What Chess Wiz is About?
Chess Wiz is about personal expression. It is about our children experiencing the joy of achieving something. Our way to help children achieve is by way of expressing themselves and their minds through playing chess.
Studies have shown that chess can be used as a tool to develop our children’s minds. It was also found out that learning chess had a positive influence on the development of both numerical and verbal aptitudes . Playing chess can enhance children’s reasoning, planning and problem solving abilities.
Chess is an art and a science bundled into one. And most of all it is fun!
Chess lessons in primary schools have been taught for many years now - and remain hugely popular in primary schools in the Eastern Suburbs of Melbourne. Currently, some 250-300 schools now have some sort of chess lessons. Chess Wiz would now like to bring this opportunity to the West.
Teaching method
Our teaching method relies heavily on goal setting for students at all levels. The chess class structure consists of three parts:
- The lecture – a new topic is presented each week, but all topics in a term are inter-related.
- Tutorial work – quiz sheets are attempted each week, with the coach providing marked papers back to each student, containing pertinent remarks which aid in the student’s understanding. Successful completion of this part of the program is rewarded with a certificate at the end of the term. In this way, children who may not win a trophy can still develop a feeling of success and achievement.
- Competition games – This is the ‘engine-room’ in which the child’s concentration and problem solving ability is forged. The primal urge to survive fosters the need to concentrate or ‘perish’. Sounds tough? That’s Chess! It’s not for the faint hearted!