We are pleased to announce the 4th edition of the London Chess and Education Conference, which will take place on 10-12th December 2016 at the Hilton Kensington Olympia. As usual it coincides with the first weekend of the London Chess Classic held at the Olympia Conference Centre. The theme of the Conference is “The Didactics of Chess”.
The conference is supported by Chess in Schools and Communities as part of its educational mission. In addition, we are pleased to announce that the European Chess Union is sponsoring the event this year which has enabled the conference to be extended to a third day.
On the last day of the Conference, a design competition for the best original classroom chess exercise involving collaborative problem solving will take place, with €1,000 prize fund, sponsored by the ECU.
This competition is open to everyone. The deadline for submissions is Sunday 4 December 2016 at 5pm London time.
More information and how to submit an entry can be found at the competition rules.
In the past years the Conference had different focus: in 2013 Conference was concentrated on the benefits of chess to schools, in second year the relationships between chess and mathematics were explored, in 2015 we outlined the interactions between chess and society. This year we return to the fundamentals of teaching.
The theme “The Didactics of Chess” refers to the practice of teaching chess in the classroom – how to engage and enthuse children, how to work with the whole class and reviewing the best ways to teach chess. We will hear from over 60 leading experts and researchers about tried and tested approaches for children of all ages.
The London Chess Conference is recognized as the leading global event dealing with all aspects of chess in education. We bring together over 150 people from around the world with a keen interest in the subject, whether as teachers, tutors, educationists, journalists or researchers. Everybody with an interest in the use of games in education is welcome. Note that non chess players can benefit from attending the conference.
Attendees at the Conference will also be entitled to visit the London Chess Classic at Kensington Olympia to see the top chess players in the world compete in the Grand Chess Tour.
We are currently developing the Programme for the event and will be posting the details on the website periodically. We are interested to hear from people with practical experience of teaching chess and other strategy games in the classroom or after school who want to share their expertise.
Speakers who have indicated they are attending include Michael Basman, Fernand Gobet, Barry Hymer, Stephen Moss, Leontxo Garcia, Rita Atkins, Sean Marsh, Alison Bexfield, Boris Alterman, Rodrigo Ferriz, Tal Granite, Sophia Rohde, Marisa van der Merwe, Graham Jurgensen, Jinwoo Song, Jesper Hall, Jorge Nuno Silva and a host of others.
Entries should be submitted to competition@londonchessconference.com
Registration for the Conference is made through the website which contains all details regarding pricing and waivers. We look forward to seeing you at the conference.
The European Chess Union has 12 entry free tickets for its nominees, so we invite all interested federations to contact us regarding this matter.