<p>Kasparov, 48, believes chess can fundamentally alter and improve student performance in every area, including reading and writing, math, even art.</p>
<p>“Chess is simple enough to learn quickly, complex enough to reward concentration, and uses a very broad skill set - creativity, calculation, visualization, research,” Kasparov says by e-mail from his home in Moscow. “There are now ample studies showing across the board improvement in classrooms where chess is taught.”</p>
<p>I was very involved in youth chess for some 10-15 years especially when the kids were in elementary and middle school. The people in the article touting its extended use clearly have vested interests and I can’t tell how much benefit that a widespread adoption will yield. A few areas that I felt it made a great impact among the serious club players were:
Confidence dealing with older kids/adults when elementary school kids participate in tournaments involving high schoolers or adults and stop getting intimidated.
Dealing with failure - Even the best of kids would have bad days, and hence had a lot of opportunity to experience lows and bouncing back.
Race relations - the performance of URMs and ORMs with similar levels of commitment was indistinguishable and the former members commanded as much respect as anyone else.<br>
Focus and concentration, primarily among those who attended tournments with longer matches.</p>
<p>I used to have chess evenings in a couple of schools where my kids went to, and my older two started a club in the local library, and the results were mixed - those who advanced to the levels of more serious competitions seemed to benefit; those who came only because their parents wanted them to (like my D2) or didn’t have any desire to get serious, didn’t get anything out of it other than a bit of social time. The surprising thing was those who really took it to the limit got only a small marginal return after a certain level - they practically all scaled back by late HS, and some were able to channel their skills into activities that had more tangible rewards.</p>
<p>I played a lot of chess as a youth. I have mixed feelings. Like golf, one learns a lot about oneself and one’s opponents. (Some of my opponents made the same mistakes over and over again … which pretty much turned out to be the way they lived their lives.) Chess will definitely help develop strategic skills … for those whose minds are oriented that way. Research, study and practice will make the player better … but hard work alone will not make a champion.</p>
<p>My biggest complaint about chess is that it’s a solitary endeavor. Life rarely is.</p>
<p>I played a lot of chess up until my late teens - played tournaments, read books, learned, examined old matches, etc. It can be very isolating; yes, you may have a peer group of similarly-minded people but a lot of people develop other interests as they move into their college years.</p>
<p>One of the favorite guys that I liked to study was Nimzovitch - a brilliant guy but he had mental health problems as did Bobby Fischer. I think that kids need social outlets too and that includes unscheduled and unprogrammed time where kids can just hang out and relax.</p>
<p>I’ve seen various benefits to videogames too where the landscape and teamwork can be far more socially expansive than the relatively limited landscape of the chessboard.</p>
<p>Two of my three kids played chess on the school “team” up until high school when the athletic sports occupied the same time slot they gave to chess in elementary school. They enjoyed it very much. I think it helps my kids understand strategy, personal responsibility and thinking ahead and critical thinking skills. My dad taught me and used to play with me when I was a little girl and according to standardized tests my critical thinking skills are quite good… I can’t help but wonder if there is a correlation.</p>
<p>My kids elementary school benefited from a chess in the schools program. Every kid in the school had a once a week chess lesson starting in second grade. Both my kids played in scholastic tournaments through out elementary school. One of the best lessons from chess that their teachers constantly emphasized is that you can learn more from losing a game than winning one. It’s impossible to know how they might have been different if they hadn’t had chess, but I felt like it developed their logical and spatial senses. For what it’s worth every year kids at our school would say math was their favorite subject in the yearbook.</p>
<p>I,too, have been involved with the “chess world” for almost 15 years, hence my screen name. So I had to reply to this post.</p>
<p>I have witnessed chess change kids lives. It would be great to institute in school, I ran two scholastic chess clubs, and assisted at the high school level.
(I’m not a good player, but enthused/ skilled enough to develop the kids to intermediate play)</p>
<p>The biggest problem is finding qualified people to teach chess, beyond the basics.</p>
<p>My husband has always loved Chess ( we named our 1st dog Chess) and he started teaching our son & dtr when they were 3. They both still play recreationally and with my husband online when they are at college. They both played in school clubs and local tournaments thru high school. They are both very good math & science students. My dtr played oboe very well also so there is the added benefit of music . I’ve always wondered what comes first the natural talent for these skills or the skills contributing to academic performance. I do believe the positive influence of learning from someone who loves the game and loves who they are playing doesn’t hurt although now DH does have to endure losing a bit more freq then when he & they were younger lol.</p>