A leading independent school is offering a £65,000 chess scholarship as part of a drive to open up access to children of all backgrounds and talents.

Whereas most scholarships are are for pupils that show exceptional academic, sporting or musical ability, Millfield school in Somerset is seeking those capable of memorising thousands of opening chess moves and of devising strategies of their own.

Peter Johnson, the headmaster, said that the chess scholarship was worth 50 per cent of fees for five years at the £24,000-a-year boarding school, one of the few in the country to have a full-time chess teacher.

For Millfield, the chess scholarship offers an opportunity to demonstrate its commitment to the new Charities Act, which requires independent schools to “earn” their tax breaks by showing that they benefit the wider public.

The scholarship this year will go to Rhys Cummings, 13, who started playing chess at the age of 5 to make more friends at school and is now a member of the England chess squad.

“My mum taught me how to move the pieces before I went to chess club and when I turned up they said I was a natural,” said Rhys, who will start at the school in September.

Rhys, who won the Sussex under13 grand prix at a tournament in Worthing this weekend (19 May), is convinced that playing chess has helped with his other schoolwork.

“It has helped my concentration because games can be very long, up to four hours sometimes. You also have to learn a lot of moves in chess, so I’ve become good at memorising things,” he said.

Rhys, who trains for about seven hours a week before a tournament, enjoys the intellectual challenge of playing chess and the social aspect, but most of all, he says, “I like winning”.

At Millfield, he will have two one-hour sessions of coaching a week as well as practice time. He is likely to spend nearly half his weekends playing matches.

His mother, Andrea, a widow who teaches maths at a state school, said that without the scholarship she would never be able to afford to send Rhys to a school such as Millfield. She credits chess with helping Rhys, initially a very shy boy, to build his social skills and self-confidence.

Matthew Turner, head of chess at Millfield and a Grand Master, said that the scholarship acted as a perfect bridge between the academic and sporting awards already available at the school. “When assessing candidates for the award, I’m looking for a very logical approach and I want to observe how they solve puzzles.” he said.

Mr Turner rejects the notion that the game is only for intellectuals. Of the school’s top three players last year, two were aiming for Oxbridge places, and the third was studying for a BTec in tourism and leisure management.

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