Checkmate for gifted students: enriching learning through chess.

Sabine Sypré from Hoogbloeier revised the article below for us from 2016:

How can chess be incorporated into enrichment classes?

There has been extensive discussion about the educational benefits of chess, lauded for its positive impact on students' cognitive, social, and emotional development. Cognitively, it enhances critical thinking skills such as analysis, reasoning, foresight, decision-making, memory, and concentration. Socially, it instills values like respect, teamwork, empathy, rule adherence, and communication. Emotionally, it contributes to character formation and a positive self-image, aiding children in navigating success, frustration, loss, patience, perseverance, and self-discipline.

Given the strong need for intellectual challenge and personalized development among gifted children, chess can serve as an excellent enrichment activity in gifted programs or enrichment classes. However, many schools rely solely on the well-known Steps Method, which may not always align with the learning characteristics of gifted students. These learners often prefer a top-down approach, starting with overarching concepts before practice. The Steps Method is sometimes applied too rigidly, focusing on themes followed by exercises, neglecting the authors' didactic considerations and advice.

Teaching chess to gifted children requires a different approach. Their thinking and educational needs often differ; they may find lessons too simple and lack motivation for practice. Some gifted students may react intensely and emotionally to losses, struggle with discipline, or find it challenging to follow rules. Conversely, they often show initiative, a deep interest in chess backgrounds, quick information absorption, and may develop unique strategies to solve chess problems.

How can chess be integrated into gifted programs and enrichment classes?

• Given the varying skill levels of students within these programs, differentiated instruction is essential. An effective approach is to bundle topics recurring in different stages of the chess game into one theme. This theme can include questions at various levels of Bloom's taxonomy, suitable for both weaker and stronger students. Game analysis can occur at various competency levels, while the class can be divided into level groups for practice. Encouraging collaboration in pairs, where students support each other, is also beneficial.
• When explaining the theme, it's advisable to keep the instruction brief. The class can potentially be divided into two level groups, with one group receiving lessons while the other group engages in exercises or starts a competition.
• In addition to the traditional chess game, other game formats can be introduced, such as relay chess, Raindropchess, or playing against a computer. Other alternative methods include eight against eight pawns (who reaches the other side first), mirror chess, swamp chess, queen versus eight pawns, knights capturing pawns, and giveaway chess.
• Students can share their chess experiences from the past week, ranging from relay chess, solving online chess problems, participating in tournaments, to reading chess books. An invaluable activity is analyzing students' games as a class. Different students can focus on various aspects such as opening moves, strategies, endgames, combinations, or piece maneuvers, promoting discovery and self-directed learning.
• While diagrams from the Steps Method can be used, it's recommended not to provide prior explanations. Through group discussions, students can discover how the rules work on their own. Exercises from the Steps Method can be assigned as homework, as this provides valuable support for the learning process.
• Consider watching a film like "Life of a King," "Searching for Bobby Fischer," or "Long Live the Kings," an episode of the series "The Queen's Gambit," or searching for chess-related YouTube videos. An excellent example is Pixar's "Geri's Game."
• Allow students to discover chess games on the internet, such as Troyis or Battlechess, and encourage them to share or demonstrate these in class. Have students create laminated cards of different chess openings or endgame positions.
• Let two students play against each other with a chess clock while the rest of the class can suggest moves, similar to a football match. The teacher can analyze the suggestions together with the students.

For those who want more tips on teaching methods or wish to learn more about research on chess and its expected learning outcomes, they can read about it in this article (in Dutch).

Copyright © 2024 Sabine Sypré – All rights reserved. No part of this article may be reproduced, in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any other means, without prior written permission from the author. Sharing online is permitted provided the author is credited and a link to this article is included.