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In Armenia all six-year-olds study chess; in UK schools it 'fell off a cliff' in the 1980s. But its educational benefits are plentiful

Primary school children in Armenia have more to contend with than just the three Rs. From the age of six, they all study chess as a separate subject for two hours a week. Chess is important to the very identity of this landlocked little country. Armenia suffered massacres and repression in the 20th century and has recently experienced an economic collapse. Yet in the 1960s, it provided the Soviet Union with one of its succession of world champions in the shape of Tigran Petrosian. A master of defence, his relentless grinding down of opponents made him the Geoffrey Boycott of the chessboard. And today, Armenia – with a population of just 3 million – holds the men's world team title.

So it was no surprise when an official of the Armenian education ministry told the Associated Foreign Press that teaching chess in schools would "create a solid basis for the country to become a chess superpower". But there is more to it than that: Armenia is one of a growing number of nations hoping to see wider educational benefits from encouraging chess in schools. India, Turkey and Norway have all made similar moves recently, and a summary of research produced by the Quad Cities Chess Club in America talks of enhanced mental abilities and an improvement in conventional schoolwork.

This is not a new idea. The Soviet dominance of the game was rooted in the new regime's embrace of chess immediately after the revolution. The game was seen as a cheap way to bring culture to the masses and display the new state's superiority to the decadent capitalist west. "We must organise shock brigades of chess players and begin the immediate realisation of a Five-Year Plan for chess," declared Nikolai Krylenko, the father of Soviet chess – some years before Stalin had him arrested and shot.

The international master and chess journalist Malcolm Pein, a gentler soul, is one of those who want to see the game flourish again in British schools. "There is no other activity that costs so little to organise and that cuts across so many barriers," he says. "Age, sex, race, religion … they mean nothing in chess. Anyone can enjoy it. Around 500 million people in 167 countries play the game and only football can rival that. Yet it has long been in decline in our schools."

Two years ago, Pein's organisation, Chess in Schools and Communities, launched a pilot programme involving 60 primary schools and 6,000 children. By 2015 it aims to have introduced the game to 17,000 schools and to have a million children playing. It is an ambitious target, but so far they are on track. Chess is still played by many British children, and Pein praises the Delancey UK Schools Chess Challenge. However, his impression is that many of the 2,000 schools that take part come from the private sector.

Does this mean British chess has always been confined to a social elite? Pein suggests not. Talking about the match held by radio between Great Britain and the Soviet Union in 1946, he says: "Yes, the British team were all Oxbridge types – probably because everyone else was too busy earning a living. But if you look at photographs of the audience, they don't look particularly middle class." My own experience as a member of the feared Market Harborough team of the 1980s bears this out. When we won a trophy, it would be engraved with the names of all its previous holders. Until the 1960s these were overwhelmingly works or company teams: after that they barely featured. Looking at those trophies was like discovering a lost culture.

Chess held on for longer in state schools. Pein dates its decline – "it fell off a cliff" – to the 1980s, a decade that saw the narrowing of the curriculum and a subsequent disaffection among teachers. But it may not be too late to reverse that decline, because the memory of the benefits and pleasures of chess lingers. "When I talk to headteachers," says Pein, "they often say: 'We always had a chess club when I was at school. Why haven't we got one now?'"

The innovative and readable media website Wannabe Hacks is undergoing a revamp on Friday.

Launched in August 2010 by five media-hungry graduates from Birmingham University, it has enjoyed terrific success by attracting a loyal readership. Now five new faces have moved in.

The new site will feature regular guest contributors, a revamped podcast (the Hackscast) and a makeover for its newsletter.

I've read several of the articles on Wannabe Hacks over the past 18 months because they have raised interesting issues in an interesting way. And it's a pleasure to see how well they have prospered.

Nick Petrie and Ben Whitelaw are now at The Times, Matt Caines is working at The Guardian, Tom Clarke is with the Daily Mail and Alice Vincent (a Newcastle University graduate) has joined the Huffington Post.

