The British Chess Educational Trust was set up from a sum of money left to the British Chess Association by Sir George Thomas, who was the British chess champion in the 1930s and also a British badminton champion.
The trust funds an annual award for the UK chess club or school that is considered to have done most to promote chess among children. Petts Wood and Orpington Chess Club has received the award for 2021.
Factors behind the decision to make the award are:
- Instruction at three levels, beginners, intermediate and advanced using STEPs curriculum. As part of this some of the coaches like to widen the lesson to discuss where a game was played or where one of the players comes from and thereby bring in some geography or history
- Running a junior tournament, which typically has around 50 players
- Organising matches against other junior clubs
- Among the club members are four current junior England Internationals, two of them British champions in their age groups, plus one in the Ireland junior girls’ squad