5 Underrated Benefits of Chess in Education
When you hear ‘chess in education’, what comes to your mind?
Intelligence? Studious? Or maybe logic and creativity?
Recognizing its importance, the country of Armenia has made chess compulsory in schools. You study it like Maths, Science and other subjects.
A man of many talents, world champion, researcher, mathematician – Mikhail Botvinnik
And did you know about the 3 chess world champions, who were also renowned mathematicians?
Emmanuel Lasker, Max Euwe, and Mikhail Botvinnik.
Botvinnik even helped build algorithms that would later give birth to chess engines.
And he even co-authored reports on possible use cases of AI in managing the Soviet Union’s economy, all the way back in 1960s and 70s!
Enough to say there’s a clear positive connection between chess and education.
Now instead of sharing some obvious benefits(that you might have already read elsewhere), let’s talk about the underrated benefits of incorporating chess into education.
1. The ability to sit long hours and focus
For anyone who plays chess, it becomes almost natural overtime to sit in a place and focus for long hours. So what happens as a process?
One learns to concentrate and develop qualities like patience. Apply these qualities to studies, and it does wonders!
There are so many students who not just play chess well but also get good grades!
Sitting down and focusing well is one of the main reasons for that.
2.Promotes a growth mindset🙂
I hope you get the point.
Small decisions make a big difference.
Chess rewards hard work, dedication, and continuous learning. There’s always a higher level or as our founder, Kapil Lohana, says, “There’s always room for improvement!”
Building this growth mindset helps – not just in education but also in life!
3. Builds self-belief at an early age🙂
Can you tell a game where a 10-year-old can easily beat someone in their 20s or 30s?
In most physical sports, that doesn’t happen. Neither does it happen in business.
But chess is different. You often see young kids defeating opponents much older and bigger than them.
Chess draws from brain power, not experience.
Now for adults, this might not be a big deal. But for young children, it does wonders for their confidence.
It’s like planting the seed of self-belief at a young age – ‘You can achieve anything, regardless of your size, caste, gender, or religion!’
On his way to the GM title, Gukesh beat players much older & stronger
We see it firsthand when students in our academy perform well. It’s one of those moments that makes us feel like everything we’re doing here is worth it!
4. Teaches being a good sportsperson
Before and after every chess game, players shake hands, regardless of the result.
Before the game: Caruana and Carlsen shake hands
This teaches children no matter how badly they want to win against their opponent, they should be respectful towards them once the game is over.
It instills strong ethical values. There’s a reason why chess is called a gentleman’s game.
5. Gives multi-culture exposure🙂
For an average child, it’s hard to get exposure to a multicultural crowd. Not for the one who plays chess!
Since chess is simple to learn, it attracts players from all the countries of the world (around 190 countries play the game!).
There’s a good chance a child active on the chess scene will make friends from different cultures.
In fact, at our academy, we often host inter-academy tournaments so that students can not just get playing practice but also connect with others from different parts of the world – all of this from the comfort of their home or academy.
Imagine your child getting this exposure, plus all the incredible benefits of learning chess!
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