Famous actor and chess enthusiast Woody Harrelson paid a visit to London’s HM Prison Wormwood Scrubs to play chess with the inmates. The visit was part of the Chess in Schools and Communities programme which delivers chess clubs in prisons around England every week.
The awarded actor and Primetime Emmy Award winner, Woody Harrelson, was accompanied by British International master, captain of England’s Open Olympiad chess team, and the Vice President of the European Chess Union, Malcolm Pein. Pein and Harrelson played chess with the prisoners and staff, and discussed different chess positions.
Chess in Schools and Communities organization currently runs 16 clubs in prisons, and five more will be developed soon, wrote Malcolm Pein on his twitter account.
UK Ministry of Justice posted about a nice chess visit and explained that chess is a transformative game for many prisoners. “Chess instills a sense of sportsmanship and critical thinking, improves mental health, relieves boredom and isolation, and can, i some cases, directly contribute to reducing the risk of reoffending on release“, reads their Facebook announcement.
International Chess Federation FIDE and its Social Commission launched the Chess for Freedom project in 2021, when FIDE and the Cook County Sheriff’s Office (Chicago, USA) signed a cooperation agreement to promote chess in prisons and organize chess tournaments among prisons. The project later grew into an annual Intercontinental Online Chess Championship for prisoners, and in October last year, a record-breaking 118 teams from 50 countries took part in the tournament. In January this year, FIDE won the prestigious Anthem Award for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion for its Chess for Freedom Project.