This article was published few years ago in the Vancouver Sun. It's fun, and it can increase your IQ, too. That's what researchers say about chess - it helps make students smarter. Vice principal, Ron Langevin at Lord Tweedsmuir is an avid chess promoter. "I like what it does for kids" he says. "It teaches them concentration and gives them a mathematical problem they have to solve. Playing chess is a realistic way of looking at problem-solving. It's real life. The game keeps changing. There is no one to help you - you have to work it out yourself."
Research in 35 different countries over the past several decades has come to the conclusion that playing chess improves students thinking.
Educators point to statistics that say students who regularly play chess enjoy 20 per cent improvement in math marks, 15 per cent improvement in reading and 17 per cent increase in creativity.
Educators in both New Brunswick and Quebec feel chess is so important to brain development thay have incorporated the game into the curriculum teaching it during school time. So many educators believe in the power of chess that it is part of the curricula at thousands of schools in nearly 30 countries.
In Venezuela, researches found that boys and girls showed an increase in IQ after less than a year of chess. In New Brunswick, a three-year study found problem-solving scores increased as much as 81 per cent in students who received a chess-enriched math curriculum beginning in Grade 1.
Why does chess have such an impact? Different researchers have different ideas, but they say it creates a thinking process that breeds success. Students become accustomed to looking for more and different alternatives.
Chess exercises the brain in sequencing, goal setting, remembering, planning, focussing, concentration, self-discipline, and cause and effect.
.JPG)
