You may remember Christopher Curtis as head of maths at Frome College ? Well now he can count on what looks like being another successful profession - game inventor.

Combining his skills as a mathematician, a simple yet challenging concept with a sophisticated design, he has come up with what players are saying is a new world version of chess, just in time for a post-coronavirus world

Prometheus is lightening fast, quick to learn AND helps make maths fun.

It was inspired and came to the teacher in a dream, following his work up at Frome College during the time when the college expanded with a new one million pound wing. That Prometheus Centre, like his new game, combined the maths department with the drama department.

He explained: " The head at the time, Barry Bates asked would you help us spend an additional one per cent of the million pound build, on an arts project. That led me to some beautiful sculptures .. and then led me to the artist John Robinson who lived just 20 minutes from the college. We met, became friends and it was when I was climbing up the stairs to his studio that I saw a beautiful flame and straight away we had the name of the building, it was a perfect scenario."

The teacher commissioned the Prometheus flame statue which now stands in the College grounds in 2005 - fast forward to 2021 and sales of his invention are taking off.

He told us : " I was just thinking one day about about some pieces that were moving on a chess board... based on a number of corners and I was convinced that someone must have thought of this before, but they hadn't. I was told by the lawyers who patented the idea to keep quiet, because I had just discovered what they called the first alternative to the game of chess."

The futuristic fast paced game is already a hit and is being played in 11 countries across the globe

The strategy game has won fans at home, but also in schools and universities and Frome College, of course, now has a copy.

Some schools schedule the game alongside the chess club and it is already proving to have a positive impact on boosting wellbeing as well as overcoming maths anxiety.

The benefits to playing Prometheus are said to include:

Improving wellbeing and social activity for all ages

Sparking creativity

Promoting brain growth

Increasing problem solving skills

The team's aim is now to get the game into one in five homes across the UK - and from recent sales figures after only being launched in the last few weeks - they are well on track.

Mr Curtis said: " Chess is very complicated and it has been around for around 1,500 years, so we see this as chess for modern times and it brings such joy to people who play it.

" Why should you buy a set ? Because there is nothing like it. I think life is an adventure it would be a lovely present for anyone... when we first made it we knew it looked stunning, but when people started playing it something very special was happening. It not just about maths and geometry, it is about the elegance of the play, so its quite artistic, quite beautiful, bridging the gap between maths and the arts."

Mr Curtis concedes, very gently, that: " Perhaps many people in Somerset think that maths is not THEIR favourite subject. But that is because so many young children are pressured in maths and it brings so much anxiety. I hope Prometheus is as much about reducing maths anxiety as having fun. It is so quick to learn - you can learn to play the game in five minutes."

Prometheus, translated in Greek mythology as 'forethought' is based on the number of corners or vertices of dynamic play pieces and is easy to learn for seven years old plus . No two games are the same and games last for around fifteen or twenty minutes – much shorter than many games of chess. The mainstream version of Prometheus has a RRP of £34.95 of manufactured by Cartamundi, Ireland at their Waterford plant alongside one million Monopoly sets a week, can make 6,000 sets of Prometheus a week. You can buy it online HERE : The colour deluxe version has a RRP of £199 and the super deluxe version, made from zinc alloy as a premium has a RRP of £245.

Mr Curtis still teaches every day and he still enthuses about his favourite subject.

He told Nub News : " Maths continues to open doors and maths has given me amazing life options, so studying maths has been fantastic for me personally. But for so many children at such a young age, the pressures of maths have been so great.

" Hours of maths and English testing in Key stage 4 in year 11 - that is a lot of pressure.

"Maths can be rock and roll, inspiring and stimulating, and I found at Frome College that there are a lot of creative people who can teach maths really well and the maths team continues to be really strong.

Maths is still the most popular A level. The passion for learning that children have at an early age is something special and we must not extinguish that flame. I hope that Prometheus will go some way to nurturing that flame. "

Fun Fact

What you will NOT remember about Mr Curtis if you were at Frome College during his time there is any detentions - because in all those years he never handed one out. He says it was because he never needed to, that the pupils at Frome College were brilliant and attentive scholars and teaching them maths was a breeze.