Are There Benefits to Teaching Chess in Schools?

Diagonales Abiertas published in Articles

2024-05-10 2021 words 10 minutes

Contents

In this article, we discuss the benefits of teaching chess in schools.

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Are There Benefits to Teaching Chess in Schools?

Throughout history, a range of skills and benefits that chess develops among players have been identified. These were taken for granted until research on the topic began. Currently, research has focused on the feasibility of teaching chess in schools with the primary aim of developing a series of skills transferable to other subjects or contexts.

First, we will outline the skills developed by chess players that are commonly accepted by players, coaches, and specialized literature. Then, we will briefly review the debate on whether chess should be part of the school curriculum. There are criticisms suggesting that teaching chess does not help develop skills in children and young people as expected. Finally, we will see how, despite this critical literature, the implementation of chess teaching remains as strong as ever, now with an emphasis on the preparation of teachers and the types of activities that help transfer these skills to other contexts.

13 Benefits of Playing Chess

We will draw on the work of Gülçin Karakuş (2023), who summarizes the skills and advantages of a chess player according to the literature on the subject, and we will briefly develop each one. Let’s begin. In general, these are:

Develops Tactical Skills. Tactics generally refer to actions or maneuvers executed to carry out a strategy in the short term. In chess, tactical skills, following the distinction from chess.com , refer to how good you are at seeing a combination of moves (usually 2 to 5 moves deep) with which you can gain some advantage.
Promotes Strategic Thinking. Strategy is a comprehensive plan or procedure to achieve long-term goals, taking into account context and broader objectives. In chess, strategy, following the same distinction from chess.com mentioned above, refers to the ability to formulate a good plan for a given position.
Enhances Analytical Thinking. Analytical thinking is a way of processing, analyzing, or breaking down information or a problem, identifying cause-and-effect relationships between each part of a whole, or making connections between two factors. A clear application of this in chess is when a player analyzes their tactical opportunities, calculating variations, identifying patterns, and evaluating the potential risks of each move.
Fosters Critical Thinking. Critical thinking is characterized by several elements: analyzing data, arguments, and claims; making judgments or evaluations; using inductive and deductive reasoning; decision-making or problem-solving; asking and answering clarifying questions; making conjectures and predictions; studying problems; and using prior knowledge. Moreover, information is considered only the starting point of critical thinking, not the end itself.

While tactics in chess are more closely linked to analytical thinking, strategy has a greater connection to critical thinking, given its broader implications in game development. It is not enough to analyze a sequence of tactical moves in isolation; the analysis must be more thorough, based on the overall strategy and a careful evaluation of the position. For example, a tactically plausible sequence might lead to disastrous strategic consequences, as it can overlook long-term positional weaknesses or allow counterattacks resulting in strategic disadvantages or the loss of the game.

Promotes Decision-Making. During a game, each player makes decisions based on a myriad of variables, such as the evaluation of their position on the board, the available alternatives, possible lines of play, the pressure they are under, the time they have left, their prior preparation, and many other factors.
Fosters Logical Thinking. Logic is the study of correct reasoning. The pragmatic nature of chess, i.e., decision-making leading to tangible results, allows players to constantly evaluate their reasoning and inferences systematically. It also helps them avoid repeating the same mistakes.
Promotes Planning and Execution of Plans. A chess player mentally prepares before a game, learns to think about strategy and methods to carry out their plans, develops a series of steps to be satisfactorily executed during the game, and finally, executes the plan.
Enhances Memory Development. This is perhaps one of the most evident benefits. Whether it’s openings, mid-game positions, or ways to win endgames with the available material, all these form part of a chess player’s repertoire, which they must memorize to use effectively during a game. Many players have their own methods for memorizing, often referred to as mnemonic strategies.
Improves Concentration. The game demands that players mentally focus on each move to keep track of the development, avoid losing pieces, steer clear of traps, calculate variations, or evaluate positional subtleties. As they advance in training and experience, players enhance their ability to maintain focus without getting distracted by the surroundings.
Promotes Imagination and Creativity. For instance, elite players often have coaches who specifically suggest novel ideas in certain openings or game developments, thinking outside the conventional or most accepted paths. Imagination and creativity are far from dead in chess. As soon as an opening veers into uncharted territory, the player decides whether to create imbalances on the board to gain an advantage, requiring them to imagine scenarios and create their own compositions.
Teaches Independent Thinking. In its classical form, chess is a one-on-one game, meaning you are alone with your ideas, feelings, thoughts, successes, and mistakes. While you converse with your opponent through moves on the board, you are responsible for your decisions during the game.
Instills Self-Motivation. Players strive to improve their rating, expand their opening repertoire, and win tournaments. As they progress, they experience a sense of satisfaction and achievement, fueling their desire to continue learning and improving their game.
Teaches that Success Rewards Hard Work. Beyond prizes and distinctions, the sensations following a victory are the most gratifying rewards for an individual after the mental effort exerted during the game and the prior preparation.

