LONDON GRILLING: Malcolm Pein, International Chess Master, CEO of Chess In Schools & Communities & Telegraph Correspondent.
In today’s London Grilling Delancey Real Estate talks to former British Junior Champion and International Master, Malcolm Pein, about his upcoming event Chessfest, which is taking place in Trafalger Square this weekend.
Photo credit: britishchessnews.com
As well as being the Chess Correspondent at The Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph for over 30 years, Malcolm is also a Qualified FIDE Trainer, and has trained over 20 national and world junior champions. He has also commentated on chess for the BBC, Sky TV, Canal+, Independent Television News and CNN and written numerous books about chess.
Hi Malcolm, can you tell us about ChessFest?
It's a free event for the whole community, family friendly and open to anyone whether they play chess or not. It's a celebration of the game that takes place all day on Trafalgar Square this coming Sunday the 16th of July. It's a chance to meet up and play with friends, with complete strangers, learn the game from scratch, or challenge some of the best players in the world including the entire England team.
What inspired you to put it on?
Chess is such an inclusive game that crosses all barriers of age sex language and culture yet there was no event that I could think of that really encapsulated this and was open to absolutely everyone. Our charity Chess in Schools and Communities had run a few small scale activities before, including one sponsored by Delancey at Elephant and Castle and I thought; why not scale it up but in a massive way? The ambition is to spread ChessFest all over the UK. This year it's going to be in Trafalgar Square, Liverpool, Nottingham and Hull.
Why do you think chess is so important to young people?
It teaches children to concentrate which in a world of continuous distraction is a really important skill to acquire. It also gives children problem solving skills and builds up self-esteem. It’s so empowering for children, knowing something their peers, or even their teachers and parents don't know how to do. It also teaches them to take responsibility for their actions, you own a chess move, it's yours, nobody made you play it. When children play chess competitively it builds up ‘grit’ the ability to overcome setbacks, which is so important later in life.
Can you tell us a bit more about the incredible work you do with inner city schools in London?
We teach the game in over 200 classrooms across the capital each week. Over the years we've taught over 100,000 children how to play the game. We also run same number of after-school clubs, but we like classroom chess as it follows our 30-week curriculum that has children playing the game after only one term of tuition from our tutors. Our delivery is subsidised by the charitable funds we raise.
What sticks out to you most when you think about the impact that Chess in Schools and the Communities has on these young people?
It's all about giving children opportunities. Learning chess used to be something that was largely confined to private schools. Every private school has a chess club. It also enables children who might not shine at physical sports or cannot enjoy physical sport because of disability to thrive. We have found that chess is particularly good for calming down children with ADHD or for integrating children with autism. I recall in 2018 a 16-year-old autistic boy came to visit our activity in Elephant and Castle and his mother said that he very rarely left his room, but he wanted to come and play chess. Subsequently we arranged for him to have lessons which he really enjoyed.
Tell us about the wonderful chess shop, Chess & Bridge, that we hear you also have in Baker Street.
I set it up in 1992, I thought London also be able to support one shop dedicated the world's oldest game and it's now become a kind of London chess headquarters where people meet up to play outside on tables or just browse the store. One day I'd like to open something just like this, but also with the cafe and then we can play blitz chess all day, even if it means we won't get any work done.
Where are your favourite places to go in London? Any little secret tips?
Saint John’s Gardens in Regents Park are wonderfully secluded and beautiful. I couldn't answer this question without highlighting all the best places to play chess in London which include Russell Square Gardens which has chess tables like those in Washington Sq Park NYC as well as Granary Square for the Four Corners chess club and also Greenwich where the Peninsula chess meet up is very popular with the local community
To find out more about this weekend’s exciting free event in Trafalger Square visit:
