by Tim Hanke and Beatriz Marinello

In The Morals of Chess, Benjamin Franklin wrote:

The Game of Chess is not merely an idle amusement; several very valuable qualities of the mind, useful in the course of human life, are to be acquired and strengthened by it, so as to become habits ready on all occasions; for life is a kind of Chess, in which we have often points to gain, and competitors or adversaries to contend with, and in which there is a vast variety of good and ill events, that are, in some degree, the effect of prudence, or the want of it.

Chess has fascinated educators for generations as a pure intellectual activity that is not culture-bound. As a cross-cultural activity that appeals to people of all ages and both sexes, chess has the potential to be used in after-school programs, social clubs, senior centers?wherever people come together for education or recreation.

These days, chess is even being integrated into some school curricula: in the New Jersey public schools, in the Canadian Province of Quebec, and in a growing number of university campuses such as the University of Texas at Dallas (UTD) and the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC). Both of these universities offer academic scholarships to chessplayers, and UTD offers a graduate certificate program called “Chess in Education.”

Chess is versatile

Chess is interesting from many perspectives. It engages powers of reasoning, including calculation and visual-spatial reasoning, which is why chess has been such a popular object of study for scientists in the field of computer-based artificial intelligence. Chess also has been shown in studies to be an effective practical tool for teaching children to concentrate on a task?an important skill that often needs development. Studies in K?12 classrooms have shown a correlation between chess instruction and an increase in reading and other cognitive skills.

We must not forget that chess is also a game: a fun, competitive activity. Several non-scientific anecdotal reports in the media indicate that teaching chess to children, especially children in predominantly minority school districts, can increase the children?s self-confidence and self-esteem, leading to a general increase in the children?s overall school performance. Bob Cotter, an elementary school teacher in Indianapolis, took his team of inner-city kids to a national chess tournament. He reported that “After we won, the kids met the President, they traveled to Japan, and received all sorts of recognition.”1

A vignette

In an after-school chess program taught at the middle school level by one of the authors, one of the coolest and most rational chessplayers was a slim, self-contained girl about eleven years old, named Bernadette.
As in most chess classes and practically all chess tournaments, a large majority of the players were male. The chessplaying style of many of the boys was best described as rash optimism: they would play aggressive moves without thinking for long about the possible consequences, and hope for the best. The boys tended to “trash-talk” during their games, ridiculing the opponent and boasting about their own prospects.
But Bernadette thought before she moved. Watching her play, it was evident that she tried to work out a plan for her game. During her games she sat quietly, hardly ever speaking, except occasionally to express chagrin if something went wrong on the board. At the end of this article, we will return to Bernadette.

Chess teaches useful life skills

One or two studies suggest that chess skills are not transferable to tasks outside of chess, but these studies are narrowly defined. It is clear that we have few opportunities to play “king takes bishop” in our daily lives, and admittedly chess skill in itself does not automatically translate into financial rewards (except in chess tournaments!). Rather, as Benjamin Franklin wrote, chess is valuable because of the qualities of mind it promotes.

Here is a partial list of benefits that chess offers to educators and students:

Chess helps kids improve their concentration.

As a competitive activity, chess is very goal-oriented and rooted in the here-and-now. As such, it forces the player to pay attention and focus the mind. Children who learn to play chess have been observed to carry over improved habits of concentration to other activities. Beckie Levatino, mother of Elian, said, “Elian was having some problems in his Montessori school. I went to observe . . . and saw that he rushed through his activities, trying always to be the first one to finish. . . . We feel chess has helped him immeasurably, especially in learning how to slow down and concentrate on one thing.”2

Chess helps kids improve their academic performance.

For reasons not perfectly understood, children who are taught chess have been observed to raise their test scores in reading and math. Perhaps this is partly due to enhanced concentration ability. Also, chess has a strong element of visual-spatial reasoning, which relates to mathematics performance. “For young students, an independent study in Pennsylvania showed that those involved in chess classes improved their standardized test results by 17.3%, compared with only 4.56% for students participating in other activities.”3

Chess teaches kids to appreciate cause-and-effect and to develop a variety of reasoning skills.

