Women vs men chess players

Chess research

This is an interesting read. Please click the above PDF link or visit this link:
Click HERE for the source link.

From this document and research: Female players outperformed expectations when facing male players, across the whole range of rating differences. 

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Chess Music Maths and the Arts

Digital Time – Boldriaan [schaakkunst.nl]

Ballet dancers – Irma Stern

Flowerseller – Irma Stern

 

The Hunt – Irma Stern

Chess is an art. Chess is a science. Chess is music.  Chess is a game. Chess is cool. Chess is fun. Chess is Chess! There are always people ‘arguing’ about what Chess actually is and I really find these ‘conversations’ [if you can call it a conversation] really boring. I think it’s mainly bored people on chess sites just wasting time around topics like these. The same with ‘men are better than women’ – also one of the most boring topics. Can Chess players not have more intelligent conversations in the Chess forums than these boring topics? – or is it just me in a ‘mood’.[haha]

Here’s some musical fun!  Click on this link for the  FUN  and enjoy! The link will open in a new window and you need to use your mouse to click the rain drops and you create your own melody too.

From a document found on the US Chess_trust site, I’ve copied a few paragraphs, but once again, this is just another ‘confirmation’ of what I’ve said in many entries on my blog before. So much evidence is available – research done by many people in the past and you will find plenty of documents on my blog to support it – to prove the benefits of chess for children and their learning. These quoted paragraphs are just a tiny drop in the bucket of all the evidence available. Whilst it’s Easter Holiday, I feel to take time out to enjoy a ‘trip’ to some fine ‘art galleries’ and fine  ‘music theatres’ of the ‘world’ and would like to share with you Irma Stern’s art. I’ve found you some info about Irma Stern on Wikipedia and her house [now an art gallery-museum]-link can be found near the bottom of this entry too. The three music files are some of my favourite music and it’s by Waldo de los Rios [and his orchestra] and you can read about the Toy Symphony on my blog on the link at the bottom of the entry. [copy/paste the link in your browser]. These files are not complete files – as you will notice. I hope you can hear the clock – at the start of the first file. Haydn’s ‘Clock’. [Turn the volume up if you don’t hear the clock] Lastly, I had to add a file from Mantovani and his orchestra: Elizabeth Serenade

She was born in Schweitzer-Renecke, a small town in the Transvaal, of German-Jewish parents. Her father was interned in a concentration camp by the British during the South African War because of his pro-Boer leanings.[1] Irma and her younger brother, Rudi, were thus taken to Cape Town by their mother. After the war, the family returned to Germany and constant travel. This travel would influence Irma’s work.

In 1913 Stern studied art in Germany at the Weimar Academy, in 1914 at the Levin-Funcke Studio and notably from 1917 with Max Pechstein, a founder of the Novembergruppe. Stern was associated with the German Expressionist painters of this period. She held her first exhibition in Berlin in 1919. In 1920 Stern returned to Cape Town with her family where she was first derided and dismissed as an artist before becoming an established artist by the 1940s.

In 1926 she married Dr Johannes Prinz her former tutor, who subsequently became professor of German at the University of Cape Town. They were divorced in 1934.

Irma Stern travelled extensively in Europe and explored Southern Africa, Zanzibar and the Congo region. These trips provided a wide range of subject matter for her paintings and gave her opportunities to acquire and assemble an eclectic collection of artifacts for her home. Stern was to travel extensively in her lifetime: in 1930 to Madeira, in 1937 and 1938 to Dakar, Senegal, 1939 Zanzibar, 1942 Congo, 1945 Zanzibar, 1946 Central Africa, 1952 Madeira, 1955 Congo, 1960 Spain and 1963 France. Stern travelled extensively in South Africa, for example in 1926 to Swaziland and Pondoland, in 1933 to Namaqaland, in 1936 generally, and in 1941 to the Eastern Cape. In 1931 she visited Madeira and Dakar, Senegal, in 1937 and 1938. Irma Stern refused to either travel or exhibit in Germany during the period 1933 – 1945. Instead, she undertook several exotic journeys into Africa; going to Zanzibar twice in 1939 and 1945 and then planned three trips to the Congo region in 1942, 1946 and 1955. These expeditions resulted in a wealth of artistic creativity and energy as well as the publication of two illustrated journals; Congo published in 1943 and Zanzibar in 1948.

Almost one hundred solo exhibitions were held during her lifetime both in South Africa and Europe: including Germany, France, Italy and England. Although accepted in Europe, her work was unappreciated at first in South Africa where critics derided her early exhibitionsin the 1920s with reviews titled “Art of Miss Irma Stern – Ugliness as a cult”.

The Irma Stern Museum was established in 1971 and is the house the artist lived in for almost four decades. She moved into The Firs in Rondebosch in 1927 and lived there until her death. Several of the rooms are furnished as she arranged them while upstairs there is a commercial gallery used by contemporary South African artists.

On the 8th of May 2000, one of her works sold at Sotheby’s South Africa in Johannesburg for an all time record of R1.7 million.[2] This record was soon broken, however, and in March 2007 Stern’s work was sold for R6.6 million.[3] Stern’s Gladioli was sold for an all-time high of R13.3 million in October 2010[4], but was then followed by the sale of Bahora Girl for R26.7 million later that month[5] – both were also records for sales of South African art at the time.

Quote from the Chess document, you can find it at the end of the entry. It is a PDF document and will open in a new window.

