A PLASTIC injection moulding company based in Basingstoke has come up with a winning game plan that will ensure schools across the country get free chess sets.

Holloid Plastics, based at Stephenson Road, on the Houndmills Industrial Estate, is financing, manufacturing and distributing 10,000 sets for the English Chess Federation’s (ECF) Chess for Schools initiative.

The original concept for the project stems from when a child of a Holloid employee bemoaned the lack of chess facilities at his school.

Executive chairman Henning von Spreckelsen, who acquired the majority controlling stake in Holloid in January, giving the business firmer financial security, said: “The aim is to foster a love of the game and boost strategic thinking among our nation’s youth at the same time.

The former ICI and Tetra Pak executive said: “Working with the English Chess Federation and our sponsors, we are committed to making the Chess for Schools project a resounding success.

“Uniquely, this project offers me an ideal opportunity to give something back for the support I have received from others in the past.”

So far, about 9,000 schools have signed up to the first phase of Chess for Schools project, where each school is entitled to receive ten chess sets.

Chess for Schools’ overall aim is to encourage every one of England’s 25,000 schools to set up its own chess club.

Among the first schools to take up the offer was Yateley Manor School, which received its sets along with several local schools at a special presentation. There, international chess master Andrew Martin gave his support for the project.

Andrew, who is manager of coaching at the ECF, said: “There has been a great deal of work going into this project for quite some time.

“Even to get to this stage has been a mammoth undertaking, and now that it is under way, we obviously want to support this project to the full as we feel it’s a worthwhile thing to do.”

Addressing representatives from local schools, Andrew said: “We hope you will have a great deal of fun with your chess sets and that you will be able to encourage as many people as possible to play with them.”

The massive undertaking will take several years to complete, but Holloid Plastics aims to have phase one of the project finished by the end of the 2009/2010 academic year.

The company estimates between 9,000 and 10,000 schools will have received their chess sets by the end of July 2010, including several schools in Basingstoke.

To find out more about Chess for Schools, visit holloid-plastics.co.uk, which has a dedicated page about the project.