Subject: "Chess in Education Research" and for the professional chess fans.
Date: Thu, 10 Apr 2003 08:10 am
Subject: Chess and the related proven scientific facts extracted from research journals, books and related articles.
What will you learn?
1. How chess help the natural development of skills of problem solving, critical thinking, reasoned judgment, faster reading and grasp like precise patterns, and rational thinking? (especially during growing up ages of kids, teenagers and youths)
2.How GMs (Grand Masters) take actual chess positions and in an astonishing 5 seconds recognize a complex chess board position and decide on a successful move? How are the GM's able to give accurate, well thought out evaluations in so little time?
3. The links between mathematics and chess?
4. How chess improves the intuitive and imaginative skill sets?
5. The links between playing chess and faster improvements in cognitive skills, social skills of kids during their growing up ages? And how it help children and youngsters concentrating on a task for long periods of time?"
6. The anecdotes on the way chess teaches the value of hard work, concentration and commitment to children and youth?
7. Scholastic efforts to teach chess in schools of developed countries? (mainly
8. The research findings on the ways chess instill in young players a sense of self-confidence, self-worth, and how chess makes a child realize that he or she is responsible for his or her own actions and must accept its consequences?
9. Why were/are Russians the dominant figures in world chess?
10. How chess teach children to try their best to win, while accepting defeat with grace?
Chess is found as required curricula in nearly 30 countries (mostly developed countries).
Mathematicians have estimated that there are approximately 10^50 (Yes...50 zeros) possible unique games of chess playable. Thus chess will never become just a repetition of previously played moves even after many millions of years of human life in earth from now.
Also, Chess was part of the family, society and kingdoms of ancient
We can be happy with the fact that lots of Grand Masters and International Masters growing up in our generation in
Chess in Education Research:References,
1. "Chess in Education Research Summary", Dr. Robert Ferguson.
2. "Chess and Cognitive Development", 1974-76, Johan Christiaen, quoted in (B).
3. "Developing Critical and Creative Thinking Through Chess", 1979-83, Dr. Robert Ferguson
4. "The Effect of Chess on Reading Scores: District Nine Chess Program Second Year Report" Dr. Stuart Margulies Ph.D.
5. "Your Child's Intellect", Terrell Bell, 1982, pp.178-179.
6. "Chess Improves Academic Performance" Christine Palm, 1990.
7. "Chess and Education", John Artise.
8. "Chess Legislation", Rosalyn B. Katz.
9. "Check Mates",
10. "From Street Kids to Royal Knights", Jo Coudert, Readers Digest, June 1989.
11. "Editorial: Chess give hope for our youth", The Saratogian, March 12, 1991.
12. "Chess and Standard Test Scores", James M. Liptrap, in Chess Life, March 1998.
13. Chess' n Math Association,
14. Chess-in-the-Schools, research web page.
15. Long, Eleanor (1991). Secrets of the Grandmaster. Australian- Mathematics Journal, 2, 24-27.
16. Marjoram, D (1987). Chess and Gifted Children. Gifted Education- International, 5, n(1), 48-51.
17. Palm, Christine (1994). Scholastics: Chess Improves Academic Performance.
18. Seirawan, Yasser (1994). Scholastic Chess – Feel the Buzz? Inside Chess, 5, n(4), 3-4.
Topic-1: Rational thinking and Chess.
Anecdotes: (as in "Chess in Education Research Summary" , Dr.Robert Ferguson) The New York City Schools Chess Program included more than 3,000 inner-city children in more than 100 public schools between 1986 and 1990. Based on academic an anecdotal records only, Christine Palm writes that the Program has proven that:
-Chess dramatically improves a child's ability to think rationally.
-increases cognitive skills.
-improves children's communication skills and aptitude in recognizing patterns, therefore:
-results in higher grades, especially in English (or any language) and Maths studies.
-builds a sense of team spirit while emphasizing the ability of the individual.
-teaches the value of hard work, concentration and commitment.
-instills in young players a sense of self-confidence and self-worth.
