February 5 & 6 the seminar for organizers, teachers, post-secondary employees and college teachers was organized within the frames of the RSSU Cup under the guidance of the President of the International Chess Union, Director of the festival Alexander Kostiev.

The seminar with the participation of 12 teachers, including the representatives of Kazakhstan, was held in the form of lectures. According to the words of Alexander, “the main idea of such seminars – to get teachers acquainted with the main existing principles of chess education in school. There are a lot of textbooks and books by different authors, and teachers are not always aware, what book to choose or ask questions on some certain guidelines.”

Alexander Kostiev divides all chess textbooks into two types: author’s methods and scientific works. To fulfill this goal, a famous specialist, author of chess guidelines Igor Sukhin and international master, Deputy Executive Director of the Russian Chess Federation Vladimir Barsky were invited to the seminar. Barsky has recently published the book “Chess School”.

Igor Sukhin told the audience about the principle of the scientific preparation of the textbook. According to Kostiev, the advantage of the textbooks is in the special, based on the scientific approach, material: kids solve problems not playing with each other, nobody suffers losses and as a result doesn’t lose interest to the game. First of all, such method allows to teach kids to think and foresee different situations, it doesn’t pursue the sports goal in pure form.

An attractive textbook by Vladimir Barsky constitutes the author’s experience. The book “Chess in School” is published in many copies by the Russian Chess Federation with the support of the Charity Fund by Galina and Gennady Timchenko and is granted to schools free of charge. In Kostiev’s opinion it’s undoubtedly great advantage. The textbook is provided for mass education.

While summing up, Alexander marked that an experienced teacher of elementary school can include chess lessons into the education process, using first of all common sense and good groundwork.