The Student Room Group

Would you have liked to have chess lessons at school?

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Reply 20
Original post by Mackay
Hahaha.


In the chess team, he played board 1. I was board 3. I'm hoping that entitles me to a sell out for at least a few million.
Reply 21
Yeah I think so, I never learnt to play chess but I do like playing other boardgames and cardgames so I probably would've enjoyed it.
I very much regret not learning to play chess when I was older and now haven't got the concentration to focus on teaching myself when i could be doing something else xD
Reply 23
I've been known to play Chess Titans on occasion tbh.
There was a sort of chess club at my primary school, but if I remember correctly, I think they stopped it shortly after I left.
I would have liked to have had the option.
Yes I would have loved to. I started learning recently and I imagine I would have been much better at the game if I had started younger.
Reply 28
Upon reflection I wouldn't mind if one (freely chosen) mind sport was compulsory in school (chess, go, draughts, backgammon, bridge, poker, scrabble). You still get all the benefits, but there's also quite a bit of choice. I would not have liked chess, but I would have liked bridge, I think.

I also just randomly discovered that a Greek football academy has made chess compulsory for its players, to develop their mental abilities. :biggrin:
Nah. Sitting around repeatedly teaching people who aren't interested how to play chess then inevitably beating them does not sound interesting to me.
Reply 30
Original post by BlueSam3
Nah. Sitting around repeatedly teaching people who aren't interested how to play chess then inevitably beating them does not sound interesting to me.


It would of course be set by ability, like any other subject. :wink:
Original post by llys
It would of course be set by ability, like any other subject. :wink:


Depends how big your school is. If you setted my old school like that, I'd end up playing a computer.
Reply 32
Original post by BlueSam3
Depends how big your school is. If you setted my old school like that, I'd end up playing a computer.


I see. :wink: To be honest it's a great subject not to set by age, but purely by ability, because an 11-year-old could easily be more able than a 16-year-old, so you'd probably have 800 pupils or so to make sets from. But yeah the most able should train with computers and study the masters etc. as "homework"... but I guess they would do that in their free time anyway, so they wouldn't really need the lessons.
Chess is a wonderful game for young people.
Original post by llys
I see. :wink: To be honest it's a great subject not to set by age, but purely by ability, because an 11-year-old could easily be more able than a 16-year-old, so you'd probably have 800 pupils or so to make sets from. But yeah the most able should train with computers and study the masters etc. as "homework"... but I guess they would do that in their free time anyway, so they wouldn't really need the lessons.


With my school, that'd be picking from 200, not 800. I'm not saying I'd be playing against a computer because I'm particularly good - I'm not - but because I was the only person who didn't have to ask "how does this piece move" several times per game.
Reply 35
Original post by BlueSam3
With my school, that'd be picking from 200, not 800. I'm not saying I'd be playing against a computer because I'm particularly good - I'm not - but because I was the only person who didn't have to ask "how does this piece move" several times per game.


Hmmm.. I'd say how the pieces move is the easiest part of chess, and can be learned in about 15 minutes. I don't think you'd have trouble putting two people together who can both remember how they move!

Anyway, sorry for bumping the thread, but I found this really interesting article about a poor school in Brooklyn that beats everyone at chess. :biggrin:
Reply 36
Not really. Whilst there are numerous benefits from playing chess like learning to think in a logical capacity in order to solve problems these can be taught in other areas of the curriculum to more benefit. However, I do think chess would be a good thing to use as a way to teach computational thinking so it could be something that is used in a classroom environment within another subject definitely. I can see the benefits.

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