Chess clearly is a problem-solving tool, an “ideal way to study decision-making and problemsolving because it is a closed system with clearly defined rules” (Horgan, 1988). When faced with a problem, the first step is to “analyze [it] in a preliminary and impressionistic way: sizing up the problem” (Horgan, 1988, p. 3), possibly looking for patterns or similarity to
previous experiences. “Similarity judgements may involve high levels of abstract reasoning” (Horgan, 1988, p. 3)

When faced with a problem, the first step is to “analyze [it] in a preliminary and impressionistic way: sizing up the problem” (Horgan, 1988, p. 3), possibly looking for patterns or similarity to previous experiences. “Similarity judgements may involve high levels of abstract reasoning”
(Horgan, 1988, p. 3). As in mathematics, which might be defined as the study of patterns, pattern recognition in chess is of prime importance in problem solving. After recognizing similarity and pattern, a global strategy can be developed to solve the problem. This involves generating alternatives, a creative process. A good chess player, like a good problem solver, has “acquired a vast number of interrelated schemata” (Horgan, 1988, p. 3), allowing for good alternatives to quickly and easily come to mind. These alternatives must then be evaluated, using a process of calculation known
as decision tree analysis, where the chess player/problem solver is calculating the desirability of future events based on the alternative being analyzed. Horgan (1988) found that “the calculation may go several to eight or ten moves ahead. This stage requires serious concentration and
memory abilities…[or]…visual imagery” (p.4).

The mathematics curriculum in New Brunswick, Canada, is a text series called “Challenging Mathematics” which uses chess to teach logic from grades 2 to 7. Using this curriculum, the average problem-solving score of pupils in the province increased from 62% to 81%.

Click on the following link Why Chess to read more to convince yourself why Chess is so important for children to develop their thinking/reasoning skills at a young age.

http://www.irmasternmuseum.com/artist.htm

https://chessaleeinlondon.wordpress.com/2008/07/31/waldo-de-los-rios/

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Have you got what it takes…

Click on the image for a larger view

I had no intention to blog about what you’re going to read in this post. My intention was to blog about the type of chess player you might be – do you see yourself in one of the photos in the above image? –  and to put the question to you: What kind of chess player are you? Do you think carefully about your move…do you make the move instantly?…Are you a careless player? There are many more questions I could have asked you – I think you know them all. Maybe the picture ties in- in some way – with what I’ve found and which I want to share with you.

In my SEARCH  I came across this link and thought to add the information- for readers who haven’t read it before or haven’t read something similar on my blog before. The next question is: Have you got what it takes to be a chess player? [a serious chess player – I might add] Even children sometimes turn up in large groups very eager to play/learn and then discover that chess is actually not for them – or not what they thought it is all about. At the bottom of this entry you’ll find a link to an entry on my blog about Chess Personalities and a link to Brunel University about research they’ve done. Enjoy the reading from the above link quoted:

Traits of a Good Chess player
Quote of the Month: Not all highly intelligent people play chess well, and not everyone who plays chess well is highly intelligent (although if you ask them…!) A beginner often wonders if he has what it takes to become proficient at the Royal Game. The answer is that there are many aspects of intelligence and personality that correlate with the potential to become a good chess player. Almost everyone realizes that a lot of hard work will be necessary to climb the ladder of chess success, and few want to put in many hours of work with little prospects for reward. Knowing that you have some of the requisite talents is always helpful in keeping up your spirits. Several lists of applicable chess traits have been published, so I thought it would be fun to give it a Novice Nook spin. I have separated the traits into four groups:
“IQ” Aspects
Physical Traits
Personality Traits
Emotional Traits
…but there is quite a bit of overlap, so these are really just rough groupings. “IQ” Aspects
Memory – The ability to remember things is certainly a “no-brainer”, insofar as being helpful for chess. First there is the obvious ability to retain more chess patterns and what you know about them, including opening and endgame knowledge, tactical positions and ideas, positional maneuvers. In addition, there is also everything else you “know” about chess – including guidelines, how to handle a six-hour World Open game, and the information in Novice Nook. The better the memory, the better you can store the information and retrieve it quickly and accurately. It is also well documented that memory is not as sharp when you get older, so age does degrade this ability. Note: “Knowledge” is not an ability, but it is the information you retain better with a good memory. It is also worth noting that knowledge is not correlated one-to-one with your playing strength; for example, a player who reads more books and retains more knowledge is not always better than one who has read much less. As one of my chess friends once said, “Never confuse ignorance with stupidity” – the corollary being “Never confuse knowledge with intelligence.”

Spatial Relationships – I call the special vision which enables one to
understand what is happening on a chessboard “Board Vision”. But the
general ability to process spatial relationships is more than just that chessspecific skill; it is the capability to see and/or imagine what is happening in two or three dimensions. An example of how this is tested would be the type of IQ test question where they show you an unfolded cube and you are asked to fold it in your head and select which of four folded cubes could be created from the fold. The ability to visualize geometric patterns is valuable in chess when you are trying to look ahead and imagine a possibly occurring position. An example of an error using this ability would be a “retained image” – when you fail to see that a piece has moved off its square and you visualize it doing something on a later move when, in fact, if that line were actually played that piece would no longer be there!

Deductive Logic – This is the “If A implies B and B implies C, then A
implies C” type of logic. In chess you need deductive logic to figure out what
is forced and what is not. For example, during analysis of a position you need to be able to look at a move and deduce something like “Because of so-and so, if my opponent does not stop my killer move (or whatever), then I can do this, so he must make move A or move B to prevent it or else I win.” A common deductive error would be assuming your opponent will make a move that you think is forced when in fact another move is better. Of all the skills in chess, I believe that this one is perhaps the most popularly recognized by the general public. Your deductive logic is another part of the thinking process that slows as you get older.

Physical Traits
Concentration – Playing chess correctly requires a lot of thought(!) The
better able you are to concentrate and focus your thoughts on the task at hand, the better. If your mind is wandering – even thinking about a mistake you made earlier in the game – that can only hurt you. Lack of concentration
detracts from your ability to perform from the task at hand, which is usually
finding the best move in the current position within the given time available.

