The Chess Set - An Educational Tool?

Chess is more than a game, and although it is now technically a sport

, it's potential value is personal development, particularly with regards children's development is perhaps overlooked. Mind you although the focus of this article is 'children', hopefully we never truly grow and despite the saying, 'old dogs certainly can learn new tricks'.

Learning to play chess even at a lower to intermediate level can teach us things that can be difficult o get across using other methods. One instance of memory improvement is the memorizing of chess pieces, their moves, their power within the chess set, and how they can move across the board.

Place within the framework of a game, the memorizing of this set of interrelated facts becomes less of a task, almost implicit, whereas without context it would be merely a chore of recognition.

Although many games will help children develop at least a 'feel' for strategy, there is nothing like chess to facilitate an understanding of the implications of one's actions i.e. cause and effect. This is poignant because to play the game the player needs to be thinking several moves ahead.

This article does not purport to based on scientifically researched fact, and adopts a personal approach to the value of chess. As a child I was taught chess at an early age and although I've been lapse over recent years, the skill that I learned remained with me, and I thank my father for that (and for letting me win once in a while to keep me engaged in my learning - always learn from someone better that you!).

Whilst chess are been evident in some educational institutes they exist on an informal basis, and their promotion is probably somewhat lacking. Chess is a game, and therefore children will naturally gravitate towards it once they have overcome the barrier of all the rules that they must absorb - children are sponges, they are capable of absorbing more than you think, but it needs to be a gradual process.

Obviously there are links with music and mathematics, and music in terms of the internal processes that are required to play the game (linguistic and otherwise), but again if introduced as a game, there is an immediate 'hook' for children.

The 'potential downside' of chess is that it doe have a competitive element, and is not a 'team experience', however this is 'good' or 'bad' for children is another issue entirely, and not a point of discussion here.

In short, the chess set is potentially a powerful educational tool, and if adopted within educational institutes would most likely have a 'knock on effect' that would contribute to children's development in an 'holistic sense' leading to the improvement of overall grades and test results. Whilst the point of using a 'metric' of test results as a 'wedge' is perhaps cow-towing, sometimes an 'angle' must be used to convince the 'educational bean-counters'. One thing is sure though, if we don't try, we'll never know for sure either way.

by: Gary Brunswick

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