ISP Chess Tournament

Due to the success of the pilot regional chess tournaments held in 2020, Park House English School is very excited to be launching the ISP Chess Tournament 2021

Due to the success of the pilot regional chess tournaments held in 2020, Park House English School is very excited to be launching the ISP Chess Tournament 2021 as one of the 11 International Learning Opportunities available to our students.

This year from March – June, Park House students aged 5 – 18 years old will join ISP students from around the world are to take part in the chess tournament. The free online competition will bring our students together in school teams to play fast chess with each other in a global tournament through Lichess.org.

The ISP Chess Tournament will involve three rounds of one-hour chess tournaments: Regionals in March and April, Semi-finals in May and the Final on the 3rd June, with two categories: Junior for under 12s and Senior for under 18s.

During the competition students will play fast-paced chess games – ‘3+2 Blitz games’ and an average of six-ten games in an hour in each round, with different students from other ISP schools. They will be automatically randomly matched with an opponent from another school after each game. Students in a team will play individually, but the results will be established by counting the best six players per school team. There is also the added opportunity for the top three school teams in each category to win an exciting and valuable chess experience!

The competition provides inspiring opportunities for students to get better at the game whilst having fun and developing their problem-solving and decision-making skills. Chess is widely recognised as an exceptional educational tool and studies have found that children who play chess significantly improve their visual memory, attention span and spatial-reasoning ability. [1]

The most frequently cited general benefits include the development of:

• Cognitive abilities, such as attention, memory, and logical thinking; essential skills for the development of the individual
• Critical thinking, improving the ability to assess strengths and weaknesses, establish value judgements and make decisions.
• Increased creativity through problem-solving.
• Better results in mathematics.
• Improvements in literacy.

The learning goals of the tournament are to:

• Promote the learning and playing of chess across ISP schools.
• Encourage positive and stimulating competition on a global stage.
• Foster positive links between ISP schools and build long-lasting friendships across the world.
• Recognise, share and celebrate amazing learning.

The deadline for registration to this amazing global competition is Friday 26th February.

To find out more or to register, contact keith.duffy@parkhouseschool.com