Five new hacks were brought on board last September: Hannah Maria Bass, an MA student at City University London; Natalie Clarkson, a journalism student at Staffordshire University; Jon Offredo, a reporter at a local newspaper in America; Jonathan Frost, a York University student; and Emily Handford, who famously revealed exploitation through internships in October last year. She now has a publishing job.

To greet the relaunch, the wannabes are holding a networking event on Friday evening at the Royal George pub, in Charing Cross, London. For more information, contact Alice maverick@wannabehacks.co.uk

Liberal Left group aims to mobilise opposition against 'drift to the right', claiming the mood in the party is radicalising

The first Liberal Democrat group openly opposed to the coalition is to be launched at the party's spring conference in Gateshead next month with a warning that the coalition has been a political disaster for the party, as well as a denial of its radical roots.

Launching a website on Wednesday, the group Liberal Left said it hoped to become a rallying point for members opposed to the coalition and those who see the party as a centre-left organisation seeking common cause with Labour, Greens and others on the centre left.

One of its founders, Richard Grayson, conceded that the vast majority of the party was committed to the coalition and denied the group would be working to put a motion to conference calling for the Liberal Democrats to withdraw from its partnership with the Conservatives. He said the focus was more on developing policies on the centre left, and creating a space for a coalition with Labour if necessary after a general election.

Most of the group's founder members have long been opposed to the coalition, but it believes other party members will join, and the mood of the party is radicalising. Grayson said Liberal Left differed from the other well-established left group inside the party – the Social Liberal Forum – in that it opposed the coalition, and did not agree that the party should be politically equidistant between Conservatives and Labour.

In its strongly worded founding statement, Liberal Left asserts: "We articulate policy positions within the Liberal Democrats which should be central to a radical party. Such policies have informed recent general election manifestos which our candidates have stood, and on which our MPs have been elected.

"Those views are not being currently voiced effectively in a party whose radical traditions have become muted in government and whose leaders have taken the party's policy positions to the right. We are now part of a government which is Eurosceptic, neo-liberal and socially conservative."

It also calls for a different economic strategy, one that is "not based on demonising the poor nor apparent overspending by a previous government (spending which Liberal Democrats did not say should be reduced)".

It says: "The popularity of progressive single issue campaigns shows a genuine appetite for progressive politics. We believe the Liberal Democrats should be part of this politics, not its target."

It also claims the coalition has been "politically disastrous leading to a haemorrhage of support, activists members and councillors". It claims policy gains such as tax allowances for the poor and the pupil premium for poorer children have been dwarfed by losses such as the VAT rise and loss of standards and funds in education.

It claims that if coalitions are to become more frequent, voters should not be left in the dark over the party the Liberal Democrats would partner with. It argues: "Many of the political problems faced by the current coalition flow from it being a government which most Liberal Democrat voters did not want. It is ideologically unsustainable and without a mandate.

"A future coalition with Labour and others on the liberal left is more likely to secure Liberal Democrat goals than a further coalition with the Conservatives and we should actively work to make that possible."

Asked to pinpoint the three strongest policy differences that Liberal Left had with the coalition, he said the deficit, tuition fees and the role of city academies in education. Grayson acknowledged that at a special conference immediately after the election the party voted overwhelmingly for joining the coalition, but he said there was a long tradition of dissent inside the Liberal Democrats. "We have never been a democratic centralist party in which the whole party has to abide by a conference decision for ever more."

The group's launch was greeted with derision by some Liberal Democrats, claiming it was a campaign by people who should be in the Labour party. Grayson said he hoped his group would have good relations with the Social Liberal Forum, but said: "They want to work incrementally and often in private to influence policy. That is a legitimate approach, but we have a different view."

