Last month I started teaching chess at an elementary school in Fairfax County as a way to connect to kids and their parents in a non-traditional church setting as well as passing along love for a game I’ve played since I was six. USA Today has an article on the growing movement to teach chess to children, and the difference that can make in young lives:
SCOTCH PLAINS, N.J. — Quiet, please The second- and third-graders at McGinn Elementary School are playing chess, which means they’re concentrating, which means they shouldn’t be interrupted.
Even so, Wendi Fischer can’t resist giving a compliment. “You’re really using your brain to think instead of your mouths,” she tells students as she walks from class to class.
Fischer, executive director of America’s Foundation for Chess, has become a celebrity among the elementary school set. Kids know her as the Chess Lady, the tiara-wearing medieval queen who hosts the chess lessons they watch each week on DVD. Although chess has long been a staple of after-school programs, the foundation aspires to bring chess into more classrooms through First Move.
The foundation, based in Bellevue, Wash., aims to expand First Move nationally and beyond. Launched in the 2004-05 academic year in 11 Seattle-area schools, the program last year reached more than 50,000 students in nearly 2,000 classrooms across 27 states, mostly by word of mouth. In 2008, Idaho became the first state to encourage public schools statewide to use the game as part of their curricula in second and third grades, and Maryland’s Senate education committee this month considered a similar proposal for its public schools. First Move can be found in Antigua, Kenya, Canada and Mexico, and Fischer’s group has been in talks with the education ministries of Norway and Denmark.
While First Move doesn’t claim to improve students’ test scores, some researchers have found chess can improve academic performance. A 1993 study, for example, found that a group of students in the New York program scored significantly higher on reading tests than a control group.
Fischer is not related to Bobby Fischer (nor am I, for those of you wondering–I used to get that all the time from opponents at tournaments), but has an obvious love for the game and for kids that shows up in this video:
Have chess in your local schools? No? Then how about contacting America’s Foundation for Chess here, and see what the Chess Lady can do for you.
March 31, 2011 at 9:19 am
What’s the highest rating you ever achieved, David?
March 31, 2011 at 9:28 am
For several years I was just over 1800, with the highest being 1816. I’ve slipped back a little lately, being at 1787 now, but could get back to Class A next time around. Are you a USCF player?
March 31, 2011 at 10:33 am
It’s been many, many moons ago since I’ve played tournament chess. I don’t think I ever reached “A” rating. I was a “B” if I recall. But I had a 1 1/2 – 1 1/2 record against experts!
It’s really fun to upset someone ranked much higher than you.
March 31, 2011 at 10:38 am
Oh, that it is. In my last tournament, the Virginia Seniors (incredible that I’m finally eligible for such things!), I drew two experts and a high A (1987). I lost in the last round to a “mere” 1920, but I was still on cloud nine from having played so evenly with such highly rated players. I also count among my triumphs draws I got against grandmaster Michael Rhode and senior master Michael Valvo (they were in simuls, but hey…). Some players think draws are for losers, but for me, draws against players who ought to squash you are enormous morale-boosters.
March 31, 2011 at 10:51 am
That’s pretty impressive.
Happily, chasing girls took me away from chess. That, and the fact that Kasparov lost to a computer (Deep Blue? Deep Thought?). That just irritated me. It probably shouldn’t have, but it did.
Plus Lasker wrote that Chess is to Go what High School Geometry is to Quantum Mechanics (or something to that effect) and I just released my competitive fires for the game after that.
I didn’t pick up Go, but now I like to occasionally play backgammon and home game tournaments of Texas Hold-Em.
I still have my clock, but hardly anybody around my neck of the woods plays speed chess.
April 5, 2011 at 9:37 am
Good post, I’ve been playing chess since I was five, never get bored of it.
August 23, 2011 at 9:46 pm
I am a Reformed Baptist Pastor and play a lot of chess too. I play on chess.com and at times chesscube. I had a chess blog but I am not sure if it is still up; my chess.com i.d. is “Romans920”; I am only 1500 online, which means over-the-board I am probably 1300 or so. Here is my theology quotes blog. http://www.118min.blogspot.com