"поиграем!"

Beth's last word in 'The Queens Gambit' is our first to you....

"Let's play!"

How and where to play chess

There are clubs, coaches and supports across the country. Contact the Irish Chess Union membership officer [email protected] for more.

For new players

• There are plenty of recourses across the internet to learn how to start playing chess lichess.org and chess.com both provide excellent training https://lichess.org/learn#/ . Completely free to sign up.
• There always new ways to improve your chess and once you have learnt the moves you could start playing chess against other people online. Another great thing for people of all ages is to join a club, this will introduce you to a group of great new people all with the shared interest of chess.
• Another great thing is to buy a chess board and try and learn with your family. Chess is a very social game and it’s always best to learn with others.
• There are hundreds of clubs across Ireland, most schools and colleges offer a chess club but if not you can find clubs for all ages here https://www.icu.ie/clubs, or get in contact with the Irish Chess Union membership officer [email protected]
• There’s plenty more great chess shows passed The Queens Gambit, try the movie "The Queen of Katwe" for a wonderful true story of how chess transformed the lives of shanty-town children in Uganda or "Finding Fischer / Innocent Moves", or “Pawn Sacrifice” are all excellent movies.
• To continue improving you could use https://lichess.org/practice or https://lichess.org/training/ to become the next Beth Harmon!

Fun Ways to Get Kids into Chess

For Parents:

• Teach yourself and your kids through chess minigames. These are an easy, fun way to learn the basics of chess. Go to www.movesforlife.ie and click on Chess 4 Fun to find out how!
• Make a chess set together from junk materials. See a lovely origami set on the Moves for Life homepage.
• If you and your children already know how to play, why not join a free online chess platform such as Lichess? (www.lichess.org) Don’t forget to ‘Enable Kid Mode’ if you are signing up a child, to keep them safe on the Internet. Lichess has lessons and puzzles as well as thousands of online opponents ready to play at the click of a button, 24 hours a day. Warning: online chess can be addictive!
• If you’ve already watched The Queen’s Gambit, try the movie "The Queen of Katwe" for a wonderful true story of how chess transformed the lives of shanty-town children in Uganda or "Finding Fischer / Innocent Moves" the story of young Josh Waitzkin's chess journey or "Knights of the Bronx" - a teacher inspires his class to play, enjoy and win!
  
• Ask your children’s school to get involved in chess. There are courses for teachers running in the education centres, online competitions and lots of support available. Email [email protected] to find out more.

For Teachers:

• Sign up at your local education centre for teacher courses in chess. Email us at [email protected] for details.
• Ask your principal to buy a couple of chess sets for each classroom. Great for rainy breaks!
• Register your school on Chessossity (www.chessossity.com) for a wealth of chess teaching and learning resources.
• Encourage your players to practise online by joining Lichess or chesskid.com.
• Above all, give chess a go in your school, in your classroom, at whatever level, and you’ll find that chess is huge fun and can benefit every child!

History note for teachers: Cúchulainn played chess

"Irish mythology tells us that Na Fianna, the ancient Irish warrior band, recognised the benefits of chess; when training young men to join their band the youths would spend one third of their day playing hurling, one third of their day learning poetry and one third at chess." President Michael D Higgins, ICU Patron. President's full speech here.