The Royal Society is inviting youth groups to help select the winner of the 2012 Royal Society Young People's Book Prize

You may recall the video I recently shared with you about the Royal Society's 2011 Young People's Book Award. But maybe you are wondering how your child can help the Royal Aociety choose the 2012 winners of their award. Well, wonder no more because the Royal Society is asking for your help!

The Royal Society, the UK's national academy of science, is inviting after-school reading groups and science clubs, youth book clubs and other interested youth groups to help them select the winner of the 2012 Royal Society Young People's Book Prize. This prize celebrates the best books that communicate science to young people up to age 14. These books are either factual or fictional stories intended to make science exciting to kids. An adult judging panel is selecting the shortlist of six finalists from recently published books that communicate science to young people. After this shortlist has been chosen, groups of young people will be invited to discuss the books and collectively select the winner. Participation is open to any youth group that is able to read, discuss the shortlist and recommend their choice for who should win.

Selected youth groups will receive a complete set of the six shortlisted books to read and discuss before voting for their favourite book. Each group's votes will be sent to the Royal Society, who will tally them and announce the prize winner in late 2012. Seventy-five groups will be selected to receive a complete set of the shortlisted books for free; but if your group isn't selected to receive a set of books, you can still participate if you're able to buy the books yourself.

Applications must be received by Monday 30 April 2012. Learn more about the rules for participating in this prize. If you are a parent, teacher or other responsible adult, you can register your youth group to participate here. (Please note that participation is open to groups only and applications from individuals cannot be accepted.)

Previous prizewinners have included How the World Works by Christiane Dorion & Beverley Young (2011), Can you feel the force? by Richard Hammond (2007) and Horrible Science: Really Rotten Experiments by Nick Arnold and Tony de Saulles (2004). You can view the complete list of prize winners here. The Royal Society Young People's Book Prize did not take place in 2008 - 2010 due to funding issues but restarted in 2011 thanks to the generosity of an anonymous donor.

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Lecturers' union says European data shows Britain risks languishing in 'mid-table obscurity' due to rising cost of learning

The UK has a smaller proportion of adults with A-levels or their equivalent than Poland or Bulgaria, an analysis by the European Union's official statistics agency shows.

Several former eastern bloc countries now have adult populations that are more highly educated than the UK's, the Eurostat data reveals. They include Hungary, the Czech Republic, Poland and Bulgaria.

Statisticians ranked 33 countries according to the percentage of their adult population aged 25 to 64 who had completed upper secondary school – the equivalent to A-levels – in 2010.

The UK was 19th, with almost a quarter of adults (24%) not having A-levels or the equivalent. Lithuania came top with 8% of adults failing to complete the equivalent of sixth-form courses. Turkey was bottom, with 72% of its adults without A-levels.

Former Communist countries such as Poland (11%) and Bulgaria (21%) outperformed the UK. On average across the 33 countries, 27% of adults had not completed sixth-form study.

The lecturers' union, the University and College Union, said the figures showed the UK was languishing in "mid-table obscurity".

Sally Hunt, the union's general secretary, said there was a "very real possibility" that coalition reforms could lead to the country sliding further down the table in future years. She said the near-trebling of university tuition fees to up to £9,000 a year and restrictions on university places would have a detrimental effect on the nation's qualifications.

However, a spokeswoman from the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS), whose remit includes universities, said the coalition was overhauling the school system to ensure the poorest could study at college and university and creating thousands more higher-level apprenticeships.

Last month, ministers said there would be fewer university places at English universities this autumn. In previous years, an extra 10,000 places had been created to accommodate demand, but these will not be available this year. Some 5,000 places for universities that over-recruit have also been taken away.

The BIS spokeswoman said the number of full-time undergraduates in 2012-13 would remain at record levels.

In December 2010, a study of 65 countries showed the UK had slipped down world education rankings in maths, reading and science, and had been overtaken by Poland and Norway. The study, compiled by the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, revealed that the UK's reputation as one of the world's best for education was at risk.