[or_chess] Chess, the Game of Royalty, Is Now the Game of Grade Schoolers, Too

[Andrew Shor]

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/05/crosswords/chess/05chess.html

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October 5, 2005

Chess, the Game of Royalty, Is Now the Game of Grade Schoolers, Too
By DYLAN LOEB McCLAIN
Donna Boyer looked tentatively at the board in front of her then reached
out and pushed a pawn forward one square.

Her opponent, Barbara Colasante, responded immediately by pushing one of
her pawns to the eighth and final rank, thereby winning the pawn game, a
variation of regular chess.

"Yeah," Mrs. Colasante said, thrusting her arms in the air.

An hour earlier, Mrs. Boyer and Mrs. Colasante did not even know the
rules of chess. But as they sat in the library at Aldan Basics School in
Aldan, in suburban Philadelphia, one morning a week before classes
began, the two were learning to play so they could teach the game to
their third-grade students this year.

This fall, schools in Philadelphia, and in and around Tampa, Fla., have
added chess to second- and third-grade curriculums. In so doing, they
are joining schools in New York, Seattle, San Diego and Minneapolis. 

In Philadelphia, which has the seventh-largest school system in the
country, 18 of the city's 280 public schools have added chess to their
curriculums in a pilot program. About 4,000 students are getting chess
instruction this year, according to Marjorie Wuestner, executive
director of the school district's office of health, safety, physical
education and sports administration.

The goal, she said, is to have all second and third graders receiving
chess instruction by next year.

Paul G. Vallas, chief executive of the school system, said anecdotal
evidence showed that chess is a great educational tool. "Chess seems to
improve problem-solving skills," he said. "It improves discipline. It
improves memory. It certainly seems to improve mathematical skills."
Teaching chess, he added, is meant to enrich the curriculum, not replace
another subject.

The chess program being used in Philadelphia, the Tampa area, San Diego
and Seattle is called First Move and was created by America's Foundation
for Chess, a nonprofit organization started in Seattle in 2000.

First Move is intended for second and third graders. It uses an
interactive DVD and a series of exercises, like the pawn game, to
introduce children to the game.

In addition to focusing on rules and basic strategy, the program weaves
in the game's origins and includes math exercises based on its geometry.
To assist teachers, many of whom might have never played before, the
foundation hires experienced players to visit the school every two weeks
to help answer students' questions.

Earlier this year, the foundation asked the Northwest Regional
Educational Laboratory, a research and planning group, to evaluate the
design and effectiveness of First Move. The group reported that although
there had been problems carrying out the program, "nearly all of the
teachers reported that the program was what they expected and that the
First Move program has been a valuable use of their time."Amy R. Hicks,
who teaches second and third graders at John Stanford International
School in Seattle, has taught chess in her classrooms for two years, and
said that learning the game was beneficial for her students. "It teaches
problem solving, perseverance, being able to learn something new," Mrs.
Hicks said. It also teaches concepts of rank and file, horizontal,
vertical and diagonal.

The biggest problem, she said, was that some students already knew how
to play or learned it more quickly than their classmates. "It is not as
productive for them as for the others," she said. 

While teaching chess in the classroom is spreading, it is not a new
idea.

Chess-in-the-Schools, a nonprofit organization begun in New York in
1986, now holds classes in 120 public schools in the city, said Marley
Kaplan, the chief executive.

All the schools are part of the federal Title 1 program, which provides
money for districts where many children live in low-income homes.
Outside instructors hired by Chess-in-the-Schools work with more than
30,000 students, from elementary through high school grades, once a
week.

Chess was added to the curriculum at Hunter College Elementary School in
New York in 1981. All students from kindergarten through sixth grade
have an hour of chess instruction each week, said Sunil Weeramantry, a
master who has been the chess instructor at the school since the
program's inception. He said that he has also run programs in the White
Plains elementary schools since 1985, in the Greenburgh Central 7 School
District since 1996 and in New Rochelle since 1998.

The Burnsville school district near Minneapolis has had a chess program
for 17 years, said Brian Ribnick, a teacher in the district who
coordinates the program. Every fourth grader is taught chess for an hour
a day for one week. Some teachers liked the program so much, he said,
that they continue it after the week is over.

In Brownsville, Tex., chess is not taught in classes, but student
participation in tournaments has been partly or wholly financed by the
school district since 1995. In the 2004-5 school year, the district
allocated $400,000 to pay for chess activities, and more than 1,600
students, mostly at the elementary level, were part of the program.

For some students, the benefits of learning chess can also include
helping to pay for college. The United States Chess Federation lists a
number of colleges and universities offering scholarships focused on
chess players. For example, some scholarships cover tuition and fees for
four years at the University of Texas at Dallas and at the University of
Maryland, Baltimore County.

James A. Stallings, director of the chess program at the University of
Texas at Dallas, said the school began offering the scholarships 10
years ago to attract better students. Usually, there are 15 to 20
students on chess scholarships enrolled at any time at the university.

The HB Foundation, which runs chess programs for six schools in
Minneapolis, also offers college scholarships for students who excel in
tournaments.

Whatever intangible qualities learning chess may foster, it is one thing
to want to teach it and another to actually do it. To help teachers use
First Move, America's Foundation for Chess holds half-day workshops at
their schools. The workshops are run by Wendi Fischer, the scholastic
director of the foundation and a former high-school history teacher.

At Aldan, Mrs. Fischer came equipped with thick binders of lesson plans,
DVD's for each teacher, an audiovisual presentation and a seemingly
endless supply of enthusiasm.

Bouncing around the room as she went through the lessons, Mrs. Fischer,
who says she is not related to the former world chess champion Bobby
Fischer, did almost as much cheerleading as she did instruction.

Francine Johnson, who has been teaching for 24 years and is a
second-grade teacher at Aldan, was optimistic, if cautious, about the
program. She said: "I do think that it is going to be a good asset. But
I'm still a little uncomfortable because I come from ground zero in
terms of knowing anything about chess, and it is difficult."

Other teachers who have taken Mrs. Fischer's workshops were also nervous
about teaching chess. Anne Coletti, a second-grade teacher at Bardmoor
Elementary in Pinellas County near Tampa, said: "I don't like to teach
something I don't know. After going to the training, I felt that I could
definitely teach this. I liked the way that they had divided it into
sections."

As the Aldan workshop ended, Mrs. Fischer offered teachers reassurance.
"Don't worry, you'll get this," she said. "Remember, we covered half a
semester today. You'll be going much slower with your classes."