Chess Academy

Workshop for Kids & Teens from age 6

with Dijana Dengler, Peter Dengler, Jonas Dengler, Hugo Siegmeth and Peter Gandenberger

Chess is a good way to have fun while developing important skills that are of key relevance in our modern world. It takes good concentration skills to cope with the overstimulation and vast diversity of information we encounter on a daily basis. In addition to strategic thinking and planning, chess systematically promotes imagination and combinatorial analysis. 

Course I
In the beginner’s course we get to know the history of chess and the meaning of the different pieces in a fun way. Chess yoga, chess math, and a chess quiz are also part of the program. We read the riveting story of a great battle with a small hero from Stefan Kindermann’s chess book. For children approx. 6 years and up.

Course II
We develop a guideline for our chess thinking. We will take a closer look at various chess tactics, learn basic chess strategies, build our first repertoire of openings, and gather playing practice in a tournament with time control. But we also think about how we can apply chess thinking to everyday problem-solving at home and at school. To participate in this course, you need to be well-versed in the rules of chess, as well as some basic terms.

Your children's coaches

Dijana Dengler is a national player and co-founder of the Munich Chess Academy. She has competed in twelve Chess Olympiads and was Chairwoman of the Munich Chess Foundation for ten years. She holds a degree in business administration and co-developed the “King’s Plan” model with Grandmaster Stefan Kindermann and Prof. Robert Freiherr von Weizsäcker. The “King’s Plan” makes it possible to apply the approaches developed over centuries of top-level chess in one’s work and personal life. For several years now, there has been an added dimension to the “King’s Plan”: The “King’s Plan for Kids” focuses on acquiring thinking strategies that can be applied in all areas of life, and the acquisition of core cognitive skills such as the ability to concentrate, analytical thinking, and social-emotional skills such as intuition and fairness. Dijana Dengler currently works at the Overseas Family School in Singapore. The school takes a unique approach whereby chess is a compulsory subject. Dijana Dengler is a member of the Chess in Education Commission of the World Chess Federation FIDE for four years starting in 2019.

Peter Dengler holds a degree in computer science and has been working for a financial market information service provider, relocating to Singapore in mid-2017. His greatest chess successes include 2nd place in Munich's open international chess tournament in 1989, and the title of Munich Lightning Chess Champion in 2002. In 2008, he organized the press conferences of the Chess Olympiad in Dresden together with former world champion Susan Polgar. For 25 years he coached children and teens at his local chess club; its youth team became Bavarian Champion in 1991.

Hugo Siegmeth is an award-winning saxophonist and composer. In addition to his international concert activities, he teaches master classes with a focus on youth work and intercultural exchange. Active in chess since his youth, his greatest successes include coming first in the Bavarian Youth Championship in 1986, and second at the German Youth Team Championship in 1987. What he finds particularly intriguing about chess are the multi-layered creative possibilities, and the concentration that comes with playing. An experienced educator, Siegmeth guides learners to think in processes and to design structures in a purposeful way. A lot of fun and joy can be had experiencing and practicing this on the chessboard as well as in musical improvisation.