Benefits of Chess

We face in our modern, splintered world not only a crisis in education, but more pointedly a crisis of understanding - of thought and of willingness to engage in thought. Thinking tools like chess, help our minds expand, grow comfortable with abstraction and learn to navigate complex systems. From the book The Immortal Game by David Shenk.

 Dauvergne - The Case for Chess as a Tool to Develop Our Children 6pp (2000)

 McDonald - Benefits of Chess in Education  104pp
 

 McDonald - Benefits of Incorporating Chess in School Curriculum 22 slide presentation

  O'Connell - Educational Benefits of Chess  4pp part of FIDE submission to UNESCO in 2010

 White Paper 2006 - Prepared by Right Move Election Campaign (2006)

 Academic Benefits of Chess - Turkish Chess Federation Article (presented to National Education Ministry in 2005)

 Academic Works in Chess -

Turkish Chess Federation Article (presented to National Education Ministry in 2005)
 Learning  - Contribution of Dr.Olgun Kulac to CIS in 2006 (Turin Congress of FIDE)

Literature and Research

 Prof.Dr.Howard Gardner - Multiple Intelligency   : Why does chess help improving human intelligency? MUST TO READ!!

Noir - Le Développement des habiletés cognitives de l'enfant par la pratique du jeu d'échecs (484pp, thèse doctorale, 2002) This is a web link to the University of Lyon, where you can read the paper on line ("consulter le document") or download it ("versions imprimables").

 Blanco - Chess and Cognitive Capacities (5p, paper presented at 2009 Turin conference).

Antiaging Researches on Neurology!

 Relation of Cognitive activity to risk of developing Alzheimer (Wilson's neurology)
American Academy of Neurology, 28 May 2008. R.S.Wilson (PhD); P.A.Scherr (PhD, ScD), J.A.Schnedier (MD), Y.Tang (PhD), P.A.Bennett (MD)


Mind Games May Trump Alzheimer's Study Cites Effects of Chess, Bridge
The Washington Post, Shankar Vedentam, 19 June 2003

 Knight's move thinking? Mild Cognitive impairment in a chess player (Neurocase)
H.A.Archer, J.M.Schott, J.Barnes, N.C.Fox, J.L.Holton, T.Revesz, L.Cipoletti, M.N.Rosser  26 Fabruary 2008

 Echec à Alzheimer (French!)

Par Leontxo Garcia

Teaching Materials

If you click on the Teaching Materials link, you will find more books and articles.

 A chess set for everyone  
This is an A4 sheet with board and pieces. You can print it out, stick it to some cardboard, then cut out the board and set (disc pieces). It could be a good project for an art class or similar. Some of you may think this is "too cheap" but I (ko) have tried it out on students here in France (the primary school kids loved it, while some 12-13 year olds, considered "difficult" were less overtly impressed, but I saw some of them using it). 

 Cummins - 0-1200 A Coaching Manual

This is the work of a teacher in the West of Ireland, Ron Cummins. It has been used successfully in clubs and schools around Galway. It contains many useful ideas. It was first published in 2009. 

 Kulac - Teacher's Guide - Year 1. This is a rough draft English translation of the book by Dr Olgun Kulaç that is used by more than 49.000 teachers in Turkish schools. 

It is freely available for use thanks to the Turkish Chess Federation, their main sponsor, Türkiye İş Bankası and the author, Dr Olgun Kulaç.

It is the cornerstone of a series which includes several class books.


 Kulac - Class Book Year 1
This is the Turkish language version. It is currently being translated into English.


Follow the Teaching Materials link above for more material