Programme 380, Playing Chess in School (20-11-19)

Presented and produced by Seán Delaney.

On this week's programme I bring you an interview with Liam Murray who is secretary of Ficheall, a network of teachers around Ireland who teach chess in primary school. Among the topics discussed and the resources mentioned are the following:

• Is chess a curricular or extra-curricular activity?
• What students learn from playing chess: developing their social, cognitive and mental fitness skills
• How he organises chess teaching in his own classroom, using the lesson plans on the website and adopting a “(mini-) game-based” approach
• Organising a school chess tournament
• Helping students lose and win gracefully
• Using a points system to decide who wins a game of chess with limited time to play
• Describing the game of chess (what is meant by checkmate and castling?)
• History of the game
• How chess compares to draughts
• How children respond to playing chess
• How Liam first became involved in teaching chess in schools when he was a student teaher
• How different children respond to learning or playing chess
• Playing face to face versus playing on apps or computers
• Children getting better at chess over time
• The “Masters” competition (for fifth and sixth class) and the “Budding Masters” competition (for third and fourth class).
• Children playing chess from first class onwards
• Why it’s good to play chess with players who are better than you (“If you’re not losing, you’re not learning”)
• Resources available on the Ficheall website
• The Ficheall network of teachers
• How inter-school chess tournaments are organised (the “Swiss System, ” timing games)
• The role of chess arbiters in inter-school tournaments
• Relationship of Ficheall to Moves for Life
• How Liam got interested in chess himself
• Follow-on opportunities for children to play chess
• Opportunities for playing chess in post primary schools (Leinster Schools Chess Association)
• The use of clocks in professional chess games
• What is school for/what are schools for
• Volunteering with Graham Jones and the Solas Project
• How he is inspired by the selfless dedication of teachers
• Evidence-Based Teachers’ Network
• Anseo podcasts
• Book Bounce by Matthew Syed.
• Book Black Box Thinking by Matthew Syed.
• Book Bad Science by Ben Goldacre