Last month I
wrote about whether or not chess was good for schools. If you read that post (and I will put a link
at the bottom), you realize that I think chess definitely belongs in schools,
but it needs to be carefully monitored.
There are ways it can go astray.
Regardless of whether or not your school has a chess club, parents
should make sure their children are playing chess. Homeschoolers should be teaching it, even if
they have never played themselves – learn it together! I will give three reasons why this is true:
what it teaches, the wide open opportunities to play, and it’s lifelong nature.
First of
all, chess teaches logic, which directly impacts a child’s performance in
schools. Studies repeatedly confirm this
fact. Kids who play chess get better
grades; it’s that simple. What’s not
always mentioned is that chess is also teaching the ability to plan ahead,
which is important in academics and in life in general. Hand-in-hand with lessons on planning are
lessons on consequences. Often enough,
right behind that comes lessons in digging yourself out of a hole. (At least that’s true when I play!) All of these things exist just as much in the
classroom as they do in the game of chess.
| Dayton's Chess club is a landmark downtown. |
Secondly,
chess is a game that can be played anywhere.
Opponents are easy to find if you want to find them. An obvious possibility is the school. It’s so obvious I’ll move on. For those children who are homeschooled or do
not otherwise have school opponents, there are local chess clubs. Most small cities have a chess club; larger
cities may have several. They will be in
the phone book if nowhere else. Often a
club will have a Kids’ Night, in which children are the focus of play. They may even have some adult players
providing some casual coaching.
Libraries are increasingly involved with gaming, which is particularly
true for chess. Our local library in
Dayton has at least one chess night a month.
If the local
chess club or library isn’t an option, chess is one game that can be played
online very safely. They should be
monitored of course; I strongly believe in knowing where your kids are both in
the real world and in cyberspace. However,
chess is often played with no conversation between online opponents. There are sites exclusively provided for
children like http://www.chesskid.com/,
which is run by the people at chess.com.
This a very user friendly site that allows parental control. I play at chess.com, and I find the entire
experience to be easy and fun. There
isn’t any software or crazy connections, and games can be downloaded for study.
 |
| One of my boards is this old Tandy 1650, which is great! |
The third
reason to teach your child chess is that it is a lifelong activity. Chess is a lifestyle game, which means that it can become a major hobby by
itself, exclusive of other games. Bridge
and go are other lifestyle games. Magic the Gathering and poker are too,
but they can be much more expensive! In
any case, introducing your child to chess may give them something they enjoy
for the rest of their life.
Don’t worry
about equipment at first. A simple
dollar store chess set will do. So will
books out of the library, if you are on your own. As your child shows interest, it’s easy to
find more books at any reasonably sized book store. Nicer chess sets can be found all over the
internet, and tournament sets and boards are not expensive. The important thing is to make sure your child
is having fun. The learning is in the
play, not necessarily in the lecture.
It's Your Move!
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