Chess offers immediate feedback on the quality of decision making, in a relatively innocuous setting. Kingdoms may topple on the chessboard, but the players risk only a temporary blow to the ego! Math teacher and chess-club sponsor Jan Brandt, a Richmond, Virginia, mother of four, describes chess as, “probably the best game there is for developing logical, precise thinking.” Pete Shaw, a computer science teacher, has taught hundreds of kids in Pulaski, Virginia, to play chess. “It?s like turning on switches in their heads. You feel as though you can watch the brain working through a window. The game demands both inductive and deductive reasoning. You see the kid looking at a problem, breaking it down, and putting it back together. The process involves recall, analysis, judgment and abstract reasoning.”4

Chess helps kids become more self-confident.

Kids who learn to play chess gain confidence as they feel themselves gaining more control over the game environment. Confidence, as educators know, is the most transferable skill of all! According to Jeffrey Chesin, who teaches inner-city kids in Philadelphia, children do not have to be particularly bright to enjoy chess. “The majority of the kids I work with would be considered ?average.? Some are below average. But they get interested, and they work at it. Determination is definitely a factor.” Bob Cotter, the Indianapolis teacher, believes playing chess has helped his kids not only academically but socially: “For one thing, they see it doesn?t matter where you come from; if you set a goal and never lose sight of it, you can attain it.”5

Chess offers an intellectual model for developing expertise in any activity.

Advanced research suggests that chess expertise is acquired in two ways: (1) building up a database of knowledge; and (2) developing analytic skills. In Chessplayers? Thinking Revisited, Fernand Gobet argues for further research in this important realm, writing, “Even though each domain of expertise may have idiosyncratic properties, research on chess may help identify some of the potential conditions under which search, pattern recognition, or some combination of both, may be the best way to cope with the complexities of the environment.”

A vignette revisited

What about Bernadette, the 11-year-old girl who played chess with a coolness beyond her years? For the last session of the eight-week chess class, we organized students into two-person teams for a dramatic chess game played with giant pieces on a chessboard inlaid on the auditorium floor. Each two-person team took turns making their side?s moves, sharing the decision-making. Bernadette and her partner (another girl) could easily have become frustrated when their careful planning was thwarted by other teammates? decisions. Their side, “White,” lost many pieces and a victory by “Black” looked inevitable. However, the girls remained careful and attentive players, and did not despair. When their final turn came, they found an unlikely checkmate to steal the victory from their opponents.

Article reprinted from Connect (Vol.17 No.2, November/December, 2003)

Notes
1,2,4, and 5. The quotations were provided by Ann Graham in :”Chess Makes Kid Smart.”
3. Marcel Milat (2001). “The Role of Chess in Modern Education.” May be found on the Web CLICK HERE

Franklin, Benjamin. “The Morals of Chess.” On the Web CLICK HERE.

Copyright 2003 by Synergy Learning International, Inc. All rights reserved.

Tim Hanke – Tim was Vice President of Finance of the U.S. Chess Federation, author of many articles about chess, and has taught chess to children in after-school programs.
List all articles by Tim Hanke

Beatriz Marinello – Beatriz was the first woman President of the U.S. Chess Federation, a chess master, and a leading chess teacher of children.
List all articles by Beatriz Marinello

Chess: Ancient Game, Modern Learning Tool

GM Artur Yusupov training young talents in Apeldoorn (photo book cover by Fred Lucas)

Chess and Autism
Excerpt from ‘Developing Chess Talent’ by Karel and IM Merijn van Delft

Chess is a suitable sport for many children and adults with an Autism Spectrum Disorder. Scientific research on this subject is lacking, also on an international level. Experience indicates that chess stimulates social, emotional and cognitive development.

A new book, “Developing Chess Talent”, by Karel and IM Merijn van Delft, uses case histories to illustrate this assumption.