Stamina – This is the physical ability to sit and play without excessive
tiredness or fatigue throughout not just a long game, but possibly even a long series of games in a tournament or match. One of the problems older players have is lack of stamina; they get tired more easily. You can increase your stamina by eating and drinking correctly before and during a long game, getting proper rest, and entering the event in good shape. That is why it is helpful to have an aerobic sport, like tennis, jogging, or swimming, to
augment your chess lifestyle – these are beneficial for your non-chess
welfare, too!

Nerves – In the course of chess history, it has been stated about several toplevel grandmasters that were not serious World Champion candidates because they did not have the nerves for top-level play. Playing chess for fun is one thing, but playing for your livelihood – or your place in history – is quite another. It requires strong nerves to play chess at the highest level, but having “bad nerves” affects your play negatively at any level.

Personality Traits
Carefulness – Of all the traits that make for a good chess player, one of the
most important is the ability to take your time on each move and try to find
the best one. And of the personality traits that support this ability, being
careful is the key trait. Interestingly, one can be too careful and, in that case,
you may even be afraid to move for fear of making a mistake. This fear
inevitably leads to time trouble, requiring fast moves and resulting in even
bigger mistakes than the ones you had been avoiding by taking 12 minutes
instead of 6. Therefore, the best chess players are the ones that are careful, but not pathologically so. It should be noted that players who are not naturally careful in life can learn to be careful in chess! I have seen several players who were able to overcome their natural tendencies, but of course to do so one has to feel strongly that it is worth the special effort!

Caring – This trait is different than carefulness, and is actually more closely
related to some of the emotional traits below. You want to care about your
move, your result, your rating, and your reputation, but not too much. If you don’t care at all, you won’t work to improve it/them, and if you take these too personally then chess becomes too involved with your personal image and you will find it hard to take the necessary risks to play and improve.

Determination – This is one area in which I score well. I will not stop at
something until I get it right. My wife thinks I am a little nutty because I once took almost a year on the same tough cryptogram – I would not skip it or take a hint or look up the answer. She is right, of course, but that same
determination paid me good dividends when I wanted to become an expert, a master, and get my FIDE rating (back in the days when you had to have a
FIDE rating of at least 2205 to get one). One should differentiate game-time
determination to obtain the maximal outcome (“will to win” or “fighting
spirit”) with the longer-term career goal determination to do whatever it takes to become the best player you can. During a simultaneous exhibition at a local high school, I once met a student who, when he found out I was a chess master, said “Really? Wow! That’s cool. I live for chess.” I was a little
amazed by this pronouncement, so I said, “If you live for chess, then why
don’t you play in tournaments? For example, come a few miles down the road and play in some of the big events at the Adam’s Mark Hotel.” His
disappointing reply, “Oh no! I couldn’t possibly do that!” I guess that makes
him like a kid who lives for baseball but cannot possibly think of playing in
Little League! His answer was not a mark of determination!
Note: “Killer-instinct” is not the same as “fighting spirit”. Killer-instinct is an
intense desire to either beat down the opponent, or at least finish off a won
game. Good chess players seem to have either one of two special traits: killer
instinct or expert problem solvers. Without one of those two traits it is hard to have the determination and perseverance to play hard each move, game after game. I am more the problem solver type – I want to find the best move each and every time and I am not trying to wound my opponent’s ego.

Perseverance – This trait is similar to determination, but it represents not the will to do well, but the ability to carry on that will despite whatever
roadblocks are presented: lack of time to play and study, unexpected and
unnerving losses, the scepticism of others, etc. Again, there is short-term
game-time perseverance and the more common long-term career goal
perseverance. Surprisingly, I find a lot of students who have the
determination (otherwise they would not hire me as their chess coach), but
lack the perseverance – they want quicker results than is possible, get
discouraged at the inevitable setbacks, and cannot maintain their chess
determination for the years that are required to reach their lofty goals. Since
extensive chess progress can only be measured in years, it is not surprising
that many players cannot persevere in what it takes to maintain improvement over that time period. Note: I did not forget “Willpower”, but it is mostly contained within determination and perseverance.

Capability to overcome natural shortcomings for the good of your chess
play – This is a special type of trait which enables you to not dwell or be held
back by any shortcomings you have, but to be able to rise above them due to your strong desire to play well and improve. Almost every player thinks, “I’m not this or I am not that.” Everyone has shortcomings in one area or
another. No one has a great memory and great deductive logic and great
nerves and everything else – even the Fischers and Kasparovs are not perfect (but they are a lot closer than the rest of us!) However, some players let their concern about these shortcomings hold them back. Further, in some cases, these shortcomings can mostly be overcome by will. For example, suppose you are naturally impatient or not very careful. It still may be possible, when sitting down at the chessboard, to say to yourself, “OK, I am naturally impatient (or not careful), but if I am going to play good chess I have to take my time on every move and be very careful on every move or else I can let the game slip away just by that one bad move.” If you are able to say this to yourself, you may be able to overcome your natural impatience for the good of your game. Once you get in the habit of consistently practicing correctly, then it becomes easier and easier, despite any natural tendencies otherwise.

