Train your mind – Allena la tua mente 2019

Successful Chess Projects

Alfiere Bianco – A small but successful project to bring chess to families through a private company

Name of the project	Allena la tua mente (Train your mind) – Generali 2019
Background and what problem the project wanted to solve	Chess can be used to increase the communication possibilities in the family, a need in this historical period, and at the same time finalizing the project activities to increase the possible customers of the Generali Italia insurance company (the largest in Italy, with 1,500 agencies).
Project idea and set-up	1) The Generali headquarters offers its agencies the opportunity to open a basic chess course for families free of charge, in agreement with Alfiere Bianco who will provide all the chess instructors and the whole organization.2) The 10-hour course will start only if the minimum number of 10 participants is reached, including adults and young people.3) The course will be held at the agency, where not possible due to lack of space it will be held at a structure proposed locally by Alfiere Bianco.4) After the course, all participants will be invited to the one-day “family chess tournament”, as a final event with prizes for family groups, and individual prizes for children and adults.5) All course participants will be given for free a chess set, a rules manual and access to the game on the web platform.6) The goal is to have at least 10 new people, external to the already existing agency contacts, among the participants.7) The maximum number of Generali agencies that can participate, throughout the Italian territory, is 50 in total for the two editions: one in spring and one in autumn.
March 2019	Opening of registrations for the first edition
April/May 2019	Courses and materials delivering
June 2019	“Family chess tournament” 1
September 2019	Opening of registrations for the second edition
October/November 2019	Courses and materials delivering
End November 2019	“Family chess tournament” 2
Finances for the project and how the project leaders managed to receive it	Generali Italia Spa paid € 70.000 in two tranches, one per edition. All the chess instructors (50) have been paid few days after each final event, as well as suppliers of materials and tournament prizes. A budget check was not requested by the Client, only a supervision, for the organization and quality of the service offered.
Results	The result was very positive, both from the point of view of the participants and in the total numbers reached. The result for the Generali Agencies was surprising, exceeding on average and throughout Italy the expected target (10 people), reaching 26 per agency. Many were the compliments received from the families, for the opportunity they had to participate with their children, grandchildren, cousins all together in a beautiful project. The 50 agencies involved were in 10 different Italian regions. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzViXUVlA5o
Reflections, problems faced and advice for the future	Only in one case, out of 50, it was not possible to start the course. The agency has been replaced with another. It is very important to have experienced instructors to be successful with families.
Contact	Alessandro Dominici dominici@alfierebianco.com +39 3932277051