Before moving forward, it is worth noting that the cognitive foundations of chess skill—such as perception, memory, and problem-solving—are no longer in doubt. These aspects are well studied. Additionally, it is widely accepted that practice, not talent, is essential for performance at high levels.

The Benefits of Chess in Schools

Such has been the impact of chess on society that it is likely no other game is as closely associated with intellect. This association has led to attempts to incorporate chess into the daily education of students, starting as early as preschool. In this context, it has been said that chess:

Develops scientific ways of learning
Promotes mathematical thinking
Enhances the ability to interact
Fosters common sense
Encourages the use of intuition
Improves the ability to interpret events correctly
Enables the examination of individual differences in cognitive processes
Positively influences and develops personality and character (emotional regulation)
Can help detect behavioral disorders
Fosters socialization and communication
Develops the ability to recognize and remember complex patterns
Turns individuals into thoughtful, inquisitive, and judicious beings

Many studies have focused on the benefits chess provides in developing cognitive skills (mental abilities) and metacognitive skills (those that make us think about our own thinking) in students. Cognitive skills , according to the APA, are those involved in performing tasks related to perception, learning, memory, awareness, understanding, reasoning, judgment, intuition, and language. Metacognitive skills are those related to our awareness of our own cognitive processes, often including the conscious attempt to control them. Among metacognitive skills are planning, questioning, problem-solving, self-evaluation, goal-setting, concentration, reflection, and reading comprehension, among others.

Are Chess Players’ Skills Transferable to Other Contexts or Subjects?

What was traditionally accepted as truth in past research on the benefits of including chess in schools has now been critiqued by recent studies. Some of the earlier research dates back to the 20th century, while other studies are more recent. However, many do not meet the scientific standards currently required. Additionally, it has been found that the higher the level of expertise or competence in a domain, the more limited the transfer of skills becomes.

The critiques take various forms. On one hand, it is natural to assume that if the skills developed through chess practice are transferable to a school context, students would show an improvement in their cognitive abilities compared to those who do not receive chess lessons. However, the research results are inconsistent. In cases where students supposedly benefit from transferable chess skills, it has been criticized that the experimental design lacked at least a control group, and other potential biases may have affected the results.

On the other hand, a different critique reverses the argument, suggesting that playing chess does not necessarily help develop intellectual skills. Instead, it is possible that individuals with superior cognitive abilities are more likely to choose chess because it is an intellectual activity in which they can excel.

Following this line of reasoning, research has also been conducted on whether chess players possess special cognitive abilities—specifically, whether they are more intelligent than the general population. Although the results are mixed, it is generally accepted that chess grandmasters tend to perform better in general intelligence, particularly in fluid reasoning, tasks associated with complex information processing, processing speed or working speed, short-term memory, and numerical or mathematical thinking. Interestingly, no correlation was found between chess skill and visuospatial tasks or verbal ability.

The Competencies of the Teacher and How to Teach the Game

We have seen that research on the transferability of chess skills to other subjects does not yield positive results. Thus, the focus of the problem has shifted to the competencies of the teacher who teaches chess and the methods, didactic approaches, or activities designed to teach cognitive or academic skills.

In the words of Roberto Trinchero and Daniela Robasto, in How Chess Can Be a Cognitive Enhancement Tool? , “… the right research problem should be not whether chess practice improves or not cognitive/academic skills but which type of chess training is effective to enhance these skills.”

In their study, published in 2024, chess is used as a tool to develop metacognitive skills and create mental habits in students. For children aged 5 to 7, they designed activities with a giant floor chess set to progressively make children aware of their motor and sensory skills. For children aged 8 to 11, table chess activities had a metacognitive focus and aimed to foster systematic reflection on their behavior in the face of a specific problem on the board. For example, instead of asking for the best move, they were asked to reflect on the possible threats and opportunities that a move on the board might present.

The results were better for the children who participated in chess activities, both for psychomotor skills and metacognitive abilities.

Additionally, another article from 2024, written by two members of the National Pedagogical University of Armenia, emphasizes that research on the subject has neglected to include it within a specific educational or academic context and has not provided a scientific justification for it. Within this educational context, the competencies that the chess teacher must possess are essential. According to the authors, these competencies include not only cognitive skills but also communication, methodological, and personal skills.