Confidence – Like many of these other traits, either extreme is bad: too much confidence is overconfidence, which often leads to carelessness, or lack of respect for the opponent. On the other hand, if you play with lack of
confidence your results will surely suffer. Chess is a mental sport, and one’s
lack of confidence often becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. Let me augment
this observation with a brief story: As a teenager I had a friend who played
regularly and studied chess diligently. For example, in the openings he
learned the English and the Caro-Kann. But in tournaments his low rated
opponents did not play into his study lines and he suffered from very poor
results, getting an 1100 rating based on several events. He then quit playing.
Ten years later he had not played nor picked up a chess book, but asked to
play in one of my invitational round robin tournaments, filled with players
rated 1300-1500. Despite not having played in a decade and being the lowest rated player, he finished in second place with a performance rating of almost 1700. I asked him how this was possible. He said that maturity made the difference – he no longer worried about what his opponents were doing and just enjoyed playing. Whereas before he doubted his ability and was affected by his opponent’s weird play, now he was confident that he could just play well and do the best he can. So the extra 500 points or so of playing strength was almost all due to his new-found confidence and lack of worry.

Awareness – A player who can keep his awareness and be cognizant of what
is important has a big advantage. For example, when an experienced player
starts to realize that the time is running short and time management is
becoming a bigger and bigger part of the play, he has an advantage over an
opponent who either is not as aware of the importance of this change, or is so but does not change his priorities. Similarly, being aware of possibilities, such as unexpected opponent blunders, or sudden changes in the phase of the game, is a distinct asset.

Flexibility – In a similar manner to awareness, flexibility of plan and action is a big asset. If you are not flexible enough to adapt to the change in state, then being aware of that state is not much use. It is also very important to be
flexible in your learning. This flexibility is related to the next trait, open-mindedness.
Open-Mindedness – The ability to listen and to consider new ideas (or
realize that the old ones you have are at least somewhat misbegotten), is very important. It is very difficult to learn if you “know” you are right or not open to new ideas, or possibilities of what you are doing wrong. A brilliant,
stubborn beginner probably will never get past the beginner stage since it will be very difficult to learn from his mistakes, even (or especially!) if they are pointed out to him. The good news is that in chess if you are not very openminded you tend to retard your own progress. Therefore, if you can recognize the cause of this lack of progress, it may jar you out of your complacency.

Emotional Traits
Ability to deal with losses as a learning tool – This is a very important
indicator of how good a chess player someone is going to become. Suppose a player take losses so hard and personally that you can’t speak to them and they don’t want to review or think about the game. Then not only will they not be able to optimally learn from those losses, but eventually the realization that they are going to lose thousands of games in order to become a good player will wear them down. At the other extreme we have someone who doesn’t care at all if they lose – they, like the tough loser, will also not review their games, because “it is just a game” and why should they spend effort to avoid repetition of their cause of defeat if it does not matter? These players are doomed to repeat their mistakes over and over and never get much better. The best outlook is somewhat in between: you cannot take your losses too personally but you have to be the type who vows never to lose the same way twice. A player who takes great interest in their shortcomings and studies them in such a way as to minimize the chance of recurrence will usually be much better than the players who are at each extreme.

Pride in your moves and your reputation – I think this trait is a little
underrated. Players who take pride in each move have an advantage over players who are don’t care that much about each move. These latter players are often surprised when I ask them about what considerations went into a particular move, as if to say “Why should you care? It is not that important to me” or “This is just a medium speed internet game – why should I try my best?” But almost all strong players share the concern that they put in the proper effort on each move (time permitting) and try to reach the correct decision, or at least do the best they can. Can you imagine Garry Kasparov annotating one of his games and writing, “I made this move without much thought – I really didn’t care if it was a good one or not”?!
Ability to deal with setbacks, bad moves – This is different than
perseverance, which enables you to maintain your will after setbacks of any type. Perseverance is therefore part of this trait, but not the only part. For example, the ability to maintain equanimity – not lose your cool – when things have gone wrong, is important. Players who get upset and let previous moves affect their judgment of the current move, or even think about the previous move instead the current move, are almost making a big mistake. Playing chess is fun – This is the most common trait shared by chess players. Humans who lack this trait may become good scientists, doctors, lawyers, engineers, golfers, bridge players, video game champions, businessmen, or whatever, but they won’t become good chess players. Studying chess is fun – This is the flip side of the previous trait: take random chess players at a chess club and hand them Capablanca’s Best Games and ask them to read it, a certain percentage will decline and the rest will gladly accept. The ones that accept almost always find that doing chess work is fun. Assuming they have not already read this book and that no extraneous factors are at work, the ones that decline usually like to play chess, but find the studying side tedious. When I work with beginning chess players of all ages, this is one of the first things I notice: everyone wants to get better, but only the ones who find doing the “work” side fun will ever have a chance of getting anywhere. No matter how much the others are determined to get better, they can never overcome the fact that doing the “unfun” work on a hobby like chess cannot last very long.

Coachability – Despite some fiction to the contrary, no one becomes really good at chess in isolation. Many factors, including some of the above, can contribute to this trait. A player might have many reasons they are less coachable: bad listening skills, stubbornness, know-it-all, doesn’t care enough, lack of maturity, or just believes that books alone can make him a great player. In any case, coachable players obviously have an advantage in the long run.

Conclusion
Next time you run into someone who says, “So-and-so is really smart – he would make a good chess player”, consider how well that person fits some of the above, “non-IQ” criteria. And how well did you score? If you were above average on most of the critical requirements, that may mean that you have a promising career ahead – assuming you are not damagingly low on a couple of others! A player is usually only as good as his weakest link will allow him to be.

Click HERE to read about Chess Personalities and research done by Brunel University. The link will open in a new window.

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Benefits of Chess in Education

This document- benefitsofchessinedscreen2 -has got all the information you’re looking for. The benefits of chess and also research that was done. The link will open in a new window.

