Lessons from America

These days, the number of school children playing chess is in the thousands. In the state of New South Wales, this wonderful achievement is due mainly to the leadership of the NSW Junior Chess League and the many volunteer parents that make up its ranks. Among some important events they run are the Primary Schools, the Metropolitans and the Schools Chess Challenge. Scholastic chess, then, is surely a success. But just out of curiosity, allow me to pose these questions:

1. Is it bringing in lots of new players to chess?
2. Is it developing many new chess talents to enhance the sport?
3. Is it bringing in lots of money to Australian Chess Federation?

Well OK, no agenda here, just an echo of this interesting discussion on Chessville. And I do encourage you to download and read the PDF of the article by Braunlich.

By the way, Chessville is an excellent resource. They have trivia, puzzles, annotated games and even fiction. All for FREE! The link is going to the sidebar now.