Why Play Chess?

No other game mirrors life as perfectly as chess: for success is dependent upon a strong work ethic, a persevering and resilient mind set, and the ability to solve complex problems independently. Full of nuance and awash in deception, competitive play humbles the proud, teaches restraint to the impulsive, and provides ample evidence to every player that a studious, purposeful, and resilient disposition is necessary for much success. Its primary benefit as an educational tool is that it lends itself to self-mastery--for mature play is characterized by the ability to manage multiple processes at once--and to bring focus and unity to the intellectual, emotional, and psychological domains. Of course, young people develop higher order thinking skills by engaging mentors in personally meaningful conversations about concrete and abstract ideas; and this type of meta-cognitive thinking ('thinking about thinking') is necessary in order for them to learn how to correctly interpret and communicate complex ideas. Chess play inspires just such a discourse in an authentic, student-centered context: for those who love the game naturally desire to play well!

Perhaps, no better tool is available to educators to help students teach themselves about the importance of monitoring and accepting responsibility for their own choices: for in chess, the consequence of choice is immediate; and this fact alone requires students to develop emotional self-control and learn to adapt successfully to unexpected outcomes. Moreover, improved playing prowess is invariably accompanied by a growing self-confidence. In this sense, chess not only inspires critical inquiry, it teaches students to embrace adversity and view failure as a temporary but necessary stage of growth. The dedicated student quickly learns that sound play is a consequence of methodical, purposeful learning, just as sound teaching is a product of methodical, purposeful instruction.

Certainly the old adage, "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him forever," suggests that teaching students how to learn (manage their own learning processes) is equally important as teaching specific skills and imparting specific knowledge. Therefore, the principal task of the chess instructor is to introduce chess as a legitimate course of academic study--to convince students that a structured and studious approach to the game results in inspired play--and that effective preparation is as much a consequence of learning the right things in the right order as playing winning chess is about making the right moves in the right order. Mature play is a product of mature cognitive function: those fully self-aware, intellectual acts that are the product of a complex mental process involving the faculties of perception, imagination, logic, and judgment.

Simply put, chess study and play improves cognitive function.