Chess IS education

 

On October 20, in Astana, Kazakhstan, the world body for chess (FIDE) and the International School Chess Federation (ISCF) signed a Memorandum of Cooperation to jointly promote scholastic chess globally as per the deflation of 2026 as ‘The Year of Chess in Education.’ Accordingly, the two organisations will launch a series of international school team tournaments as the flagship event of the ‘Chess in education 2026’ programme.

Well, it’s not as though there’s been no chess in schools or ‘chess in education’ all these years. Kids even as young as just three years old have taken to chess for decades if not centuries. In Sri Lanka, the vast majority of active players are still in school. Schoolboys and schoolgirls have won the national title on numerous occasions, some as young as 12! In fact the national team, going back to the 1970s, always had one or more school going players. If you prefer a quantitative argument, consider the fact that over 27,000 kids take part in the age group tournaments organized by the Schools Chess Association. And that’s from all provinces, all districts and all educational zones! Sri Lanka boasts of the highest percentage of chess players in the region.

That said, the FIDE/ISCF move is timely and significant.  Today it is widely recognised that chess is not an extracurricular activity for schoolchildren. It is co-curricular for many reasons. Let’s consider.

Chess develops critical thinking. It is a game, certainly, and has all the attributes one associates with competition of any kind. And yet, it also trains students to assess situations, anticipate consequences and make informed and rational decisions, all of which are core aspects of analytical education.

Chess enhances problem-solving skills. Yes, every move offers a player a problem to be solved. So they assess options and pick the most effective way forward. That’s essentially what mathematical and scientific reasoning is all about.

Chess develops concentration and focus. The players have to demonstrate sustained attention and patience. They must learn to quell distraction of any and every kind. They have to reduce the dimensions of the universe to 64 squares and the innumerable permutations therein. Such traits invariably get applied in all classroom/learning environments, making for better learning and greater efficiency in the application of knowledge acquired.

Chess encourages strategic planning. Players have to think ahead, consider multiple move-sequences and also adapt to the unexpected, be it pleasant or unpleasant.

Chess encourages responsibility and accountability. Since every move has consequences, they have to live with the choices they make, reflect on thinking-errors, adjust preparation and correct flawed ways of thinking. They can’t pass the buck, so to speak.

Chess strengthens memory and cognitive capacity. It is a game where pattern-recognition plays an important role. It is a tactical game that boosts short and long term memory as well as general learning ability.

 

Chess promotes creativity and imagination. One has to visualise piece combinations and relevant squares for the pieces that make for a better position and thereby improve the chances of winning. The player has to then come up with strategies that can deliver the ‘visual’ that is desired. And here, imagination and innovation come into play. That’s ‘thinking outside the box’ long before they encounter the phrase in the classroom. That’s science and also the arts. It’s poetry.

Chess instills patience and resilience. Players have to cope with mistakes and continue to look for ways of recovery. They have to grind out wins from seemingly equal positions, pushing a tiny advantage, making it bigger incrementally until the aggregate yields a clear and winning edge. Takes time. Requires patience.

Chess supports mathematical and logical reasoning. There’s geometry involved. There’s pattern-recognition as mentioned above. There’s calculation too. In short the reinforcing of foundational STEM skills.

Chess helps bridge cultures and foster social learning. It is a universal language, in fact, and as such helps connect peoples across age, background and culture, fostering communication, respect and the worth of shared learning experiences.

One could add more.

Now, it is true that some of the above are not entirely absent in other sports. There’s problem-solving, analysis, patience, resilience and even geometry that can be  learned in rugby, cricket, soccer or any other sport. And yet, it would be quite a challenge to think of any discipline that requires players, especially children as young as 4 or 5, to ‘problem-solve’ for 3-4 hours at a stretch and sometimes 2-3 in a single day. 

Chess in education is an excellent idea. Chess in education is an old idea, yes. Chess IS education. That’s something educationists are fast learning and if Sri Lanka wishes to be ahead of the curve then it would be remarkable for the Ministry of Education to consider introducing chess to the formal curriculum. It’s a fun way of learning skills that will be with the learner for life. 

Let's extrapolate: since almost 300,000 kids unroll in grade one in a given year, just imagine what that number of young people armed with the above-mentioned skills could do for the country and the world 15-20 years down the road. Remember that the education system will continue to generate similar numbers every year thereafter.

Chess is education. It’s time we learned this.  

 

[This article was published in the Daily News under the weekly column title 'The Recurrent Thursday']

 

Malinda Seneviratne is a FIDE Instructor and a long-time mentor of chess players at his alma mater, Royal College. He was the Manager/Captain of the Sri Lanka team that won a category gold medal at the Tromso Olympiad in 2014.