Benefits of Chess for Kids

Many schools across Australia, Canada, Europe and the United States have been educating chess inside the classrooms. They are not particularly labeling chess as an extracurricular activity but rather as an educational subject. Since 20th century the Russians have conquered the world of chess. Why is it so? Perhaps, it’s for the reason that chess has been treated as an academic subject in majority of the schools in Russian for almost 50 years now.

There have been extensive anecdotal proofs that chess encourages intellectual growth in children. In 1991 and 1996, a famous educational psychiatrist Stuart Margulies, conducted researches on the possible effects of chess on a child’s reading skill. The studies proved that children, who joined in schools’ chess program, enhanced their scores on regular tests. The progress was even better for children whose first scores were low.

In 1990, a study confirmed in Texas that elementary pupils who joined in the chess club showed much improvement in mathematics and reading as they start to reach the third grade. Students who are also participating in the program are observed to improve a lot on standardized examination.

Why is chess very beneficial to many particularly to children? Chess has showed to develop or increase:

Math solving problems
Reading skills
Confidence
Tolerance
Sense of judgment
Critical thinking
Ability to recognize patterns
Concentration
Analytical skills

Actually the lists above are only some that you can expect to acquire from playing chess.

Majority of the schools and teachers of different countries, especially in the United States, are receiving the message and have started to introduce chess in the classrooms. Different schools’ chess clubs are also initiated primarily today that chess is considered one of the important academic subjects in schools.

Schools in the city of New York have been mainly helpful in establishing chess to different classroom. The effort has been organized and led by an academic, non-revenue organization named Chess in the Schools. The main aim of this organization is to enhance academic performance and develop self-confidence among the city public schools.

In 1986 the organization has been active in educating chess to more than students in the entire New York City. In the recent research of teachers who are involved in the programs 86% documented that chess has direct and constructive influences on their students.

In March of 2008, a newspaper had reported that the States of Idaho will be considered the first state of the U.S. to give a chess curriculum in the entire state. The curriculum will be given to all second and third grade pupils. In addition, Idaho is reported to have 40,000 second and third graders and the program is expected to allocate about $200,000. Just imagine how important chess must be to be allocated with such big amount.

Furthermore, many U.S. states have endorsed legislation which approves the establishment of chess in school curriculum. Specifically, New Jersey had conceded a bill allowing different educational boards to give chess lecture starting to the second graders. The bill said that:

• 1.Chess enhances strategic thinking abilities and promotes creative activity.

• 2.Chess can also enhance the ability of a child to recognize intricate patterns and thus excel both in Science and Math.

If politicians can only appreciate the significance of playing chess for kids, perhaps every child in every school in the entire country is already benefiting from playing chess.