Chess, a strategy board game, has been around for centuries. Chess is such a mental-skill game that it has even been classified as a “mind sport“. The educational benefits of playing chess are many and Chess is good for adults and children alike. Here are few reasons playing chess is considered to be good for your mind, as well as some chess sets for kids, and bit about learning to play chess. This post is sponsored by Grow Up Smart.
Benefits Of Playing Chess
Chess is a classic game of strategy and many believe playing chess makes kids smarter.
Educational Benefits Of Chess
Parents.com cites studies like that of educational psychologist Stuart Margulies, Ph.D., who “in 1996 found that elementary school students in Los Angeles and New York who played chess scored approximately 10 percentage points higher on reading tests than their peers who didn’t play. James M. Liptrap, a teacher and chess sponsor at Klein High School in Spring, TX, conducted a similar study in 1997. He found that fifth-graders who played chess scored 4.3 points higher on state reading assessments and 6.4 points higher on math tests than their non-chess-playing peers.” So numbers like that go along way to objectively being able to say that there are educational benefits of playing chess. Chess can help advance math and reading skills.
Improves Memory
Parents.com also points out that studies by Dianne Horgan, Ph.D., found that chess improves a child’s visual memory, attention span, and spatial-reasoning ability.
Improves Problem Solving
On the Johns Hopkins School of Education website, Wendi Fischer states that “Chess might just be the perfect teaching and learning tool.” She also says, “It’s not about Kings, Queens, and Rooks, but rather, quadrants and coordinates, thinking strategically and foreseeing consequences. It’s about lines and angles, weighing options and making decisions.” It is clear to see that chess is a useful tool to develop higher level thinking skills.
Builds Self-Confidence
However, the benefits of chess really go well beyond the educational benefits of playing chess. The benefits also include building self-confidence. Fischer further points out that chess levels the playing field as it crosses all socio-economic boundaries. It is a universal game and age, gender, ethnic background, religious affiliation, don’t matter when playing chess. In this way, everyone who is willing to put in the effort has a chance. And the more effort they put in, the more confident they will become.
Improves Planning Capabilities
Each chess move helps kids learn to plan ahead, evaluate alternatives, and use logic to make sound choices. Chess is all about thinking ahead, testing hypotheses, and learning by trial and error.
Improves Concentration (even for those with ADHD)
Chess is well known for improving concentration abilities as students play longer and learn more. This power of concentration is transferable to other areas of life as well.
One study by Dr.Badrie Mohammad Nour ElDaoua and Sara Ibrahim El-Shamieh which trained students with ADHD on playing chess concluded, “it is important for students to learn chess as it trains them to stay longer on task, control their actions, and maintain focus. Results also revealed an improvement in the concentration tasks and the listening language scores at the end of the intervention.”
Chess Sets For Kids
My son is 9 and he loves chess. He started in the Chess Club last year and he is loving it. The only thing is that he already surpassed my chess skills and my daughter’s chess skills so I found the perfect solution. Grow Up Smart has quality chess sets for kids and here’s the best part- they come with chess video lessons! These chess video lessons are perfect for teaching how to play chess for kids. They are all short and easy to follow and they proceed through the basics of chess board set up, the chess pieces and how they move, chess strategies, special rules, and ending the game.
The new GrowUpSmart Smart Tactics Chess Sets For Kids come with a 16″ folding board made from FSC® certified New Zealand pine wood with engraved number and letters along the edges. The chess men are easily stored inside the board and held in place by elastic straps.
How To Play Chess For Kids
The GrowUpSmart Smart Tactics Chess Sets For Kids come with a complementary video course “Learn How To Play Chess”, where you will learn everything you need to get started. The chess set comes in three different variants: Standard, Plus (all the features I just mentioned plus a handy travel bag) and Premium Editions (all the features I just mentioned plus the travel bag and extra chessmen).
I was provided with a GrowUpSmart Smart Tactics Chess Set and I put it away out of sight. My clever plan was to first use the videos to get myself and my daughter up to playing speed with my son. However, while I was doing just that, he found the chess board itself. He came to tell me and said, “Thanks for the epic chess board, Mom!” He is loving his new board. I found that the chess video lessons were useful in providing me with the basic knowledge I needed as a chess beginner.
I can tell you that when I watch my son play, I can see how far he has come in thinking ahead and planning out complex moves and countermoves. There is no question that I see the educational benefits of playing chess first hand with him. I give the GrowUpSmart chess sets for kids a huge thumbs up. The complimentary chess video lessons will be very useful for those wanting to learn how to play chess for kids.
GrowUpSmart Chess Sets Coupon Code
You can use coupon code FFB20PY to enjoy 20% off all GrowUpSmart products on Amazon.
Have you noticed any educational benefits of playing chess? Do your kids want to start playing chess?
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