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Lance Grigg plays chess during the University of Lethbridge Donor Gala in 2023. Dr. Grigg launched Chess for Life, offering chess lessons to young offenders, in 2017.Jade Oldfield/Handout./Supplied
The organizer: Lance Grigg
The pitch: Founding Chess for Life
In September, 2016, Alberta judge Derek Redman handed down a sentence to a young offender that made headlines across the country.
The 12-year-old boy had been charged with threatening another boy in Lethbridge, Alta., with a knife. He had no prior convictions, so instead of sending him to a youth facility, Justice Redman asked the child about his life aspirations. The boy said he loved basketball but he’d never played on a team and couldn’t afford a basketball. Justice Redman located a ball and sentenced the boy to probation, with the added instruction that he practice dribbling and shooting five hours a week.
Lance Grigg, an associate professor of education at the University of Lethbridge, ran into Justice Redman shortly after the sentencing. He asked if he’d consider chess as an alternative for young offenders. Dr. Grigg was a lifelong fan of the game and he’d seen how chess improves critical thinking in young people.
The judge agreed, and in 2017, Dr. Grigg launched Chess for Life. The non-profit program offers 25 hours of chess instruction – as well as a chess set and a T-shirt – to young offenders referred by probation officers. It has expanded to the local prison, a seniors home and two elementary schools.
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The program relies on volunteers from the city and the university, many of whom are students studying neuroscience and psychology. Terry Whitehead, the university’s chancellor, is a volunteer who plays chess with prisoners. And researcher Jade Oldfield is examining the impact of Chess for Life on executive function in youth and incarcerated adults.
The non-profit is funded through donations, and on Nov. 7 it’s hosting a 24 hour chess-a-thon at the university to raise $25,000 to purchase chess sets.
Dr. Grigg, 69, retired in 2022, but he still teaches courses in critical thinking. Playing chess, he said, can nurture better decision-making in life. “You have to be attentive. You have to be patient. You have to think strategically.”
He credits the education faculty and the volunteers for the program’s success and hopes to expand it to more schools and female inmates. He’s also still in touch with Justice Redman, who’s on the Chess for Life advisory council.