SUMMER CHESS CAMP OPENS IN ALMATY

— Many of the children are from low-income and socially vulnerable families. All of them have a chess, many have even been winners of local competitions, they have 1-3 sports categories? — said the project’s coordinator Ilzira Aldagarova, and adds – The camp is hosted by Nazarbayev Intellectual Schools’s (NIS) branch in Almaty that specializes in chemistry and biology.

— This is the second year we are running the camp together with the foundation and the NIS. Participation in the Chess Planet is not recreational only, but it will also help the children develop their logical thinking and intellectual abilities. We hope this year the campers will gain interesting experience, gain experience and have a good time, — said the KCF’s Deputy Executive Director Gulmira Dauletova.

In 2016, the Shakhmardan Yessenov Foundation organized a similar summer chess camp in Astana. It gathered 50 teenagers, chess aficionados, from socially vulnerable families. After a successful outcome of the camp, the organizers decided to run it annually.

— Initial screening of children is carried out in NIS in each region of Kazakhstan, there’s a requirement that children should not be students of NIS. We hope that the young players will remember the camp for a long time, — said Aldagarova, and continues – In the first half of their day they will be in classes studying the theory of chess and sparring. There are master-classes by Grandmasters Rustam Khusnutdinov and Anton Filippov in camp’s program. And after lunch the boys and girls will have classes on rocket design, sciences, robotics, pottery, acting, etc.

There camp’s participants will also have a chance to go sightseeing around Almaty, for the organizers have planned trips to the city’s museums and other places.