Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy Benefits of Chess

I'm actually not trying to accomplish a particular brain-enhancing goal by having my kids play chess. (DD9 plays, too, though not competitively.) They enjoy it, and it seems to be a nice, productive hobby. DS REALLY enjoys it. That's good enough for me. It's great if it has other benefits, though. I'm not sure that I've yet seen any benefits extend to other areas for DS, but I suspect it's helped my DD--the skills it emphasizes are not her strongest (spatial memory/manipulation has never been her strong point, and it's one reason I'm so bad at the game), but she's rather driven to try to keep up with DS.

A downside to chess for our family is that DD is very aware of the lopsided sex ratio in the competitive scene and finds that a turnoff. I keep telling her that this is circular. She's now good enough from playing with DS that she could play on the team and do respectably in her age group (not spectacularly, but I think she would do okay), but she won't because she sees it as a nerdy, competitive boy activity.

Even worse, she admits to intentionally throwing games when playing her female friends at school (they don't play all the time like she does, so they are not very good). A savvy social strategy, perhaps, but man.

We're planning to start chess for DS7 in the Spring. He plays the Solitaire chess (Thinkfun game). Not the same thing, I know, but he's good! He knows how to move the pieces, but needs practice thinking more than 3 steps ahead.

The problem is he really NEEDS to learn to lose and not be BEST at things. I am thinking I will have to find someone else to teach/play with him but I am going to look into computer stuff too. I am thinking a big brother/sister thing for gifted kids would be good - kids in their last years of high school paired with lower primary. I think I will talk to some people about something like that.

Everyone, from the world champion down, loses very frequently in chess. If a player is not losing often, he or she is not playing in the right section.

I agree with ultramarina that playing opponents is better than playing a computer.

I am not the right opponent though.

Puffin, if you live anywhere semi-cosmopolitan, there is probably a local scholastic chess scene. There is a very vibrant one where we live. Local tournaments here easily attract 75-100 kids. Chess tends to attract bright kids; your son would likely be able to find opponents worth his time.

You can also get human opponents on chesskid.com.


mithawk, that's a question I do have for you. How do we know when DS5 should move up to K-3 or K-5? Is there any reason not to move up?

[quote=ultramarina]Puffin, if you live anywhere semi-cosmopolitan, there is probably a local scholastic chess scene. There is a very vibrant one where we live. Local tournaments here easily attract 75-100 kids. Chess tends to attract bright kids; your son would likely be able to find opponents worth his time.

You can also get human opponents on chesskid.com.


Thanks but I live in a smallish city in New Zealand. There is probably a chess club at high school or maybe intermediate (4 years off) but probably nothing major. I will look into it when the new school year starts in February.

As long as a child can behave appropriately for the section, there is no reason not to move up. When a child starts consistently winning a majority of games in each tournament, it is time to move up.

For that matter, once children reach ~1200, they can start playing adults in competitions. The biggest problem is that they may need a step stool to write down the final result.

I thought you might live in NZ. Try chesskid! But he probably wants to practice on some chess compter games first.

mithawk, DS5 came in second in his school club tournament, in which he was the only kid below grade 2. I believe he played 7 or 8 games and won all but 1 (that kid's rating is 1300 or something so we knew he would not win). I am not sure how it was bracketed, or whatever you call that, but I know that towards the end he played a number of good players with ratings in the 700s-low 1000s and beat them. I am guessing this means he should not play in K-1, but he has only played 1 regional tournament.