Ex-chess champ wants to take game to Africa kids

PARIS: Russia’s former world chess champion Garry Kasparov wants to take the game to a million children in Africa as an educational tool to sharpen their learning skills and build confidence.

“We have plenty of data collected from around the world... that proves beyond any doubt that classes with chess, especially at early age, 6 to 9, dramatically improve the skills of the kids... to learn how to process information and make decisions,” Kasparov said here.

The chess legend attended the launch on Thursday of the francophone branch of the Kasparov Chess Foundation, which will focus on Africa, initially in Morocco, Ivory Coast, Senegal and Madagascar.

Chess “is a tool, not a recipe for all education problems, but it’s a an inexpensive and a effective tool,” the 53-year-old champion of the game said.

He said it was important to fight the prejudice “that only certain countries can produce champions”.

“There was nothing that special about the Soviet Union, just a lot of attention from the state and infrastructures in place that