-makes a child realize that he or she is responsible for his or her own actions and must accept their consequences.
-teaches children to try their best to win, while accepting defeat with grace.
-provides an intellectual, competitive forum.
-can become a child's most eagerly awaited school activity, dramatically improving attendance.
-allows girls to compete with boys on a non-threatening, socially acceptable plane.
-helps children make friends more easily because it provides an easy, safe forum for gathering and discussion.
-allows students and teachers to view each other in a more sympathetic way.
-provides children with a concrete, inexpensive and compelling way to rise above the deprivation and self-doubt which are so much a part of their lives.
Topic-2: Critical thinking and Chess, Evaluation process and Chess:
One of the essential goals of education is to teach children to think critically: students must learn to make reasoned judgments. According to all these researches, Chess is an excellent tool to demonstrate the theme of critical thinking. During a game a player must formulate a plan of attack or defense. The formulation of a plan entails that the player must not only reflect on how similar problems are solved (searching a database of previous knowledge) but also the player must perform a systematic checking of possible combinations of moves and then arrive at an evaluation of each line. The process is a mental exercise where pieces are envisioned to be moving from square to square and the player reflects on the characteristics of the position to finally produce a reasoned outcome (move).
This is precisely the definition of critical thinking. Watson-Glaser appraised the value of chess as a learning tool and showed overwhelmingly "that chess improved critical thinking skills more than the other methods of enrichment."
An important element of critical thinking in chess is the evaluation process where the strength of one's board-position is assessed. Beginners who play chess (and early computer chess-programs) place significant emphasis on material -- reasoning that "the player with more material will win by sheer numbers". If only chess was that simple:-)
Material plays a central role in winning a chess game but many more ideas are needed for a useful evaluation of a position on chess-board. More advanced players find a balance: included in their evaluation processes are the ideas of central control, pawn structure, material, space, maneuverability, king safety, initiative and development of pieces. The brain has internalized these values allowing the player to make a reasoned judgment of which particular themes are critical in evaluating his/her own position on chess-board.
Topic-3: Increased reading skills and Chess:
Dr. Stuart Margulies, a researcher for IBM, stated that he "conclusively proved that students who learnt chess enjoyed a significant increase in their reading ability". and he concluded chess develops cognitive and attention skills.
Furthermore, he quoted chess forces adolescents to visualize concepts and piece movement. This may allow for better visualization (interpretive) skills when reading.
Topic-4: Mathematics and Chess:
Q: Are there links between mathematics and chess?
According to the researches, chess players are often considered mathematically oriented and there are obvious similarities -- much like the study of mathematics -- as chess is a game of problem solving, evaluation, critical thinking, intuition and planning.
Studies have shown that students playing chess have increased problem solving skills over their peers. Researchers suggests that while students playing chess learn concepts through physical and visual stimuli and correlate these concepts to cognitive patterns, mathematics in the classroom usually involves only pure symbolic manipulation.
Thus there seems to be some evidence to suggest that chess acts as a sort of link in connecting form (symbolic) with understanding (physical and visual).
The mathematics curriculum in
Using this curriculum, the average problem-solving score of pupils in the province increased from 62% to 81%. The
The State of
Q: How can a player possibly make a decision as to which plan to choose with so many possible choices?
Answer: Even with complicated evaluative techniques, choosing the best plan can be very difficult (remember the Artificial Intelligence theory topics of "Heuristic Search" in Computer Science and Engineering research). The chess player must often must rely on 'intuition'.
The best chess players are often those who have an acute feel or intuition for which move is correct. This can be a useful tool in education. Intuition is generally undervalued in educational terms but can be a very useful tool in both problem solving and real life applications when the steps to solve a problem are not easily apparent.
