Chess Helps Troubled Kids in School

An old board game is put to new uses in St. Louis, as The Wall Street Journal reports on Innovative Concept Academy.

Chess has been a part of after-school programs for at least 40 years, but mainly in the suburbs. In the last decade, it has exploded in popularity in urban areas as research showed that students who play chess do better on achievement exams, especially math.

Founded recently for troubled students by Juvenile Court Judge Jimmie Edwards, chess is a required part of the school’s curriculum.

The twice weekly chess classes are mandatory for most of the school’s 97 students and are an integral part of Mr. Edwards’s strategy to curb bad behavior and teach alternatives to violence. He knows that chess won’t solve all the behavior problems, but says it offers lessons about self-control and critical thinking.

“Most of my kids are impulsive, reactionary and they lash out without thinking through the consequences,” said Mr. Edwards, who walks the school’s halls almost daily. “Chess teaches them patience and teaches them that there are consequences to bad decisions.”

“In chess, you can lose your queen,” he added. “In life, you can lose your life.”

It’s an uplifting story of an old game put to new use.

UT-Brownsville Mixes Chess Mastery with Academics

The AP has a good story on the chess program at University of Texas – Brownsville. Brownsville is down in the Valley, and is the southern-most campus in the UT system. The chess program at UTB ranks among the elite in the country, with students participating in tournaments against others in better known schools. Last year, it was named Chess College of the Year.

The article highlights the story of Axel Bachmann, an 18 year old chess phenom recruited by the university and riding on a full chess scholarship. The Paraguayan immigrant has attained grandmaster status, an elite group of less than 1,000 players worldwide.

Chess program director Russell Harwood learned of Bachmann through another of UT-Brownsville’s top players, Daniel Fernandez. Fernandez met Bachmann through South American chess matches. UTB’s president offers a nice quote in the article:

“I understand the relationship of learning a game of great discipline and rigor like chess and learning,” said Juliet V. Garcia, UTB president. “It just makes sense when you have this pool of chess babies [in the Valley].”

Garcia said children in South Texas have tremendous potential for chess. The region has produced Fernando Spada and Fernando Mendez, the Brownsville boys to whom Garcia offered scholarships. …

It’s also a source of pride for a relatively young school in a far-flung locale. Last year the school’s team beat Yale and Stanford head-to-head and finished ahead of schools including Harvard, Duke, Northwestern and Johns Hopkins.

Anytime a game can offer kids a full scholarship to college, I’m all for it. Chess goes to show that thinking games can offer scholarships just as well as traditional sports games.

References:
Sherman, C. (2008, February 17). Brownsville school an unusual chess incubator. The Bryan-College Station Eagle, p. A9.