It is with great esteem that we are able to announce a new service to be made available to our clientele developed upon the principles and gameplay of Chess, entitled, ‘Chess – A Model for Life’. Founded upon the structures and nuance of the timeless game of chess, Michael Lachman’s pioneering programme has been developed in conjunction with the support of the “Agency for International Programs for Youth” based in Riga, Latvia, an institution that remains part of the wider Anna Lindh Foundation. Already implemented within five specialised boarding schools for children suffering from delayed mental development, the programme continues also to be convened at a Children’s Cancer Centre in Latvia, Riga, as a pioneering fundamental for rehabilitation.
Concomitantly, the programme has also been implemented in generalised primary and secondary schools as a utility dedicated to helping children and mature students overcome such conditions as ADHD, ADD and other issues affecting sound application of focus, whilst additionally helping to galvanise and spur those with low levels of academic attainment.
Since 2016, the programme has been adapted to comply with the academic structures of the United Kingdom, witnessing its first permanent and ongoing practice at the Chess Centre in Edinburgh, Scotland.
Conceived in 2010, the programme helps to enhance both mental agility and cognitive ability by rigorous application of the mind to the demands of chess. Instruction in chess remains a platform of the most cardinal virtue in fostering balanced and timely mental development, and by participation in the programme students, both young and old, are able to hone not only their capabilities in logical thinking, but also in coordination and focus. Indeed, the very nature of this programme remains fundamentally informed by an underlying recognition of the importance of the necessary development of those key qualities of memory, logical thinking, attention, imagination and patience within a child at the earliest possible age.
Yet herein beyond this, the development of key practical skills is a matter not left untouched, with one’s ability of ‘following through’ – to complete that which has already been started by gauging and spurring the vital tenet of willpower, particularly, being also concurrently enhanced by the very virtue of participation. It is in the very power of chess to act as a unique foil through which the process of classroom study comes indeed to be moulded into an activity steeped in fascination and discovery, that lastingly underscores its enduring and critical importance.
‘Chess – A Model for Life’ serves to provide a perfect foundation to help in a child’s establishment of those first small goals by which their future academic and professional lives shall come to be channelled, definitively ensconcing those fundamental attributes of time management and lasting vision, by which a firm and enduring purpose may be lastingly made incarnate.
The programme’s itinerary consists of the following:
- Consummate instruction in the art of Chess play;
- A detailed history of Chess and its global significance;
- Detailed insights into the strategies, tactics and nuance of Chess and of its social allegories;
- Explanation of Chess theory and the successful habits of leading Grand Masters;
- Employment of virtual Chess models and game situations to encourage the development of initiative and lateral thinking.
In addition, the programme is complemented by informal lessons in drawing and modelling, with the change of pace as facilitated in such a variation of activity, contributing to a balanced enhancement of cognition in both junior and senior students. By the positive emotional atmosphere that is enjoyed by pupils during lessons, this last element serves as the final step towards safeguarding that consummate inculcation of all knowledge gleaned and learned, which may then, in turn, be readily applied within the sphere of everyday life.
Suitable age range for participation: 5 – 15.
Lesson duration: 1 hour.
Optimal mode of study: 2 sessions per week.
Sessions may be conducted both in person or via an online medium such as Skype. During holiday periods, regular chess camps are arranged (lasting for between 3-4 hours per day) and are conducted in groups of 4-6 people, remaining an activity that has consistently proved to be of great demand amongst both students and parents.