- When should children learn chess?
- What is the best way to teach chess to children?
- Does chess really improve children’s maths scores or academic performance?
- What is the purpose of children’s chess clubs?
By consulting a wide range of academic sources across different disciplines, Chess Minds takes a very different – and evidence-based – approach to chess for children.
We can look at theories of child development to tell us when children are, typically, able to access chess.
Learning to play a complete game is a Concrete Operational task, suitable, in general, for children aged 7-11.
Learning to play a good game is a Formal Operational task, suitable, in general, for children aged 12+.
There is a major caveat, though. Some children with advanced cognitive development will, especially with proactive parental support, achieve these milestones at a younger age, and sometimes at a very much younger age.
If you can help your children at home, proactively, on a regular basis, then starting somewhere between ages 5-7 is great. If you’re not able to help your children at home, there’s no reason for them to start chess until, say, age 9-11.
We can look at the latest research into educational theory to tell us the best way to teach chess to beginners.
We know about cognitive load theory, which tells that learners will get confused if they try to learn too many things at once. This is why, if you try to teach young children all the moves in half an hour, they’ll easily get frustrated. We also know about scaffolding: learning complex skills in small teachable chunks, with repetition and reinforcement, gradually removing the scaffolding until children are confident to perform the skill on their own. This is why we don’t accept beginners in our clubs, and insist that parents are proactively involved in teaching young children. The Chess Heroes books are designed with these principles in mind.
We also consider the latest views on childhood. There are now many who believe that younger children need less time indoors and more time outdoors, fewer structured activities and more free play. I have a lot of sympathy for this, which is another reason why I’m reluctant to promote structured chess clubs for younger children.
If you’ve read that chess has a unique long-term effect on improving children’s academic performance this might all be worthwhile, but, in my opinion there’s no reason to believe this is true. Young children would be much better off playing a wide variety of age-appropriate card, board, table and strategy games at home with their family: this will provide them with a wide variety of both cognitive and social benefits.
If they don’t start chess at a very young age they really won’t be missing anything at all.
On the other hand, looking at children’s chess through the lens of sociology suggests that teenagers would gain a lot of benefit by switching off their screens and spending time in hobby or activity clubs where they can, in real life, meet people who share their interests.
This, in our opinion, should be the main purpose of chess clubs for young people.
CHESS MINDS 