Saturday, May 01, 2010

Are you a Shatranj Ke Khiladi?

By Raj Gopalachar
Birmingham, AL

Growing up, Sanjeev Kumar was one of my favorite actors. As a matter of fact, he still is. I can still vividly recall scenes from the movie Shatranj Ke Khiladi, Satyajit Ray’s delectable classic starring Sanjeev Kumar and a host of indubitable Bollywood icons. Circa British rule in India, two slightly eccentric aristocrats in India, played with great aplomb by Sanjeev Kumar and Sayeed Jaffrey, indulge in chess, day and night, without any regard to the change in the situation, personal life, and the imminent threat of the British taking over their region. Even when they are forced to leave their comfortable homes, they continue to play chess in the mosquito-ridden outdoors, with two loaded pistols, ready to oppose the British, or even themselves, if need be. These threads are interwoven seamlessly by Satyajit Ray in this delightful comedy. The film does not spare either side from the thrust of its gentle dagger, depicting both the apathy of the Indian upper-class and the arrogance of the colonial masters.

Satyajit Ray may have used chess in an entertaining and politically satirical way to provide wry insight into the foibles of the human mind and its propensity for denial in the face of adversity, but there is no denying the ameliorative powers of chess. It is possible that the addictive and recondite powers of chess probably drew me to it. Or it might be that I watched the movie at an age when kids try to emulate and live vicariously through their silver screen heroes, and hence got hooked to chess. Whatever the reason might be, thus began my duet with chess. The rest of the article is not necessarily the lyrics of that melody, but rather a (feeble?) attempt to inspire more people to join the fraternity/sorority of chess aficionados.

The US Chess Federation pledges that “Chess Makes Kids Smart” and this pledge made me wonder if smart kids play chess or if chess really makes kids smart. Could this game be a key in our ongoing search to strengthen the cognitive skills of 21st century learners? As we continue to look for ways to expand our students’ cogitative ability, is it possible that some of the secrets to elevating perspicacity and improving academic acumen could potentially reside in a game that dates back to 531 AD? Thus began my research and here is what I found.

Is chess an art or a science? Some claim it’s both. Yet, let’s be honest, it’s really just a game; fun, challenging, creative, but still a game nevertheless, not much different from tennis, cricket, soccer or football. Yet it has fascinated, challenged and sparked some of the greatest minds of the last century, spawning enough books to fill an entire library. There is one striking difference between chess and these other popular games. While learning to play almost any game can help build self-esteem and confidence, chess is one of the very few that fully exercises our minds. All of us could probably use this exercise.

Chess encourages patience, eidetic memory, ability to concentrate, problem solving skills and the understanding that certain behaviors carry certain consequences. In addition, chess demands both inductive and deductive reasoning, requires students to look at a problem, break it down, and then put the whole thing back together, improves decision-making skills, increases players’ self-confidence and improves organizational habits. Chess is one of the most powerful educational tools available to strengthen a child’s mind and it’s fairly easy to learn. Whatever a child’s age, chess can enhance concentration, patience, and perseverance, as well as develop creativity, intuition, memory, and most importantly, the ability to analyze and deduce from a set of general principles, make tough decisions and solve problems flexibly.

To play chess well requires intense concentration. For young, inexperienced players, chess teaches the rewards of concentration as well as penalties for lapses. Few teaching tools provide such quick feedback. Only a focused, patient and persistent young chess player will maintain steady results – characteristics that are equally valuable for performing well at school.

Playing chess well involves a combination of aptitudes. Several studies have shown that good teenage chess players have strong spatial, numerical and directional abilities, leading researchers to conclude that ability in chess is not due to the presence in an individual of only one or two abilities but rather a plethora of aptitudes working together. Researchers also found that learning chess, even as teenagers, strengthened both numerical and verbal aptitudes and improved a child’s memory. By integrating chess into the traditional math curriculum, teachers in Canada were able to raise significantly the average problem-solving scores of their students. Chess has also been shown to foster critical thinking; allowing researchers to conclude that chess is superior to many currently used programs for developing creative thinking and, therefore, could logically be included in a differentiated program for mentally gifted students. Playing chess, however, is not valuable for developing the skills of gifted children alone. Average and even below average learners can also benefit. Studies have also shown that chess has been shown to raise students’ overall IQ scores across all socio-economic groups and for both males and females.

In today’s world students must increasingly be able to respond quickly, flexibly and critically. They must be able to wade through and analyze vast amounts of information, not just memorize chunks of it. They must learn to recognize what is relevant and what isn’t. They also need to acquire the skills to be able to learn new technologies quickly as well as solve a continual stream of problems with these new technologies. This is where chess as a tool to develop our children’s minds appears to be especially potent. By its very nature chess presents an ever-changing and diverse array of problems. Except for the very beginning of the game — where it’s possible to memorize the strongest lines — each move creates a new position. With millions of possibilities in every game, players must continually face new positions and new problems. They cannot solve these problems using a simple formula or by relying on memorized answers. Instead, they must analyze and calculate relying on general principles and patterns along with a dose of creativity and originality – skills that increasingly mirror what students must confront in their everyday schoolwork. Importantly, just as in real world, more than one ‘good’ move may exist. Players must learn to decide the best option, even when the answer is ambiguous or difficult. These thinking skills are becoming ever more valuable for school students constantly confronted with new everyday problems. The case, then, is exceptionally strong for using chess to develop our children’s minds and to help them cope with the growing complexities and demands of a globalizing world.

Chess is an especially effective teaching tool. It can equally challenge the minds of girls and boys, gifted and average, athletic and non-athletic, rich and poor. Researchers have found that it can teach children the importance of planning and the consequences of decisions. It can further teach kids how to concentrate, how to win and lose gracefully, how to think logically and efficiently, and how to make tough and abstract decisions. At more advanced levels it can teach flexible planning since playing well requires a coherent plan, yet not one that is rigidly followed regardless of the opponent’s response. Chess can also build confidence and self-esteem without overinflating egos, as some losses are inevitable, even for world champions.

The US Chess Federation reports that chess improves a child’s visual memory, attention span, spatial reasoning skills, capacity to predict and anticipate consequences and the ability to use criteria to drive decision making and evaluate alternatives. Research has shown that these claims are not baloney. With so much to gain, here is to hoping that more of our children become Shatranj Ke Khiladis, striving for dreams that will leave them smarter and ultimately able to cope better in the real world of sempiternal problems!

Got chess?

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