CHESS IMPROVES ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE
Chess has long been recognized throughout the world as a builder of strong intellects, but only recently has the United States begun to recognize chess’s ability to improve the cognitive abilities, rational thinking and reasoning of even the least promising children. Chess brings out latent abilities that have not been reached by traditional educational means. It promotes logical thinking, instills a sense of selfconfidence, and self-worth, improves communication and pattern recognition skills. It teaches the values of hard work, concentration, objectivity, and, commitment. As former World Chess Champion Emmanuel Lasker said, “On the chessboard lies and hypocrisy do not survive long.”

….in chess, unlike in many other sports, you don’t ever have to retire. Age is also not a factor when you’re looking for an opponent –young can play old and old can play young.
Chess develops memory. The chess theory is complicated and many players memorize different opening variations. You will also learn to recognize various patterns and remember lengthy variations.
Chess improves concentration. During the game you are focused on only one main goal — to checkmate and become the victor.
Chess develops logical thinking. Chess requires some understanding of logical strategy. For example, you will know that it is important to bring your pieces out into the game at the beginning, to keep your king safe at all times, not to make big weaknesses in your position and not to blunder your pieces away for free. (Although you will find yourself doing that occasionally through your chess career. Mistakes are inevitable and chess, like life, is a never-ending learning process.)
Chess promotes imagination and creativity. It encourages you to be inventive. There are an indefinite amount of beautiful combinations yet to be constructed.
Chess teaches independence. You are forced to make important decisions influenced
only by your own judgment.
Chess develops the capability to predict and foresee consequences of actions. It teaches you to look both ways before crossing the street.
Chess inspires self-motivation. It encourages the search of the best move, the best plan, and the most beautiful continuation out of the endless possibilities. It encourages the everlasting aim towards progress, always steering to ignite the flame of victory.
Chess shows that success rewards hard work. The more you practice, the better you’ll become. You should be ready to lose and learn from your mistakes. One of the greatest players ever, Capablanca said, “You may learn much more from a game you lose than from a game you win. You will have to lose hundreds of games before becoming a good player.”
Chess and Science. Chess develops the scientific way of thinking. While playing, you generate numerous variations in your mind. You explore new ideas, try to predict their outcomes and interpret surprising revelations. You decide on a hypothesis, and then you make your move and test it.
Chess and Technology. What do chess players do during the game? Just like computers they engage in a search for the better move in a limited amount of time. What are you doing right now? You are using a computer as a tool for learning.
Chess and Mathematics. You don’t have to be a genius to figure this one out. Chess involves an infinite number of calculations, anything from counting the number of attackers and defenders in the event of a simple exchange to calculating lengthy continuations. And you use your head to calculate, not some little machine.
Chess and Research. There are millions of chess resources out there for every aspect of the game. You can even collect your own chess library. In life, is it important to know how to find, organize and use boundless amounts of information. Chess gives you a perfect example and opportunity to do just that.
Chess and Art. In the Great Soviet Encyclopedia chess is defined as “an art appearing in the form of a game.” If you thought you could never be an artist, chess proves you wrong. Chess enables the artist hiding within you to come out. Your imagination will run wild with endless possibilities on the 64 squares. You will paint pictures in your mind of ideal positions and perfect outposts for your soldiers. As a chess artist you will have an original style and personality.
Chess and Psychology. Chess is a test of patience, nerves, will power and concentration. It enhances your ability to interact with other people. It tests your sportsmanship in a competitive environment.
Chess improves schoolwork and grades. Numerous studies have proven that kids obtain a higher reading level, math level and a greater learning ability overall as a result of playing chess. For all those reasons mentioned above and more, chess playing kids do better at school and therefore have a better chance to succeed in life.
Chess opens up the world for you. You don’t need to be a high ranked player to enter big important competitions. Even tournaments such as the US Open and the World Open welcome players of all strengths. Chess provides you with plenty of opportunities to travel not only all around the country but also around the world. Chess is a universal language and you can communicate with anyone over the checkered plain.
Chess enables you to meet many interesting people. You will make life-long friendships with people you meet through chess.
Chess is cheap. You don’t need big fancy equipment to play chess. In fact, all you may need is your computer! (And we really hope you have one of those, or else something fishy is going on here.) It is also good to have a chess set at home to practice with family members, to take to a friend’s house or even to your local neighborhood park to get everyone interested in the game.
CHESS IS FUN! Dude, this isn’t just another one of those board games. No chess game ever repeats itself, which means you create more and more new ideas each game. It never gets boring. You always have so much to look forward to. Every game you are the general of an army and you alone decide the destiny of your soldiers. You can sacrifice them, trade them, pin them, fork them, lose them, defend them, or order them to break through any barriers and surround the enemy king. You’ve got the power!

On this link on my blog you can read more about chess and maths… https://chessaleeinlondon.wordpress.com/2007/08/28/maths-and-chess/

On this next link…how your kids can work with money when they know everything about chess..

https://chessaleeinlondon.wordpress.com/2007/12/30/teach-your-kids-chessand-they-know-how-to-work-with-money/

Celone (2001) “Chess significantly increased student scores in non-verbal intelligence, which reflected increased abilities in abstract reasoning and problem solving.”

Smith and Sullivan (1997) “Chess education has a substantial positive effect on analytical thinking skills which are important in math, engineering and the physical sciences. The impact was particularly strong among girls.”

Rifner (1992) “Problem solving skills that chess teaches will transfer to tasks in other academic domains, including reading comprehension and math, and to enhanced performance on standardized tests of academic achievement.”

Van Zyl (1991)(South Africa) “Chess nourishes latent learning abilities, and reinforces skills in logical and abstract thinking, impulse control, endurance and determination. This was manifest as a significant improvement in both verbal and non-verbal IQ scores after three years of chess instruction.”

Liptrap (1997). “Students receiving chess instruction scored significantly higher in standardized tests of both math and reading.”

