29 October 2017

'Chess Behind Bars'

In this ongoing, fortnightly series about The Sociology of Chess, a few months ago we saw An Education in Hustling (May 2017), which featured a video titled 'How Prison Taught This Man How to Play Chess'. This video discusss the organizational side of the same topic.


Interview with Carl Portman on Chess in Prisons (12:48) • 'Published on Oct 15, 2017'

In the screen capture for the embedded version of this video, Portman is holding up a book titled 'Chess Behind Bars', written by himself. He discusses it during the interview. The product page, at Chess Behind Bars (Hardcover) by Carl Portman (qualitychess.co.uk), says,

At a time when prisons are in the news due to increasing violence, drug taking and low morale, it has never been more important to focus on education and rehabilitation. [...] Carl Portman is the English Chess Federation’s Manager of Chess in Prisons. In 2015 he was awarded the ECF President’s award for services to chess.

Also visible in the video behind Portman is the domain name www.chessplus.net. Its home page says,

ChessPlus is changing the world of chess education. Our unique approach is based upon decades of experience of teaching games to develop thinking skills.

Portman is pictured on a page on the site, ECU Chess Teacher Training Course – London, dated 20 October 2017.

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