The greatest chess player of all time Garry Kasparov noted the successes achieved by the National Chess Academy of Moldova and said that he will continue to support the development of chess in Moldova. The promise was made by the founder and director of the National Chess Academy of Moldova Ion Girnet in a discussion on the sidelines of the conference “Making the Right Moves” that was staged by Profit.ro in Bucharest and involved the two.
“After the conference, I had a discussion with Garry Kasparov during which he highly appreciated the results achieved by the National Chess Academy of Moldova to develop and popularize chess in our country and expressed his readiness to continue to support the projects implemented by the Academy. Garry Kasparov spoke about his current projects and invited children of the Academy to take part in the tournaments organized under the aegis of the Kasparov Chess Foundation,” Ion Girnet stated for IPN.
Currently, Garry Kasparov is implementing a big project in education institutions in a number of francophone states, including France. He told Ion Girnet he is ready to develop this project in Moldova too so as to support the promotion of chess among children. “Garry Kasparov is ready to share this experience so that it could be applied in the Republic of Moldova,” stated Ion Girnet.
The cooperation between the National Chess Academy of Moldova and Garry Kasparov’s Foundation started in September 2013 when, together with the Ministry of Education of Moldova, an agreement of cooperation was signed to implement the Foundation’s program “Chess in school” in Moldovan education institutions. Since then, over 2,000 children have studied according to this program. The program is now implemented in five schools and at the offices of the National Chess Academy of Moldova. “As a result of this program, the children know methodologically chess at different stages of formation. Our goal is to grow a more intelligent and more powerful generation, not necessarily sports champions,” he stated.
The Academy’s director said chess is a valuable teaching method for all the categories of children and students, at all the mental development levels, from children with disabilities to gifted children. When chess is played from the age of 4-6, the children develop better. “At psychological level, chess learned methodologically develops attention, memory, critical and creative thinking, special imagination and leads to a higher intelligence coefficient. It tests patience, responsibility, will, power of concentration, confidence in oneself, perseverance, respect for oneself and precaution. All these contribute to enhanced motivation, aptitudes and results at school,” stated Ion Girnet.
