Forget the stuff about chess tables in parks, which dominated discussion on Twitter when these ideas were first discussed. The meat of the announcement is the support for schools and the funding for elite players.
Malcolm Pein, the English Chess Federation's director of international chess is quoted in the release:
The unprecedented grant funding will be transformational for English chess, helping to train more grandmasters and beginning the process of regaining England’s former status as a force in international chess.
The funds will enable us to support a training programme and pipeline for our growing pool of young talent as well as assist our elite players, seniors, visually impaired and deaf players to compete for top honours in their respective international competitions. The funding will also enable the ECF to revitalise the chess tournament circuit here at home.
In the 1980s England was second only to the Soviet Union at chess and at one point had three players (Nigel Short, Jon Speelman and John Nunn) in the world top 10.
I once blogged about those days and the reasons they came to an end, and also wrote a piece for the Guardian website on the Armenian government's support for chess in schools.
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