CLICK HERE TO READ  “CHESS AND AUTISM ARTICLE by KAREL van DELFT (Excerpts from Book) (PDF)

The following Press Release provides you with more information about this book….

PRESS RELEASE Book ‘Developing Chess Talent’

The book ‘Developing Chess Talent’ will be published in April 2010. The subtitle is ‘How to create a chess culture by coaching, training, organization and communication’.

Authors are Karel van Delft and IM Merijn van Delft. The foreword is by GM Artur Yusupov. The translation is by Peter Boel. Publisher is KVDC (Karel van Delft Communication), Apeldoorn, The Netherlands.

‘Developing Chess Talent’ is a translation of the Dutch book ‘Schaaktalent ontwikkelen’ (KVDC, 2008). Please find attached the contents, as well as an article about chess and autism contained in the book. These texts may be reprinted on the condition that the original authors and the source are credited. The picture may also be published (credits: www.fredlucas.eu).

A month before publication of ‘Developing Chess Talent’, a preview with contents, parts of the text, the foreword by GM Artur Yusupov and some pictures from inside the book will be made available.

The book can be ordered via Karel van Delft, karel@kvdc.nl. The price is 24,50 euros plus 3 euros for postage handling.

Merijn van Delft and Karel van Delft are both psychologists. They were co-founders of the Apeldoorn chess foundation SBSA, which has trained several Dutch youth champions. Merijn van Delft is a professional chess trainer, living in Hamburg, Germany. Karel van Delft is a freelance publicist, living in Apeldoorn, The Netherlands.

The attachments are in pdf. If you prefer, we can send you versions in Word.

Sincerely, Karel van Delft

In recognition of Marcel Duchamp: The Art of Chess exhibit currently on display at the Francis Naumann Gallery in New York City (Sept. 10th – Oct. 30th, 2009), we are running this article, previously published on our website in 2007.

Francis M. Naumann Fine Art, LLC
24 West 57th Street, Suite 305
New York, NY 10019
Tel: 212.582.3201

Gallery Hours:
Tuesday through Saturday
11:00 AM – 6:00 PM

Marcel Duchamp Article (Previously published on our website 2007)

“…I HAVE COME TO THE PERSONAL CONCLUSION THAT WHILE ALL ARTISTS ARE NOT CHESS PLAYERS, ALL CHESS PLAYERS ARE ARTISTS.” MARCEL DUCHAMP

BIOGRAPHY OF MARCEL DUCHAMP 1887-1968:

Henri-Robert-Marcel Duchamp was born July 28, 1887, near Blainville, France.

In 1904, he joined his artist brothers, Jacques Villon and Raymond Duchamp-Villon, in Paris, where he studied painting at the Academie Julian until 1905.

Duchamps early works were Post-Impressionist in style. He exhibited for the first time in 1909 at the Salon des Independants and the Salon d’ Automne in Paris.

His paintings of 1911 were directly related to Cubism but emphasized successive images of a single body in motion.

In 1912, he painted the definitive version of Nude Descending a Staircase; this was shown at the Salon de la Section d’Or of that same year and subsequently created great controversy at the Armory Show in New York in 1913.

Duchamps radical and iconoclastic ideas predated the founding of the Dada movement in Zurich in 1916.

By 1913, he had abandoned traditional painting and drawing for various experimental forms, including mechanical drawings, studies, and notations that would be incorporated in a major work, The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even (1915-23; also known as The Large Glass).

In 1914, Duchamp introduced his ready made common objects, sometimes altered, presented as works of art, which had a revolutionary impact upon many painters and sculptors.

In 1915, Duchamp traveled to New York, where his circle included Katherine Dreier and Man Ray, with whom he founded the Societe Anonyme in 1920, as well as Louise and Walter Arensberg, Francis Picabia, and other avant-garde figures.

After playing chess avidly for nine months in Buenos Aires, Duchamp returned to France in the summer of 1919 and associated with the Dada group in Paris.

