The four Enrich@ILT pupils came up with the idea after being introduced to chess last year.
After coming together with a proposal for the council, they were invited to pitch their idea during last month's Invercargill City Council (ICC) meeting where they received a positive reaction from councillors and the public gallery.
The proposal would see the chess set placed in Queens Park. The group had already sourced a chess set online.
Pupil Ben Richardson said they hoped the chess set would allow people to get into chess as much as they were.
He said it helped with problem-solving skills and was a great social activity.
Enrich@ILT teacher Marlene Campbell said the idea was part of the school's social action curriculum, in which pupils were encouraged to come up with an idea of benefit to the community and make it happen.
She said it was exciting the proposal had come so far.
''Pitching it to the council and getting invited to present was awesome for them. Since the council meeting, the council has been in contact to say there's a grant they can apply for. So I think they want to make it happen as well. So we'll keep working on it.''
An ICC spokeswoman said council had been in discussion with Enrich@ILT and would continue consulting them when school returned in February.
She said issues around project planning, logistics and funding would need to be worked through which would help the pupils learn about project management and local government.
Mrs Campbell said chess was reintroduced to the school last year and it had already had positive benefits for the pupils involved.
''We've used the game as a way for them to reflect on their decision making. So if you lost the game you could reflect on your decision making that screwed it up for you that time and how you can fix it for next time. It's a good vehicle for that. There's so many things that you can actually analyse through the game of chess.''
