Class'Échecs: the programme bringing chess into French primary schools

Class'Échecs is today the simplest way in to chess in the classroom in France. The programme rests on a strong idea: it is not an outside facilitator who comes to run a workshop, it is the teacher who leads the lessons, during school time, with equipment and worksheets designed for them. Here is how it works, what it contains and what is known about its effects.

Class'Échecs

A national programme introducing chess in primary schools, run by the French Chess Federation and presented as an official “FFE × Éducation nationale” programme. It gives volunteer teachers guided lessons, an equipment kit and online support, for pupils aged 6 to 11.

What is the Class'Échecs programme?

The programme was born in 2022. That year, the FFE obtained the status of delegated sports federation (order of 28 March 2022) and strengthened, by an amendment, the framework agreement that has bound it to the Ministry of National Education since 2007. The ministry presents Class'Échecs as the programme intended to develop chess in primary schools, with a stated aim of introducing 250,000 children in three years, during school time, through volunteer teachers. The ministry's Eduscol page also set targets for 2025: training 5,000 teachers and equipping 2,000 schools.

The first year's theme was “chess and maths”: the lessons were used to work on mathematical notions through the game. The official site now lists among its partners the Ministry of National Education, the USEP (the sports federation for primary education), Crédit Mutuel Enseignant, the company A2 Consulting and the foundation L'Échiquier de la Réussite.

The four principles of the programme

In an article published in late 2025 by The Conversation, Fabien Groeninger (University of Montpellier) and Yves Léal (University of Toulouse) sum up the spirit of the scheme in four principles:

1. Open to all teachers, whatever their level at chess.
2. Chess as a means of building school skills, not as an end in itself.
3. Cooperative practice, which also develops social and relational skills.
4. Content designed for the classroom, with free resources and discounted equipment for schools.

What does the Class'Échecs kit contain?

According to the programme's official website, the kit ordered by the school includes:

The kit costs €90, delivery included, with a stated lead time of two to three weeks. In 2022, a presentation of the launch in the sports press mentioned the distribution of 500 kits (10 chessboards and one wall board each) to the first volunteer schools.

For a larger class, or for a school that wants to leave sets freely available in the library or at break time, extra equipment is needed. Sturdy boards that are easy for small hands to handle last better than cardboard ones: Le Palais des Échecs offers, for example, wooden chess sets to equip a classroom or a games corner.

How many lessons, and how are they built?

The programme's website announces 30 ready-made lessons. Each one includes a preparation sheet for the teacher, pupil exercises to print, a video showing how the lesson runs and the list of equipment needed. The first five lessons give an idea of the progression:

The logic is clear: one piece at a time, then very quickly locating squares by their coordinates, which links the game directly to the maths curriculum. A presentation of the programme published in 2022 spoke of 20 lessons a year; the figure of 30 is the one on the current official site. Video conferences and a forum support teachers throughout the year, and chess self-training courses have been offered on the Ministry of National Education's M@gistère platform since the start of the 2022 school year.

How do you register your school?

1. Create a teacher account on the programme's website (classechecs.ffechecs.fr).
2. Register the school: registration is free and open all year.
3. Order the kit if the school does not already have equipment.
4. Access the lessons from the teacher area and follow the progression.

Before getting started, it is worth talking to the staff team and to the local schools inspectorate: a project shared by several classes and written into the school plan lasts better. We go through this process in setting up an educational chess project in class.

How many teachers and pupils?

The available figures come from different sources and do not all measure the same thing:

• about 2,000 teachers in the first year, and more than 8,000 in 2025, or about 160,000 pupils introduced each year, according to Groeninger and Léal (The Conversation, December 2025);
• more than 10,000 schools having adopted the programme, according to the official Class'Échecs website (figure not broken down);
• an initial target of 250,000 children in three years, according to the ministry.

One figure is particularly telling: in a survey carried out in 2022–2023 among the programme's teachers, 87% said they knew nothing or almost nothing about chess. That is proof that the scheme achieves its first aim, reaching teachers who are not club players.

Class'Échecs at secondary school and sixth form?

The national programme targets primary school. Local versions are nonetheless appearing. In Île-de-France, the Region and the FFE signed an agreement on 3 June 2026, on the occasion of a first regional championship for lycées (sixth-form schools) that brought together nearly 150 pupils from 22 schools. The Region launched its own Class'Échecs for lycées there: nearly 250 kits (wall board, boards, clocks) had already been ordered across the eight départements of Île-de-France, according to the Region.

What the programme does not yet say

No controlled evaluation of the effects of Class'Échecs on school results has been published to date, to our knowledge. The feedback we know of comes mostly from teachers, who describe a change in how they approach mathematics and moral and civic education, without being able to say that the progress observed is due to chess alone. To find out what international research allows us to say, see what the studies really say.