Saturday, 11th of May, starting at 11:00 am (London time) I Course language: English

• Do you want your students to be more engaged in their learning process?
• Are you giving enough variety and choices to your students to play different games and solve problems on the chessboard?
• Do you wish to expand your teaching repertoire and make your lessons more ENGAGING, FUN and EDUCATIONAL?

Why Strategy Games?

Simple strategy games played on the chessboard offer a range of cognitive, social and emotional benefits, while also providing a fun, engaging  and educational activity to enjoy with others. They have always been a great way to exercise the mind and improve critical thinking skills through analysing different scenarios and choosing the best possible move to achieve victory.

• Easier to learn: Simpler rules or fewer pieces, making them more accessible to new players. Because of their simplicity, they can be enjoyed by a wider audience. Building up children’s confidence, and laying the groundwork for chess, are highly important for beginners.
• Less intimidating: Chess can be an intimidating game to some because of its complexity. These games will still provide a challenge and have great educational benefits. 
• More variety: Chess is a great game but in the classroom, more variety is required to keep children engaged. Strategy games offer new playing experiences.

What will you learn in the training course?

This interactive one-day course shows how different strategy games can be used in conjunction with teaching chess by keeping the children motivated and providing a wider variety of games. We introduce several games playable on a chessboard. It`s a variety of chess mini-games, chess variants, chessy math & logic puzzles, and other strategy games. We use Logiqboard to demonstrate these games and puzzles in the classroom or teaching online. We use these games to lay the groundwork for chess which can be difficult for several children at the beginning of their learning chess journey. They might lose interest, they might give up early, and they might think they are not clever enough to learn chess. We don`t want that. Instead, we want them to enjoy "chess class" and feel successful from the very first lesson. We aim to emphasize the educational benefits of these games and demonstrate how we can achieve a range of learning outcomes with careful planning.

What are the benefits for educators taking this training course?

• Improved teaching skills: The course will improve your teaching skills by providing you with new teaching methods and techniques to make teaching and learning enjoyable.
• Enhanced game knowledge:  The course will provide you with a deeper understanding of the educational benefits of simple strategy games. This will enable you to provide more insightful and comprehensive lessons to your students and set clear teaching objectives.
• Increased student engagement: You can make your lessons more engaging and interesting for your students by having a variety of these games. This will increase your students' interest and encourage them to learn and play more.
• Improved critical thinking and problem-solving skills: By introducing simple strategy games to your students you can help them develop valuable skills which can be transferred to other areas of life.
• Personal and professional growth and development: You will learn new skills, challenge yourself, and gain a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction from completing the course.

Course objective:

The objective of this course is to encourage educators to develop thinking skills through the playing of various strategy games. These games help pupils to discover for themselves some of the patterns and logic required to play a game. Development is achieved through cognitive stimulation through play, problems and exercises. Pupils obtain a deeper understanding by exploring the underlying concepts in gameplay.

What will you get?

A certificate of attendance will be provided and a compendium of 36 games will be made available to attendees.

Course presenters: 

John Foley and Brigitta Peszleg from ChessPlus.

John was the lead author on the Erasmus Plus projects for Chess and Mathematics as well as Chess and Strategy Games. He is a member of the European Chess Union's Education Commission. 

Brigitta has years of experience as a chess player and has been teaching chess in England and Hungary for many years. She holds a degree in Educational Sciences and works in education since 2006.