Students at Kearsley West Primary School have been crowned local chess champions

Students at Kearsley West Primary School have been crowned local chess champions.

They won the Farnworth Primary School Chess League after the headteacher made the sport part of the school’s core curriculum, beating seven other school teams.

Julian Clissold, who organises the league, goes to Kearsley West Primary once a week to teach chess as part of the regular school day.

He said: “The standard of chess has improved immensely between September last year and June this year, and this made for a thrilling final day.”

And he claims not to have any trouble getting the children interested in chess either.

“I don’t find it difficult to get the children engaged. I organise junior chess for all of Manchester and the only thing that holds us back is that we can’t find enough adults to teach the chess clubs. The children can’t get enough of it,” he added.

Any schools that are interested in taking part in the leagues, or the Chess in Schools and Communities programme should contact Mr Clissold on 01204 852 036 or julian.clissold@outlook.com.