 Chess is fast track to brainier kids
Hero of US movie teaches local schools the art

April 10, 2006 Edition 1

Robyn Cohen

Fifteen years ago, David MacEnulty began teaching chess at a school in the South Bronx in New York. His students – many came from unstable backgrounds – not only turned into champions but developed self-esteem and excelled in their careers after leaving school.

MacEnulty’s experiences are fictionalised in Knights of the South Bronx, a film starring Ted Danson, which premiered on American TV late last year.

David MacEnulty is the author of three books, published by Random House: The Chess Kids Book of Tactics, The Chess Kids Book of the King and Pawn Endgame, and The Chess Kids Book of Checkmate.

He has written six e-books (two in collaboration with grandmaster Miron Sher) for the Official US Chess Federation Software and produced three videos of chess instruction.

David Berman, a South African who lives in New York for nine months of the year, saw the film in the US. Berman, who is a hedge fund manager, lives in Bantry Bay with his family for the rest of the time. Somehow, between the deal making and commuting between the Big Apple and Mother City, he also finds time for chess.

He is passionate about the game and has taught his children to play from a young age. Shortly after seeing Knights of the South Bronx on TV, he was at a chess tournament in which his son Yaakov was playing.

Someone pointed out MacEnulty: “You see that guy over there – he is the one in the film.” Berman promptly invited MacEnulty to Cape Town – “to go to the beach, maybe play a little chess”. That meeting grew exponentially to a chess road show in our city which has sparked an excited reaction from children and staff at local schools.

The film was screened at the Labia in Orange Street and received standing ovations. Schools phoned the two Davids begging them to visit.

During their two weeks in Cape Town, they went to about 20 schools; sometimes with 300-400 pupils attending. They went to private and disadvantaged schools; addressed student and staff bodies after screening the film and answered questions.

The response was “unbelievable” – with children and teachers clamouring for more. They want chess at school.

Berman’s motivation in bringing MacEnultyto Cape Town? His reason, he said, was to produce “conclusive evidence that chess makes kids smarter. It enhances creativity, problem solving, memory, concentration, self-esteem, maturity and other abilities that a parent or teacher would desire”.

I attended a screening at a school in the southern suburbs and, despite poor sound and picture quality and constant interruptions, the children were riveted.

It is a classic story of triumph over adversity with chess as the ticket out of a life with limited prospects.

MacEnulty as mentor and teacher extraordinaire provided a catalyst, motivating children to excel at chess and apply their newly acquired self-esteem to other aspects of their lives.

After the screening, MacEnulty answered questions. In the flesh he is even more charismatic than Ted Danson and it is easy to see why this dynamic teacher has inspired so many children to stretch their brains in directions they had never considered possible.

He also has a terrific sense of humour. The film, he admits, is a somewhat fictionalised account of the facts. In real life, it took his team years to get to championship status – not the one year depicted in the film.

There’s a moving scene in the film where a child plays chess with his dad who is in prison. This did not happen in real life. The jails were far away, but it is true that several of the children had parents behind bars.

The characters are largely composites of the real-life children he taught. But, as with the real life children, he had to teach the child actors how to play chess. As to whether his wife is still moaning about his life as a lowly substitute teacher (as depicted in the film): “Well, let’s put it this way, I no longer have a wife.”

In the film he is a corporate type who has ended up in the Bronx as a substitute teacher, but the real MacEnulty was employed as chess coach. He has also been an actor and musician.

Still, it makes for a compelling film and the star is undoubtedly chess – which is the bottom line. It gets the message across, loud and clear, and children throughout city schools are buying into the prospect of getting into this game.

That is good news for parents and teachers. Research indicates that chess accelerates learning skills in a huge way. The two Davids cited a number of dazzling statistics showing chess can improve IQ and comprehension retention rates.

They were results of a survey undertaken by the America’s Foundation for Chess (AF4C). Numerous studies confirm the benefits of chess instruction on students and academic performance, especially maths and reading. The studies all pointed out that “there is a positive effect of chess on intellectual achievement; not a single report fails to find such a connection”.

The researchers investigated and documented the impact of chess on a broad spectrum of academic areas: improved performance by students of diverse ages, intellectual abilities, economic and cultural backgrounds.

Chess, they report, has made a difference to children all over the world. For example, Smith and Cage (2000) observed southern, rural, black, secondary school students and found students who were taught chess scored “significantly higher on all measures of academic achievement, including math, spatial analysis, and non-verbal reasoning ability”.

Closer to home, there is Van Zyl (1991), who studied South African high school students. After three years of chess instruction, he concluded that there was a “significant improvement in both verbal and non-verbal IQ scores”.

He surmised that “chess nourishes latent learning abilities and reinforces skills in logical and abstract thinking, impulse control, endurance and determination”. The studies cited in this survey are impressive.

As a parent, it seems we all need to get wise to the benefits of chess. That is easier said than done. Our children’s concentration spans are often ambushed by TV, cellphones and other distractions.

Let’s face it, it is easier to switch on the telly than to haul out a chess board. Not all of us know how to play. “You don’t know how to play – why should we?” chorus the children – and they are correct.

As with everything, it is not enough to extol the virtues of a topic. It has to be presented in a way which makes it exciting.

Take the following example: My husband taught our children (then in grade 1 and 2) the rudiments of the game and they loved it. They attended sessions with chess whiz kids at their school and had a great time. The young teachers – national champions – gave prizes to their students which added to the excitement.

It ended when the young mentors were unable to continue due to their schedules at middle school.

My daughters learnt chess at school, but soon gave up. Why? It was boring. The teaching lacked the buzz they had been accustomed to. Chess was not part of the curriculum. It was the grudge activity where pariahs hung out because they had no one else to play with at break. Or that was the perception.

