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Lateefah Messam-Sparks

Lateefah Messam-Sparks

Chess and Life: Building a successful national, and international, chess school

Lateefah has been involved in the chess world for over 20 years. She has played chess across the globe from London to Thailand and met people from every continent. Chess has been a massive part of her life from playing in the England Junior Team to working as a chess consultant in schools and acting as an advocate for junior chess across the United Kingdom and Europe.

Lateefah comes from humble beginnings but has always been driven. Her speech covers the importance of losing, learning and stepping out of your comfort zone to pursue your dreams - no matter how unusual they are. Using chess as a metaphor for life she analyses the best ways to analyse, strategise and execute your goals. Chess, she argues, is a wonderful vehicle to assist young people to live their passions and achieve their goals successfully.

For two years Lateefah attended one of Britain’s leading Public Schools, Wellington College, as a Chess Scholar. She has had the good fortune to have been coached by some of Britain's leading Grandmasters. At the age of 20 she was the top ranked girl for her age in the United Kingdom.

Lateefah worked as a consultant and chess coach in a London school for five years. During that time the school was recognised as one of the top chess schools nationally and students competed internationally. They achieved an award from the English Chess Federation for their achievements in chess and was honoured as a Chess Leadership School. She is currently expanding her business in Europe.

This talk is both fun and interactive, and hopefully, you will be left wanting to follow your dream, work hard and strive for success no matter what it may be.

Testimonials from Teachers

"We thought that Lateefah was fantastic! She was very relevant for our audience. Hopefully we will see more schools take up chess and move forward towards a FOBISIA chess network."

– Anna Sheppard, CPD Lead, Federation of British International Schools in Asia

Speaker File

Location

Nottinghamshire

Topics

  • Teen Speakers
  • Primary
  • Enterprise
  • Sports
  • Careers

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