The RHAND Scholas­tic Chess Chal­lenge has be­gun in earnest with teach­ers and stu­dents from three To­ba­go sec­ondary schools at­tend­ing the first train­ing ses­sion con­duct­ed by T&T Chess Foun­da­tion (T&TCF) in­struc­tor Car­lyle Singh at the Di­vi­sion of In­fra­struc­ture and Pub­lic Util­i­ties Con­fer­ence Cen­tre, Scar­bor­ough.

The Chal­lenge, which was for­mal­ly launched on Jan­u­ary 10, is in­tend­ed to in­tro­duce the play­ing of chess as an ex­tra-cur­ric­u­lar ac­tiv­i­ty in the is­land's nine sec­ondary schools.

At­tend­ing the first train­ing ses­sion were stu­dents and teach­ers from Good­wood High School, Bish­op's High School and Pen­te­costal Light and Life Foun­da­tion High School. The sec­ond ses­sion will be held at Rox­bor­ough Com­pos­ite for schools in the east of the is­land.

Over the course of the cur­rent school term, the T&TCF will con­tin­ue its train­ing ses­sions in dif­fer­ent ar­eas of To­ba­go. The train­ing pro­gramme will cul­mi­nate in two tour­na­ments, one for in­di­vid­ual par­tic­i­pants and the oth­er an in­ter-school event.