On Monday 9th October, a chess tournament celebrated a schools program in Castlemaine, Victoria Australia.

Castlemaine, a picturesque country town 120kms north of Melbourne, has a wonderful history being the origin of Australia’s Gold Rush of the 1850’s. Heritage architecture paints an idyllic backdrop.

So, what a more fitting venue than The Old Castlemaine Gaol, built in 1861, to house 245 grade 5-6 students doing battle over the board.

Schools such as Yapeen, Elphinstone, Harcourt, Campbells Creek, are small outlying towns (many drought-stricken) consisting of some of the smallest, under resourced schools in Victoria.

The program secured funding to hire tutors from the Castlemaine Chess Club to visit classrooms on a weekly basis as part of the maths program.

Chess Kids, who run 190 schools tournaments a year Australia-wide, were amazed by the tournament, claiming it was the biggest rural event they have ever participated in- by about 100 students.

A blog, documenting the program development since May can be found:
http://mtalexandercluster.blogspot.com Posted by Picasa

Chess Daily News from Susan Polgar
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