Photos by Chess Fest

Hi everyone and happy international chess day for the 20th July! 🖤🤍🖤

Summer holidays have arrived and the six week ‘reset and renew’ break has begun.

At the moment I’m at the in-between stage teachers often find themselves. I can’t switch off completely. Maybe I need to reflect on the year gone by and the year ahead…

So what were my highlights for the academic year?

⭐️Well ofcourse it has to be last week’s Chess Fest in Trafalgar Square 🇬🇧

London’s Chess Fest was a huge high! There were over 20, 000 visitors all there to play, learn and explore the beautiful game. Players or just observers, everyone was welcome.

There were so many activities to take part in, from beginner lessons, challenge a grandmaster, casual chess zones, blind chess, giant chess, chess simuls and a chance to meet Fun Master Mike from chesskid.com

The super talented and hilarious actors were there once more, this time the theme for the live chess show was The Wizard of Oz. Their entrance onto the chessboard was first class. 👏

For tutors, the hard work was exhilarating and so worthwhile. We had seconds to evaluate a person’s/child’s level and move them on in their chess journey. Giving them a tiny slice of chess and how exciting it can be. I was teaching beginners, we had some cheeky ones joining us who weren’t! 🤭

I’ve had many ‘pinch me’ moments as a chess teacher but on this day I couldn’t help thinking, finally, I have arrived.

(A reminder that I love teaching children more than anything.)

New connections and old

I got to meet so many wonderful people, chessy people and people who wanted to learn. Working alongside my lovely Brigitta Peszleg made it super special.

My personal photos this year capture my role as a tutor. Other years, my photos have been through the eyes of a visitor. Thank you CSC, it was a pleasure.

Does your school have a chess club?

If you haven’t yet bought chess into your school or setting, what are you waiting for? There’s a ripple effect that takes place and it’s quite magical. The CSC charity offer lessons and clubs with experienced tutors. Their chess curriculum is excellent by the way. Get in touch and start a conversation…

For more Chess Fest fun click: https://www.chess-fest.com/

Other highlights

⭐️Attending Judit Polgar’s Global Chess Festival & Conference ♟️🌎

⭐️My blog meet ups give me pure joy. I began the year meeting Elias Mastoras, from the charity A Ball For All. Meeting him a week before the Paralympics football was super exciting! He also leads the way in blind chess education.

My end of the year meet and greet was seeing the stars from BBC Chessmasters the End Game. What a bunch, the chess world absolutely needs stars like this to make chess engaging, fun and real. Our shared goal is to make chess inclusive and popular. The show was never a promise to the grandmasters of the world. It was a show for the public. Just like bake off cooking shows, pottery shows etc and it delivered. Yes, series two can have improvements but let’s celebrate it first and foremost.

How amazing to walk into school and have students tell you they watched the show and played chess with their family. They’d mention their favourite players or tactics taught in class. I personally loved seeing so many puzzles I’ve shared on logiqboard.com

It was an absolute pleasure meeting contestants Nick, Cai, Lula and host Antony! ❤️

More highlights

⭐️Attending the 1st London Strategy Games Festival 🐝

⭐️Meeting my LogiqBoard team, Rita Atkins and Marton Pallagi in Budapest. How amazing to all be together and meet the co-creators in Hungary ❤️

⭐️ Being asked to present an Autumn webinar for UK maths teachers (The Mathematical Association of Teachers) There are so many wonderful maths tasks to be explored through the theme of chess! 🎲

⭐️ Writing a chess and maths course for Autumn release… 🤯🥳

⭐️ Something so so special that’s been a little dream of mine which I hope to share soon. 🤫

Curious Maths Days 🦉

From highs to lows… On Saturday I taught the final Curious Mathematician maths club with my beautiful friend, colleague, boss and maths mentor, Sara Tilley from Curious Maths. (I work for the best).

Sara is a leading maths consultant here in London. Follow her YouTube channel and social media to see a primary maths expert in action. You’ll be hooked, I promise.

https://youtube.com/@curiousmaths?si=XKdDgbbqHq_RqZd

Sara trained me as I moved from primary school teacher to primary maths teacher. She chose me as her maths club teacher and sidekick and has guided me and inspired me. The truth is maths wasn’t a subject that interested me or drew me in. This is the driving force to how I teach now. I want children to ❤️ maths.

The year ahead for LogiqBoard

⭐️ For LogiqBoard, the plan is to give our subscribers more of what they need. We’re making teacher resources and more online worksheets you can dip into for the next academic year.

Check out out current selection by signing up for a free trial and you’ll see the variety of online worksheets that engage and challenge. Each one is unique and creative.

⭐️ Our wonderful Rita Atkins, will be showcasing Logiqboard.com at the Edtech summit this August in America. Logiqboard.com is the platform used in all the top chess educators courses aswell as a teaching tool for the classroom. It’s so exciting to share LogiqBoard with the tech world.

Happy Summer ☀️

I wish you all a lovely break, time to rest and enjoy making memories with friends and family.

A special thank you to those who support LogiqBoard, your kind messages and feedback is always valued.

Don’t forget to try some of our amazing games on logiqboard.com Our strategy games and chess mini games are brilliant. My last day of term teaching chess was full of mini games.

Perfect for the beach too! ⛱️

Sending LogiqBoard ❤️

Hari x