In New York in 1920, he made his first motor-driven constructions and invented Rrose Slavy, his feminine alter ego.

Duchamp moved back to Paris in 1923 and seemed to have abandoned art for chess but in fact continued his artistic experiments.

From the mid-1930s, he collaborated with the Surrealists and participated in their exhibitions.

Duchamp settled permanently in New York in 1942 and became a United States citizen in 1955.

During the 1940s, he associated and exhibited with the Surrealist migrs in New York, and in 1946 began Etant donnes: 1. la chute d’eau 2. le gaz d’clairage, a major assemblage on which he worked secretly for the next 20 years.

He died October 2, 1968, in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France.

A PASSION FOR CHESS:

Marcel Duchamp had a lifelong passion for chess.

He once said “I am still a victim of chess. It has all the beauty of art – and much more. It cannot be commercialized. Chess is much purer than art in its social position.”

March 1952, Duchamp had given up painting in favor of chess thirty years before.

Marcel Duchamp played thousands of chess games, and he was known as a very strong Chess Master.

Duchamp’s creativity had a significant impact in art. One wonders how chess influenced his way of thinking and his views about art and creativity.

Duchamp once said:

“The chess pieces are the block alphabet which shapes thoughts; and these thoughts, although making a visual design on the chess-board, express their beauty abstractly, like a poem…. I have come to the personal conclusion that while all artists are not chess players, all chess players are artists.” Marcel Duchamp (1887-1968), French artist, address, Aug. 30, 1952, New York State Chess Association.

Duchamp was not only an avid chessplayer; he was also an active member of the chess community and made multiple contributions to chess, which will also made him a chess philanthropist.

THE MOVIE – PORTRAIT OF AN ARTIST: MARCEL DUCHAMP – A GAME OF CHESS (1963):

This movie is an interview segment with the French artist. Filmed in black-and-white, this interview was held at the Pasadena Art Museum in 1963. Duchamp discusses his theories on the game of chess, his expatriate status in America, and his decision to stop working after 1923.

A Teacher’s Guide

Developed by William Levy, Hopatcong Borough Schools (1986 – Hopatcong, New Jersey)

“Students who have shown prowess in chess and in the abstract thinking, intense concentration, problem solving, and mental strategy involved have shown themselves and their world that they are capable individuals who can be successful in an experience which requires them to use their minds.”

Teacher Guide: Introduction

There is a certain intellectual aura about chess. The game of chess is generally considered to be cerebral in tone, and is viewed as a game for scholars and geniuses. Most Americans think of chess as being extremely difficult to learn, to grasp, and to play.

The core of this program is to expose students who have had a history of academic learning problems and school failure to a positive and successful cognitive experience. By learning, grasping, and playing the very game which most of society perceives as so complex, the self-esteem of these youngsters can only improve. After a youngster has shown he or she is capable of understanding the nuances, the strategies, and the vocabulary of chess; after a youngster has effectively competed in chess with family sages and school “gifted and talented” opponents, he or she will not consider himself “stupid” again.

Once students have begun to show progress in their games, the intellectual mystique of chess is stressed as is the general public’s view of chess being so difficult to comprehend. Excercises and activities throughout this program, directly and subtly, reinforce the perspective that chess is a hard game to master, and if you have mastered it, you are most definitely special.

Although the central objective of this program is to promote self-esteem, quite obviously there is a close relationship between building a stronger self-image and improving academic outputs. Grasping a sophisticated game such as chess, which initially appears to be extremely difficult if not impossible to learn, creates a positive attitude, increased confidence, and a heightened sense of control. According to the research findings discussed in the Program Description, such experiences may very well be particularly significant for students who have difficulty achieving success in the regular academic areas. Students who have shown prowess in chess and in the abstract thinking, intense concentration, problem solving, and mental strategy involved have shown themselves and their world that they are capable individuals who can be successful in an experience which requires them to use their minds.

To Read Entire Article – Click Here.