A chess is a school's success | Greece

In elementary school of Diafani, Karpathos, the last two students Vasilis and Marinos, love multitasking!

The basic aim of this small school is to help children be creative, intellectual and happy at the same time! We help them learn new things through playing and nature. We don't only based on the material that school books have, but we go futher away as we try to speak the language of children which is.. The game! The alternative education that follows this school is based on student-centered teaching, exempted from the old traditional teaching methods.

One of the most favorite hour in school curriculum is playing chess. Students loves to play chess in their free time and specially in school breaks! They like to discover new chess strategies and methods in order to move their paws smartly, targeted and methodicaly. Sometimes, they really get so addictive to this mind game ,that they don't want to leave from school since the their chess part ends. In our class, there is always a chess board ready to play!

The most important fact about playing chess is not only that helps children increase their strategy and intelligence, but also, helps them to learn the fact that in a game and generally in life, we couldn't be always the winners. In this small school that students don't have any other kids to play team game and there is a great luck of socialization, it's very important to learn how they react to little things as for instance, losing a game. They great part of a chess game is how they communicaye each other. At the beginning they give their hands and agree to play friendly and enjoy the game without speaking. Then in their game full of silence, they let their brain speaks alound. At the end of the game they love to share new techiques and methods that they disvovered and they give advices and tips about a wrong move that happenned during the chess game. Thus, they create a healthy competiton that they enjoy the playing and no the winning.

In a whole village they only have one each other, there is no external activities and they will grow up together as two young trees in the middle of nowere. So chess is definitely the golden key that creates not only a great brain, but also a good opponents that prioritize their friendship and not the win.