Energizing chess collaboration: Tata Steel Chess and Chessity

There's something magic about January. In this quiet, wintery month, the chess world sparkles into the new year with the Tata Steel Chess Tournament in Wijk aan Zee. 

We add to this by expanding our free School Workshop and Ambassador Program, that has proven to be very succesfull in the Netherlands, reaching over 30,000 schoolchildren. This program allows everyone to (help schools) discover the fun and ease of learning and teaching chess with Chessity. >> check out the details <<

Chessity is excited to have partnered up with the Tata Steel Chess Tournament for the 5th year in a row. In the entourage of the famous tournament, the Tata Steel Chess organization puts a big emphasis on engaging children, schools and parents. We are pleased to help facilitate this with educational chess and chess-in-schools activities.

During the Tata Steel Chess Festival - a fun packed weekend full of kids activities - over 750 children took chess lessons with Chessity. In total, nearly 1,000 schoolchildren participated in the 20 new online Tata Steel Chess tournaments for kids, hosted in Chessity's tournament arena.

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School trip to the masters

The festival was great fun for all the participants and their families. But especially for the students and staff of the Rehoboth School in Oldekerk, where chess is very popular with the students. This school won a chess contest written out by Tata Steel Chess and Chessity. Their prize? A fully catered school trip to the Tata Steel Chess Festival. The kids enjoyed themselves tremendously with all the festival activities and got to see the grandmasters, including world champion Magnus Carlsen and Dutch chess idol Anish Giri, from very close up.

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Inspirational tournament

Chess is a means to let talent blossom and to let minds grow. It is Chessity's mission to let everybody experience the benefits of chess, especially children. In the Tata Steel Chess Tournament, we have found a partner with a shared vision on the positive influence of the game of chess for children and chess as an eductional tool.

Moreover, the organisation of Tata Steel Chess makes every effort to spread this message widely. This week, a symposium was held with prominent Dutch speakers from science and chess education, including Chessity's founder Janton van Apeldoorn, on the positive brain effects of chess and the use of artificial intelligence for learning. In recent years, efforts like these have led numourous chess activities and chess projects for children to spring and blossom in the Netherlands.