The pupils, aged 9 and 10, involved received 30 hours of chess lessons
over one academic year, following a standard chess class timetable with
trained chess tutors. "Chess may develop and nourish innate intelligence
but will not bestow ability," said Christopher McGovern, chairman of
the Campaign for Real Education. He called the latest research "a wake
up call for pushy parents who can make their child's life a misery by a
naive belief in educational miracles." But it is still beneficial:
"Children should play chess and listen to Mozart for pleasure and as
an antidote to the widespread addiction to digital technology and social
media sites."
The study reported this week in the news media is the first that was carried
out in England. Research in outher countries have shown an increase in academic
attainment for students playing chess. And it is certainly our experience
that chess playing children develop greater self-confidence and the ability
to think logically and strategically. But most of all: they learn to
concentrate.
This is especially telling during a development phase – seven to
twelve years – when the attention span is normally around ten seconds.
This we have tested by using longer and longer sentences, with subordinate
clauses, and measuring how long it takes a child to lose the thread and
turn away. At the same time it is deeply impressive to see a ten-year-old
playing in a chess club, staring at a board for three hours, fully concentrated
on a single task.
At ten my son Tommy (front right) played in
a local chess club, and in regional and national championships.
Tommy was trained by ChessBase programmer Matthias Feist, who was the
captain of their team. I would drop Tom at the club and after a few hours
drive back to pick him up. Usually I would find the lad staring at the board,
in deep concentration. He would glance up and shake his head – no,
not yet, I am busy.
This is Tommy two decades ago receiving lessons
from a visiting grandmaster you may or may not recognize. I told Jon Speelman
he must not let Tommy win, and he said "Of course not!" After
winning he gave the lad lessons.
And this is Tommy getting lessons from a visiting
Indian GM in our garden. They often played during breakfast, and I believe
the overall score was 29:1 in Anand's favour (Tommy flagged him once when
he was distracted).
I apologize for the quality of the pictures in this report. They were
produced on a strip of celluloid and a chemical process, before the invention
of photography – well, digital photography.
This is Tommy taking on the entire Deep Blue
team, Murray Campbell and Feng-hsiung Hsu, who were visiting us in Germany.
Tommy did not win the match – after all Murray is an IM.
At around thirteen Tommy discovered a different game, one that was just
as challenging to young mind that enjoys being strained. And also gave him
far better chances to earn a living in adulthood. The new game was programming,
and Tommy excelled at it. Today, just over 30, he is a high-class programmer.
When asked how he manages to do some of the extraordinary things he is known
for, like writing a full chess engine in 36 hours, he says: I learned to
concentrate, as a child, playing chess.
Well this is one of perhaps half a dozen cases I have witnessed. The English
study had 3,000 subjects, but it only looked at a few correlations: math,
science and English results. There is anecdotal evidence that playing chess
at an early age improves school results in general. If this is true I believe
that it is the result of one main factor: children learn to concentrate.
In whatever they do.
Tell us what you think, tell us if you have independent
experience in this area.
