Why Chess For Kids?

2013-grade-level-event-featured-image-jpgWhy Chess for Kids?

 Googling “Why chess for kids” gets you over 7,000,000 hits. Here are few.

Chess has been shown to significantly raise reading scores according to a study done by Stuart Margulies  Ph. D in his research conducted in 1990 to 1992 in District 9 in New York City.I   This study is often quoted as the first scientific study of chess raising reading student reading scores.  Dr. Robert C. Ferguson writes in his article, Teachers Guide: Research and Benefits of Chess;  “During the 1995-1996 school year, two classrooms were selected in each of five schools. Students   (N = 112) were given instruction in chess and reasoning in one classroom in each school. Pupils in the  chess program obtained significantly higher reading scores at the end of the year. It should be noted that while students in the chess group took chess lessons, the control group (N = 127) had additional  classroom instruction in basic education. The control group teacher was free to use the “chess period”  any way he/she wanted, but the period was usually used for reading, math or social studies instruction.   The control groups thus had more reading instruction than the chess groups.  Even so, the chess groups did better on the reading post-test; therefore, the gains in the chess groups  were particularly impressive.


Researchers and educators have questioned what causes this growth. The Venezuelan study claimed:  “Chess develops a new form of thinking, and this exercise is what contributes to increase the  intelligence quotient.  More recent researchers speculate that it is the growth of new synaptic

connections. Chess promotes the growth of dendrites!    Why does chess have this impact?

Briefly, there appear to be at least seven significant factors:

1) Chess accommodates all modality strengths.


3) Chess offers immediate punishments and rewards for problem solving.

4) Chess creates a pattern orthinking system that, when used faithfully, breeds success. The chess playing students had become




6) A learning environmentorganized around games has a positive affect on students’ attitudes toward learning. This affective



mill.” “Laura Sherman writes that chess has immediate life benefits and is great for helping students with  attention deficit disorder. In the article linked below she announces s the publication of a new book to   come out in April 2012 titled Chess is Child’s Play, Teaching Techniques That Work.

Jerry Meyers writes that chess help students focus, visualize, learn to think ahead, weigh all the options,

Analyze concretely and juggle multiple consideration simultaneously. All of these skills are used in life

situation and are often hard to learn but students learn them automatically after extended months of

playing chess.

I http://www.givewell.org/files/Analysis/margulies.pdf

II http://www.quadcitychess.com/benefits_of_chess.html

III http://www.onlinechesslessons.net/2011/10/23/why-does-chess-make-kids-smarter/

IV http://www.chesskids.com/ckapg.pdf

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