Seven of Illinois’ Grandmasters and International Masters wrote to Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley on October 29 to ask him to support ICA’s July proposal to upgrade the chess program within CPS.

Entitled “Why Not Chicago?—A Proposal for a Free Program of Chess Instruction in Chicago’s Title 1 Schools,” the proposal, requested by a top administrator at CPS, outlines the research on how chess benefits kids and details how Chicago lags behind other major U.S. cities with respect to chess instruction in Title I schools. While programs elsewhere reach 60% to 100% of their Title 1 schools, Chicago’s current instructional programs reach only about 10%.

ICA has offered to take a lead role in planning and implementing the new program, which would not require new funding from CPS or the City of Chicago.

The proposal is the subject of continuing discussions with CPS. The GM-IM letter was signed by Mesgen Amanov, Dmitry Gurevich, Nikola Mitkov, Yury Shulman, Florin Felecan, Mehmed Pasalic, and Angelo Young.

The letter and proposal are available on this site. For further information: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.