The return to school is approaching and our children will have to choose between the extracurricular activities that are offered in the educational center. Chess has become one of the sports that benefit children the most. Not only is it good for improving their attention, but it also helps them establish social relationships and communicate.
Chess is a classic game whose origin is in India. From there it spread to China and later to the whole world, which has always had great fans among adults and children. In the 15th century, the game spread throughout Europe and this European variety has been the most widely adopted by including elements such as the queen and the bishop. Since then chess has become a very popular discipline in all countries.
Adriana Salazar, the creator of the Chess in the Classroom program, explains the importance and benefits of children learning to play chess.
Concentration, learning, memory, improvement, planning … Several studies show that chess improves cognitive processes during the school stage. But what are the benefits of chess?
In this article, we recommend some interesting books about chess. It is a true mental gym that promotes your students’ concentration capacity, strategic thinking, fun, and cooperation in children from 3 to 12 years old and that allows working on many important aspects in mathematics but also boosting other cognitive and social.
Adriana Salazar is the creator of Chess in the Classroom – a chess program raised from multiple intelligences and within the ‘teaching for understanding’ that allows your students to exercise mathematical ability, social skills, memory, and analysis while having fun playing.
Benefits of chess: an interview with Adriana Salazar
Adriana Salazar is an International Chess Teacher from the International Chess Federation and she is a specialist in teaching chess to Early Childhood Education students, so her opinion and advice on chess should be listened to carefully. That is why we conducted a webinar with her that you can see below and, a little further down, you can read some questions about the benefits of chess for children and why you should incorporate it into your classroom.
Adriana, why do you think it is so important for children to play chess?
Learning chess helps students to structure their thinking, solve problems, think, make decisions, analyze, pay attention, concentrate, reinforce visual memory and perception
It also helps them to know how to plan and to be rigorous and orderly mentally. In addition, we always teach through multiple intelligences: with stories, the board, songs … In this way, students can learn chess in the way that is most comfortable for them.
What is Teaching for understanding in Chess in the Classroom?
It is one of the conceptual axes of Chess in the classroom since through this game and its learning, children apply what they have learned in each of the sessions in real life and in other areas.
What if you had to tell us some benefits that the program has for students?
It is not about teaching chess in a competitive way or for the simple fact of knowing how to play, but for the mental skills that are developed for other disciplines.
It is a mental gymnastics with values. Apparently, it is an individual game, but in “Chess in the Classroom”, we work it as a team and through cooperative work. It can bring parents and children together because it looks like an adult game.
What advice would you give the teaching team to use the method?
The first tip is to enjoy chess class, understand that it is an ancient game that is available to children and all teachers, be clear that in this method we try to give chess to children in a simple and fun way and that never It should be forgotten that the fundamental objective is to make chess a suitable setting for developing children’s mental abilities and forging values.
What values do you work with Chess in the classroom?
Respect for others, take responsibility for your own actions, take the consequences, respect the rules, learn to be courteous, to be tolerant… Children learn to persevere over and over again. It generates self-control because you cannot play without thinking, the plays must make sense. You can play fast but be analytical.
How is a Chess session in the classroom?
The structure is similar on all levels. What you need for the classroom is different every day, the classes are not alike. The teacher must know what to teach in each session. You can use the giant or the small board, need the computer, do teamwork …
In each session there are two or three activities: in the first, what is to be learned is introduced, in the second and third, what is being learned is practiced.
And if we talk about evaluation, how is it carried out in the program?
Yes, there is evaluation, but it is not only to measure, it is to improve. It is corrected at the moment, while the students practice so that they understand well the concepts that are introduced during the session. It is made by both children and teachers.
How did you come to create Chess in the Classroom?
It is the result of my experience as a chess player for twenty years, my profession as a graduate in Linguistics and Literature, and my work with preschool children since 1992 and with the students of my Chess School. The combination of this experience and the desire to put chess at the service of education as a resource to developmental abilities and forge values in children led me to build this method departing from the exclusive purposes of teaching chess solely for sporting competition.
None of this would have been possible without the help of the Missionary Daughters of the Holy Families of Nazareth Congregation and the M. Pilar Mas Foundation who supported this project unconditionally and constantly.
Not only in North and South America chess is becoming popular with both parents and children. It is becoming one of the major activities in many households across the globe ever since the Coronavirus pandemic derailed the world’s normal daily life.