On February, 21st the chess school opening ceremony was held at Novosibirsk State Technical University. The opening was held with the view of another important chess event: the start of the regional stage of the school team all-Russian tournament "White rook", one of the largest chess competitions among children.
The school is accommodated in a separate room in NSTU scientific library and equipped with 400 thousand rubles worth interactive chess boards and special web cameras that allow broadcasting major tournaments on-line. These devices are assumed to provide for hosting large chess tournaments in NSTU and to give the city a chance in the future to compete for the youth world chess championship.
The teachers of the school were graduates of the University: International Grand Master Dmitry Bocharov, International Master Roman Popov, Master Program student of the Faculty of Applied Mathematics and Informatics of the University, International Master Roman Kezin, Associate Professor of NSTU Faculty of Business Alexey Dolgov.
"The opening of the school is the next stage of joint work within the partnership of the chess Federation of Novosibirsk Oblast and NSTU", says International Grand Master Pavel Maletin, the President of the Federation. "This is a serious step in the development of chess infrastructure in the whole region, and especially on the left bank of the city: there is also a room (we constantly feel the lack of proper facilities), and the opportunity to gather a good team for solving large-scale problems. The functionality of the chess school is supposed to be the widest: it includes events of both local and national levels, and sports training in chess as a direct reserve for both the adult regional team and a large number of gifted young players. Also, a very important direction will be the work to improve the skills of the coaching and teaching staff, the development of effective coaching techniques. Eventually, the site should become a kind of innovative methodological center to combine the functions of a chess club and a verified sports training system for chess players of different levels.
NSTU chess school will train not only Novosibirsk pupils, but also children of the remote areas of Novosibirsk Oblast who have difficulties getting to the city. A series of special webinars for schoolchildren is planned for this purpose. Distance learning system DiSpace developed in NSTU and used for students' distance learning will be applied for the webinars. An unlimited number of Novosibirsk region schools will be able to join the webinars.
In addition, the school will train school chess teachers, with classes being conducted both on-site and remotely. The use of new equipment will allow training teachers from all over Russia. Previously,the first in Russia school chess teachers graduated from NSTU at the end of June 2018.
The founders of NSTU chess school were the Chess Federation of Novosibirsk Oblast, the NSTU Association of Graduates and the NSTU Sports and Training Center.
For the reference:
The third stage of the open all-Russian chess competitions "White rook" among the teams of educational organizations of the Novosibirsk Oblast will be held in Novosibirsk on February 21-24, 2019.
"White rook" is one of the most famous and mass tournaments. Since 1969, hundreds of thousands of children every year compete for the title of the strongest school team in the country. Novosibirsk gymnasium №1 won all-Russian competitions in 2007 and 2008. This year, the first two (school and district) stages of "White rook" in Novosibirsk Oblast were attended by more than 2,000 students; the third, the regional stage is planned to attract more than 400 participants.