The impact of chess for education

American education has been in the dumpster since the 1970’s. How do we fix it? Chess could provide a start point!
by Mark Vogl
Wednesday, August 28, 2013

Want to teach your child to think? Teach them chess at a young age…and have annual school chess championships for all grades.

Most people probably think that only smart people play chess. Well, the question is, is someone smarter because they play chess, or are only smart people drawn to chess?

I would pose that chess is a tool to develop analytical skills, ingenuity, self-confidence, and a number of other critical thinking skills.

Nope, I am no psychologist, have zero formal training in thinking. Of course there are a lot of people with those formal thinking skills degrees the result is; our nation is 17 trillion in debt, in two wars, have an anemic economy and entertainment solely based on sex and violence…so maybe those formal thinking skills taught to Harvard and Yale aren’t really improving anyone’s thinking!

If you are a chess player you know how the game may influence your thinking in business or learning. But if you are not, let’s review the ones that come immediately to my mind.

First, chess teaches that tools have particular purposes, advantages and limitations. You see there are six different type pieces on a chess board. Each of those pieces has a peculiar character. Each piece can do different things, and the weakest piece, the pawn can become the most powerful piece, the queen; an interesting learning point in and of itself. You see the rook, knight, bishop and King cannot become a queen…but a pawn…the lowly pawn can!

So it is learning the powers of each tool, and how to use them first by themselves, and then in combination with other tools which is the beginning of learning problem solving.

At its essence chess is about one’s brain, but not just his or her intellect. It’s also about decision making, your ability to work through problems, to think in advance, to see clearly the situation before you. Chess is about stark competition without excuse. There are no outside influencers, no umpires or officials who can change the outcome. The rules are relatively basic and simple. Changes in conditions, like time, are mutually agreed upon before the contest starts.

The great thing about chess is its economy. You don’t have to invest thousands of dollars into setting up problem solving situations. And chess doesn’t wear out. Quite the contrary, it is almost addictive.

I wonder if any study has ever been done on the effect of chess on IQ and intelligence, would not be hard to do. Select a number of elementary schools in all economic and ethnic groups and make an effort to teach chess to all the students and integrate it into the academic program for at least three or four consecutive years. And then measure! Wouldn’t cost much, but if the results were anywhere near what I think they would be…we would take great strides towards creating engineers, scientists, etc. And you might actually discover hidden intellects that might never surface, except for the competitive nature of chess.

One thing. This can’t be a voluntary thing. It already is. No I am talking about teaching chess as a class, like you teach reading and math. But, the grades would come from the competition amongst the students. All students who learned to play should get a C, but then you divide up the grades above the C through the student’s performance on the chess battlefield amongst their peers.

One last thing, chess is NOT the end all IQ test. It is more a tool to light a fire in the mind then it is an evaluation tool of pure intellect.

Anyway, want to play … pawn to king four.

Source: http://www.nolanchart.com/article10399-should-chess-be-taught-to-all-elementary-school-children.html