Russian Chess & Education

CHESS MUST BE COMPULSORY IN SCHOOLS

In a recent speech the Russian Minister of Education enthusiastically supports chess

By Stephen Wilson

"I can beat everyone of your members in less than six moves," boasted a stranger who dropped into a chess club founded by Jim Vail in Englewood where the Chicago Public Schools want to close every public high school. The tall, dark stranger then calmly and collectively beat all his opponents. Jim was stunned. He had never seen anything quite like this. So Jim asked : " Where did you learn to play chess so well ? "I learnt in prison " answered the player. But if a roll of the dice of fate allowed him to be born and bred in Russia, he might have learnt it as a mandatory subject in some Russian schools. For as

any long term visitor to Russia may have noticed - Chess remains a popular game

in Russia. There are even some local parks in Moscow where I observed people

playing in the open air on specially reserved tables. Only a few weeks ago I

recall seeing the 6-year-old son of the artist Natalie Miroshnik on the way to

private lessons at a kindergarten. The child was learning to play chess from a

special teacher.

An advertisement in the local kindergarten, The Family Club which young Alex attends,

has a poster on the wall outlining the merits of chess as: developing a child's logical

and analytical abilities, their ability to concentrate and acutely observe things

better. According to the 15 year World champion Andrei Yesipenko : "Chess instructs

you how to concentrate and that is probably why I do well in school."

The Minister of Education Olga Vasilyva agrees. In a recent speech she even went

so far as to suggest it would not be a bad idea if it was made a compulsory subject

for many younger primary school students. She warmly declared: " I think that one

hour of chess a week must be made mandatory for all students from the first to the

fourth year. Furthermore, children can play in special clubs which the majority of

schools already provide. I recently visited a rural school in the Chuvashskoi

Republic which was full of chess players : children played chess during the break

and after lessons. 

"Chess consists of using analytical thought which develops your intellect with a

minimum amount of time. We have very strong ties with the Chess Federation which

has already developed a methodology which we can use in schools".

Perhaps the minister believes it could be a transferable skill which could assist

students in getting to grips with maths as well as learning to read and grasp

the logic of compositions in Russian. The minister laments that not only modern

Russian school students read less but communicate badly in Russia and are

often inarticulate. She suggests that Russian teachers put more stress in orally

reading out a text loudly as well as making sense of it.

Perhaps what is alluring and attractive about chess is its beautiful simplicity.

A chess set is relatively inexpensive, takes up little space and is easy to

teach. A Russian university student went into a children's home and taught

all the children how to play chess. It was more useful than simply showering

the children with presents.

But we should not overlook one more merit of chess. In this age of anxiety it can

help teachers cut stress. All too often teachers can not switch off. Chess would

allow them to stop worrying for at least a few hours. This is no small achievement.