Chess Kids

Not to be confused with ChessKid.

Chess Kids is an Australian company (registered business name Chess World Australia Pty Ltd ) that provides a range of chess-related products and services to schools, individuals and chess clubs. Services include coaching and recreational programs, and vacation-seminars they refer to as "incursions".[1] Their affiliated retailer, Chess World sells chess equipment and accessories to schools.[2]

Chess Kids organises extensive local and regional chess tournaments for students in more than 645 schools across Australia, including the annual National Interschool Chess Championships,[3][4] with over 9,000 students competing on the regional and national level in 2007.[5][6]

The company was founded in 1998 by chess enthusiast David Cordover, who was only 20 years old at the time. The start-up funds were provided by the cash prize when Cordover won the Nescafé Big Break Award contest for his business plan vision of bringing chess to every school student in Australia.[7] In an article in Teacher: the National Education Magazine, Cordover described the educational and character-development benefits of chess competition for young children; and wrote that "Research has shown that chess confers many educational benefits, including developing problem-solving ability, abstract analytical skill, spatial ability, memory and concentration."[6]

  1. ^ Chess Kids website group services information
  2. ^ Chess Kids website, equipment information[permanent dead link]
  3. ^ Justine Ferrari (24 November 2007). "School students make the move to chess". The Australian Higher Education. News Limited. Archived from the original on 28 November 2007. Retrieved 31 August 2008.
  4. ^ "Mentathletes Gather for Chess Tournament" (PDF). Education Times. Vol. 13, no. 20. Department of Education & Training, Victoria, Australia. 1 December 2005. Archived from the original (PDF) on 24 October 2009. Retrieved 26 August 2008.
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference tarica was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ a b "Chess: making a move in schools". Teacher: The National Education Magazine. April. 2008, Pages 40–42. Australian Council for Educational Research. Archived from the original on 23 July 2008.
  7. ^ "Business Checkmate". DSBN Case Studies. Dynamic Small Business Network. Archived from the original on 22 July 2008. Retrieved 31 August 2008.