In actual fact, there were some seriously good players at the school but it seems that if you were a newcomer, this wasn’t an exciting gig.

I have seen children playing the game at home, but they would not go near a board at school because it wasn’t cool; because the teacher shouted or because they felt inadequate, playing with the brains of the school.

It seems this is not uncommon. Berman e-mailed comments to me from Peter, a SA chess coach who cautions: “Just a warning: I see the old disease of schools supporting only the top 15 players and maybe a few reserves. Chess is for all; it is a language; it helps all pupils to bring order into their academic careers and speed.”

Indeed, chess teachers need to take cognisance of the abilities of all students and need to frame the learning process as an exciting adventure – just as MacEnulty has done at the schools he has taught at in the Bronx and elsewhere.

There is a need to train the trainer. Berman is doing everything in his power to get MacEnulty back in town during the winter holidays (June/July) to run programmes with teachers.

The long-term goal would be to get chess into schools as part of the curriculum – taught during school hours. Chess is for all and with that in mind, they are hoping to get funding so the game can benefit all children.

Berman is also keen on twinning schools to encourage social interaction. A programme like this takes funding, and Berman is hedging his moves and encouraging corporations and others to make some good financial moves in getting chess into action at curriculum level.

The day after watching the film and hearing MacEnulty speak, my daughters and their friends hauled out the chess board and dusted it off. They played a game on Saturday evening which went on for hours. They were all exhausted and remarked that it was a jol, but that they were tired – their brains were sore.

Source:http://www.capetimes.co.za/index.php?fSectionId=272&fArticleId=3197176


Image from the movie: Knights of the South Bronx

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The Chess Mind – expert?

This article comes from the Scientic American magazine- front cover scanned here too as you can see. It’s a very interesting article and you can easily copy the images to read it later. I want to quote from the first paragraph….”The year is 1909, the man is Jose Raul Capablanca of Cuba, and the result is a whitewash 28 wins….” and in the second paragraph..”I see only one move ahead,” Capablanca is said to have answered, “but it is always the correct move.” phew… I sometimes have only one move to make! and the move I know it’s the right move…but in most games you have to observe the board closely to see what your “enemy” is about to do and what evil plans he’s got up his sleeve! and that means you have to see about 2 or more moves ahead…as chess player myself, I can quote a lot from this article and comment on it…but I’m no master/grandmaster! I think every person has a different view/opinion….do spend some time to read it, it’s definitely worth spending the time on it! (I do apologise for the paint on the front cover! – zoom into the images once you’ve clicked on it to have a larger view)

On my blog I’ve done several posts about chess and research.
Please click on this link – links will open in a new window – to read about the Male/Female brain when it comes to chess and HERE about Chess and Altzheimers. On this link you can read how important chess is for your kids to work with money! and….on THIS SITE all the benefits why your child should play chess. Here’s a link on my blog about Maths and Chess .. Enjoy this movie about chess! and research.
People have different opinions about chess…is it a sport or not? I say it is…and if you disagree…well, that’s your opinion… and I’ve come across this very clever South African and he apparently organised the first multi-cultural chess game in SA…but sadly he’s been recruited to the USA…lucky Americans having him now! http://www.jurispro.com/VernonNeppeMDPhDFRSSAfFAPAFRCPC

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Teach your kids chess and they know how to work with money!

Source : http://www.nuwireinvestor.com/articles/teaching-kids-about-money-51386.aspx

Please click HERE to read about the movie: Knights of the South Bronx. Links will open in a new window.

Teaching Kids About Money: 10 Tips
Ways for parents to teach their children about money

Published on: Wednesday, December 26, 2007
Written by: Trista Winnie

Parents have been giving financial advice to their children for ages. “Neither a borrower nor a lender be,” Polonius told his son Laertes in William Shakespeare’s Hamlet. As with good hygiene and good manners, most parents strive to teach their children lessons on how to be good at handling money.“If you can teach your child the difference between needs and wants, how to budget and how to save, your child will know more than many adults,” according to Scott Reeves of Forbes. “But if you get it wrong, your child is likely to join the millions of Americans who rack up huge credit card debt and get stung each month by stiff interest payments.”
In other words, no pressure.The lives of children who understand money, its value and how to handle it will be far easier than those of children who don’t.
Here are 10 tips for teaching your kids about money, focusing on saving and investing money, so they will grow up and use it responsibly.

– on the link  at the bottom of the page, where the article can be found…point 3 says…

3) Teach them critical thinking

While not directly a lesson in money, kids who learn how to think critically will make better decisions when it comes to money because they will be able to consider the short, medium and long term effects of their decisions, as well as plan for contingencies.

One great way to teach them how to plan, strategize and think critically is to teach them chess. Chess is a game in which cause and effect, concrete rules, analysis and planning for different scenarios are all crucial. Chess can also help kids hone their ability to recognize when to take risks and when to play it safe, which is a critical investment skill.

A real life example of this can be found in the story of David MacEnulty, an English teacher who taught a group of inner-city, low-income students in the South Bronx how to play chess. These students went on to compete and win in chess competitions and their critical thinking skills put them on the path to success. The story was documented in the 2005 movie, Knights of the South Bronx

Knights of the South Bronx

The most captivating, entertaining chess movie since Searching for Bobby Fischer! You’ll be thrilled. It’s inspirational.A business man decides that he wants to teach school in the inner city and chooses a tough school in the South Bronx. He teaches the children how to play the game of chess, and along the way they learn a lot about life.Richard’s entire class is lifted out of nothingness and boredom to fight for life, success, and the thrill of achievement! He helps his entire class discover chess one day, much to the dismay of school authorities. Richard’s mind is torn as even his wife disapproves when he turns down a lucrative job offer to stay with low-paying job… “his kids” and his class. But Richard cannot be swayed from helping the kids find new hope in life. When Richard’s class is reaching new levels of achievement in their studies the tide is turned, his wife comes to his side, and his Knights of the South Bronx battle their way to winning championships and battling all signs of defeat… often from within their own minds and ranks – their classmates. But they encourage one another and overcome, inspired by the game of chess.

