panel Discussion
- Various presentations addressing educational chess use for students who struggle in school, autism, mental health, and prisons.
Sessions 9-10 – Chess in Education Growth Stories in
- Pakistan, India, Catalonia, UK, Romania
- Invitation to Research: Post-COVID Global 50 (with warnings that the worst impact of learning loss is likely to occur after students return to school)
- How to Teach Chess Effectively
- Chess for Freedom: a quantitative study of the chess programs in the Cook County (Chicago) prison system
