Chess for Education

Problem-solving, Critical Thinking, Decision Making, Concentration and IQ are all the elements needed to give a student the edge he or she needs to be better in all academic areas of education.

Problem-solving : Chess promotes efficient problem solving because success depends on the student's ability to fully assess a given game's problems as the game develops taking into account his own and opponent's strategy and drawing upon a collection of experience and prior knowledge. It has been shown that primary school students given chess education to support their curriculum, on the average display accelerated levels of cognitive development than those following the traditional curriculum.

Critical Thinking: A student of chess will not only analyze the situation on the chess board, but will draw upon a host of previous experiences and knowledge of the game to determine the best course of action. Scientific studies have shown that strong chessplayers use different techniques for memorizing, than non chess players.

Decision Making: A student of chess will learn to make thoughtfully considered, strategic decisions under pressure when he or she feels they are losing or the game is played with strict timing restrictions. Then they must resist pressure and make a logical decision to come out victorious. This same process is needed for effective exam performance. Studies show improved exam performance in chess players and advanced chess players in the ability of making tough and abstract decisions.

Concentration: In the age of computer games, television and Internet technology, educational experts have dreaded the lost of concentration levels in today's students. Although these things are great in some ways they have caused a decrease in classroom learning and exam performance. Educational researchers upon testing have shown that chess playing students show increase aptitude for concentration, patience and perseverance.

IQ: Chess has been shown to raise overall levels of intelligence among school children. An experiment entitled the Learning to Think Project, conducted in South America, demonstrated an increase of intelligence quotient among both male and female children after less than a year of studying chess. As a result of this experiment some countries formally adopted chess into their curriculum, most notably Venezuela in the early eighties with
widespread reports of success.