Artwork by the talented Mike Magnan
Lessons from Chess
Jody Kerzman
5/23/2006
NBC TV – Bismarck, ND
Sorry, Candyland, Chutes and Ladders are some of the most popular board games for kids. But while those might be the most popular, don`t think your preschooler can`t handle something a little more complex. Many four and five year olds are able to understand games like checkers. Jody Kerzman`s son, Jacob, is one of those kids. So recently, Jody got Jacob a new game, one she doesn`t even know how to play.
Jody says Jake has always loved puzzles and board games. When he mastered the game of checkers earlier this year, grandpa decided his fifth birthday was the perfect time to introduce the game of chess.
Now, just three weeks later, he`s already mastered that game, too. Playing chess is helping Jake develop some very important life skills. On this day, Jake explains the rules of chess to child development expert Bridget Martel. Bridget explains why learning chess is so good for kids Jake`s age.
“It has children practice their logic and reasoning skills and their problem solving skills. Chess does that. It`s all about logic and reason and making a plan, a decision and developing a strategy,” says Bridget.
Skills that Jake will need for the rest of his life, because life is full of decisions and problems.
“When you have a problem you have a variety of solutions. You could give up, pass it onto someone or solve the problem in a variety of ways. Each solution has a reaction, whether it`s a consequence or the right answer to solve your problem,” explains Bridget.
And remember, winning isn`t everything. Kids can learn a lot from losing. Bridget says parents shouldn`t let kids win all the time. Kids need to know what it feels like to not be successful. It`s a feeling Jake experienced in this game. Jake realized he was trapped, even before his opponent did.
“If I move here, you`ll get me like this. If I move here, you`ll get me like this,” says Jake.
So while he lost the game, he`s already a winner in a much bigger game: the game of life.
The entire article can be read here.
Very good story!
Wonderful!
P.S. Can you please post instructions how to view the Olympiad games? We downloaded JAVA they want, and nothing changed. We have no problems with anything else on our PC, only seeing the Olympic games.
I don’t know about all these mind-improving claims of chess. I’m sure powers of concentration are improved if you begin getting into the game as a kid, and some logic skills as well. But, as an adult, most of chess becomes pattern recognition, doesn’t it, Susan? Perhaps the strategic component of chess continues to develop the mind, but chess is 99% tactics, and tactics is largely pattern recognition.
Learning anything new is good for the development of a child’s mind, the more complex the better. But I think further, deep, study of chess is simply to ingrain more patterns into the mind, and perhaps improve concentration/endurance. It may be more effective, strictly in terms of maximum mind-development, to move on and learn something new instead of spend your critical learning period concentrating on chess too deeply.
I imagine a learning curve, with all things, that climbs quickly at the beginning and plateaus as you get deeper into a subject. I would think that shifting to a new subject, a new learning curve, when you reach the beginning of the plateau, maximizes intellectual development.
I may be wrong. I’m no child psychologist. Mr. Polgar’s theory, of concentrating heavily on one thing, seemed to work well enough.
Chess is a game. there is no proof that intelligence is enhanced by playing chess or poker. for my part, chess playing is a great way to increase my powers of concentration as I get older. i hold that any game is useful to instruct life’s lessons on winning and losing-crtitical self-defense for a dog-eat-dog consumer driven United States. the best way to increase knowledge is to simply read a book, even one written about chess.