Chess’s blocking in schools, while well intentioned,  achieved nothing but devastating students. It completely failed to achieve any short nor long term benefit.

 You see,  Chess (more specifically Lichess, the only free chess website w/ any functionality) is not only extremely popular, but is also generally  seen as quite beneficial. Studies show that students who played chess were 41 percent more likely to get A's, 86 percent more likely to be in advanced subjects, and  overall struggled less is school. So, blocking chess encourages students to “stay away” from chess, which is clearly counterproductive 

Also, now that Lichess has been completely  locked,  me, and countless other students, have felt  oppressed by  school, influencing us to focus during it less. 

 Even for the small chunk of students who may overuse Chess,  this block STILL barely does anything. Why? Well, where will those other now very irritated students go? That’s right: worse (and quite often, less enjoyable) websites by using Incognito or proxies.

So, it's blocking is a truly lose-lose situation for teachers, administrators, and students, that will only become worse as Chess becomes more popular.   

The only solution- for Lichess to be unblocked. And to do that, we NEED your signature and contributions.

Thanks for reading.