With the initiative and efforts of the European Chess Union (ECU), the European Parliament published a Declaration on 15 March 2012 on the introduction of the programme ‘Chess in School’ for the educational systems of the European Union. Prior to this, several European countries had introduced chess as a curriculum option for primary schools. Following the Declaration, the EU educational programme, Erasmus, funded several projects in the field of Chess and Education with the active participation of the European Chess Union and its Educational Commission members.
These included projects on chess and games pedagogy as well as chess and mathematics. This training course is primarily aimed at teachers in Primary Education as well as those attending Teacher Training institutions. More generally, it is suitable for anyone interested in how chess and strategy games can contribute to education in terms of the social and intellectual development of children. One of the primary focuses of the initiative is to provide academic training courses for teachers and chess tutors to gain valuable skills applicable in the classroom.