Back in snowy Moscow after a successful visit to Brussels, Belgium, to continue promoting our chess in education initiative in the European Commission with Androulla Vassiliou. Her department is Education, Culture, Multilingualism & Youth.

I arrived with the strongest female chessplayer of all time, Judit Polgar, and Silvio Danailov, the president of the European Chess Union. Both are tireless workers for promoting chess. We have made a tremendous amount of progress in a short time, and I am also proud of the ongoing work of the Kasparov Chess Foundation, which has a European base in Brussels.

Politicians and sponsors used to ask, "why chess?" when I talked about introducing the game into a school curriculum. Now they ask how fast we can help make it happen!

The science is strong and the results are fantastic. Chess improves results in every area, not just math and science. It improves concentration, logic, and because it's fun there's an incentive that leads to improved attendance. Plus, it's inexpensive, with no stadiums or costly equipment needed. You can help by contacting your local schools, political representatives, and other officials and asking about getting chess into the classroom.