Topic-5: Know-hows of Grand Masters of Chess game:
Adrian de Groot, a psychologist in the 1960's became very interested in the use of chess as an educational tool. He began studying the thinking behavior of chess players in
Initially De Groot assumed that the Grandmaster's superiority lay in their ability to organize well and to memorize concrete lines of play. What De Groot found was quite different:
Grandmasters did not rely on superior memory skills. Grandmasters were not any better at recalling randomly placed pieces than novice chess players were. It seemed that GM's were able to recognize familiar configurations, and associating them with appropriate moves and plans. Recent research in the late seventies and early eighties in the
Researchers concluded that meaningful knowledge is stored in memory in the form of networks and patterns, and these patterns provide the roots essential for recall. Thus the experts and GM players were able to remember and recognize chunks of information. In chess these chunks are visual representations in which particular configurations are recognized. These relate to and often cue prior successful responses or pattern responses. What is an involved long sequence of decision making of information for novices, is processed by experts in "one go".
and the research says - "It seems that other experts such as dancers, athletes and musicians operate mentally in much the same way. Responses are efficient and fast as understanding and experience are recognized and recalled in the essential structure of the activity".
And the decades of research all over the world conlcuded: It seems, chess players develop complex but efficient structures for memory storage and management.
Topic-6: Whats going on at goverment levels and national and international administrative levels in developed countries?
Former U.S. Secretary of Education, Terrell Bell, encourages knowledge of chess as a way to develop a preschooler's intellect and academic readiness.
Funding for chess activity is available under the "educate America Act" (Goals 2000), Public Law 103-227, Section 308.b.2.E.:
"Supporting innovative and proven methods of enhancing a teacher's ability to identify student learning needs and motivating students to develop higher order thinking skills, discipline, and creative resolution methods." The original wording of this section included "such as chess" and passed both houses of Congress.
Topic-7: Social habits and chess:
Reseachers found that many students social habits improved when playing chess. The game allows for students of dissimilar backgrounds to integrate with others. Many disadvantaged or special education students are becoming actively involved in chess programs as the value of chess as a social tool is further explored.
Jerome Fishman, Guidance Counselor,
" I like the aspect of socialization. You get into a friendly, competitive activity where no one gets hurt. Instead of two bodies slamming into each other like football, you have the meeting of two minds. Aside from developing cognitive skills, chess develops their social skills. It makes them feel they belong. The kids become better friends when after the game they analyze possible combinations."
Topic-8: "concentrating on a task for long periods of time and Chess"
Principal Jo Bruno ,
"In chess tournaments the child gets the opportunity of seeing more variety and diversity. There are kids who have more money than they have, but chess is a common denominator. They are all equal on the chessboard. I believe it is connected academically and to the intellectual development of children.
"I see the kids able to attend to something for more than an hour and a half. I am stunned. Some of them could not attend to things for more than 20 minutes. "Bruno brings up the important point that chess can focus kids into concentrating on a task for long periods of time".
Why is this?
The author believes that many adolescents find chess fun and exciting. This corresponds to the youths playing (learning) for long periods of time without distraction.
Topic-9: Scholastic efforts to teach chess in schools? (
Q: Where is chess education headed?
In the
Rosalyn Katz of
"An act concerning instruction in chess and supplementing Chapter 35 of Title 18A of the New Jersey Statutes. Be it enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey.
Q: Why are Russians the dominant figures in world chess?
A: The game of chess has been dominated by Russians for nearly 70 years. With the exception of Bobby Fischer who won the world championship in 1972 and relinquished it in 1975. and from 80s to end of 90s, it was again the Russians, World champions Karpov and Kasparov.
Chess has been part of the curriculum for most Russian schools for over 40 years. Adolescents were encouraged to play chess at a very early age to increase their problem solving and reasoning
skills. The gifted students were chosen and studied under the supervision of former world champion Mikhail Botvinnik.
as the Principal says: "It's the finest thing that ever happened to this school. ...chess makes a difference... what it has done for these children is simply beyond anything that I can describe." as he concludes.
Conclusion: Please start giving professional-chess training to your kid(s), younger brother(s), sister(s) or any human of your interest during the growing up age, if possible, starting from the age of 3 or 4.
Along with you also try to train self with chess practice atleast one or two hour(s) in a week or month with colleagues, friends and family like a fun way of improving the above listed skills of necessity of our professional times.
Best wishes,
Rajesh Sulabha
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