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Chess Research

We all know that Chess helps  to improve children’s concentration, maths, reading, thinking processes, ability to make choices in life, dyslexia, etc. etc… but this video shows us how you can combine Chess with boxing!!! hehehehe….so, all you guys that want to be great boxers!! come on, play Chess!!! Chess isn’t for the “softies”…like some people think!
Read my earlier post about a  research that was done by a South African lady…about it. See the second link in this post. (scroll down with the slider once you’ve clicked on the link) I’ve copied a section of the article from the first link here…PS: All links will open in a new window.

http://www.capetimes.co.za/index.php?fSectionId=272&fArticleId=3197176

That is good news for parents and teachers. Research indicates that chess accelerates learning skills in a huge way. The two Davids cited a number of dazzling statistics showing chess can improve IQ and comprehension retention rates.

They were results of a survey undertaken by the America’s Foundation for Chess (AF4C). Numerous studies confirm the benefits of chess instruction on students and academic performance, especially maths and reading. The studies all pointed out that “there is a positive effect of chess on intellectual achievement; not a single report fails to find such a connection”.

The researchers investigated and documented the impact of chess on a broad spectrum of academic areas: improved performance by students of diverse ages, intellectual abilities, economic and cultural backgrounds.

Chess, they report, has made a difference to children all over the world. For example, Smith and Cage (2000) observed southern, rural, black, secondary school students and found students who were taught chess scored “significantly higher on all measures of academic achievement, including math, spatial analysis, and non-verbal reasoning ability”.

Closer to home, there is Van Zyl (1991), who studied South African high school students. After three years of chess instruction, he concluded that there was a “significant improvement in both verbal and non-verbal IQ scores”.

He surmised that “chess nourishes latent learning abilities and reinforces skills in logical and abstract thinking, impulse control, endurance and determination”. The studies cited in this survey are impressive.

As a parent, it seems we all need to get wise to the benefits of chess. That is easier said than done. Our children’s concentration spans are often ambushed by TV, cellphones and other distractions.

Let’s face it, it is easier to switch on the telly than to haul out a chess board. Not all of us know how to play. “You don’t know how to play – why should we?” chorus the children – and they are correct.

As with everything, it is not enough to extol the virtues of a topic. It has to be presented in a way which makes it exciting.

Take the following example: My husband taught our children (then in grade 1 and 2) the rudiments of the game and they loved it. They attended sessions with chess whiz kids at their school and had a great time. The young teachers – national champions – gave prizes to their students which added to the excitement.

It ended when the young mentors were unable to continue due to their schedules at middle school.

My daughters learnt chess at school, but soon gave up. Why? It was boring. The teaching lacked the buzz they had been accustomed to. Chess was not part of the curriculum. It was the grudge activity where pariahs hung out because they had no one else to play with at break. Or that was the perception.

In actual fact, there were some seriously good players at the school but it seems that if you were a newcomer, this wasn’t an exciting gig.

I have seen children playing the game at home, but they would not go near a board at school because it wasn’t cool; because the teacher shouted or because they felt inadequate, playing with the brains of the school.

It seems this is not uncommon. Berman e-mailed comments to me from Peter, a SA chess coach who cautions: “Just a warning: I see the old disease of schools supporting only the top 15 players and maybe a few reserves. Chess is for all; it is a language; it helps all pupils to bring order into their academic careers and speed.”

Indeed, chess teachers need to take cognisance of the abilities of all students and need to frame the learning process as an exciting adventure – just as MacEnulty has done at the schools he has taught at in the Bronx and elsewhere.

There is a need to train the trainer. Berman is doing everything in his power to get MacEnulty back in town during the winter holidays (June/July) to run programmes with teachers.

The long-term goal would be to get chess into schools as part of the curriculum – taught during school hours. Chess is for all and with that in mind, they are hoping to get funding so the game can benefit all children.

Berman is also keen on twinning schools to encourage social interaction. A programme like this takes funding, and Berman is hedging his moves and encouraging corporations and others to make some good financial moves in getting chess into action at curriculum level.

The day after watching the film and hearing MacEnulty speak, my daughters and their friends hauled out the chess board and dusted it off. They played a game on Saturday evening which went on for hours. They were all exhausted and remarked that it was a jol, but that they were tired – their brains were sore.

Celone (2001) “Chess significantly increased student scores in non-verbal intelligence, which reflected increased abilities in abstract reasoning and problem solving.”

Smith and Sullivan (1997) “Chess education has a substantial positive effect on analytical thinking skills which are important in math, engineering and the physical sciences. The impact was particularly strong among girls.”

Rifner (1992) “Problem solving skills that chess teaches will transfer to tasks in other academic domains, including reading comprehension and math, and to enhanced performance on standardized tests of academic achievement.”

Van Zyl (1991)(South Africa) “Chess nourishes latent learning abilities, and reinforces skills in logical and abstract thinking, impulse control, endurance and determination. This was manifest as a significant improvement in both verbal and non-verbal IQ scores after three years of chess instruction.”

Liptrap (1997). “Students receiving chess instruction scored significantly higher in standardized tests of both math and reading.” Resource: The American Foundation for Chess…click on this link:

http://af4c.memfirstclubs.net/club/scripts/library/view_document.asp?DN=RESEARCH&NS=FMPI&APP=80

Click HERE to play through Master’s Chess games.

 
And now…Chess Boxing!

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