Method - Chess in Schools Communities：在学校和社区的方法-国际象棋.doc

Introduction Background Numerous claims are made about the academic benefits of teaching chess to children. Chess enthusiasts talk about how it enhances their mathematical and reading skills, how it improves concentration and develops logical reasoning, and that children can learn to strategise and employ creative thinking. As far back as 1893, Alfred Binet, investigated the link between mathematics and chess. He found that over 90% of leading chess players were good at doing mental calculations and also had good memories. So in 1894, he conducted one of the first psychological studies into chess. He wanted to know whether chess players could play blindfolded. He found that some of the chess masters could play from memory, but none of the intermediate players could. In 1925, three Russian psychologists, Djakow, Rudik and Petrovsky, conducted a series of tests on chess masters, and concluded that their memory ability was only greater than non-players as far as chess was concerned. In other areas there was no difference. In 1973, W. Chase and H Simon demonstrated superior memory for chess positions by chess masters by “chunking”. They found the better the player, the better the recall of chess positions. Beginner players could only recall the correct location of four pieces in 5 seconds, whereas grandmasters could recall the location of all of the pieces. In Belgium, a study was conducted by Johan Christiaen (1974 – 6) to investigate the effect of chess instruction on children’s cognitive development. 40 students participated over a two year period, when their average age went from 10? to 12? years. Half of them were randomly selected to attend mandatory chess lessons (the experimental group) once a week for 1? years, and the rest were not (the control group). All the students were then given a battery of tests, including Piaget’s tests for cognitive development (the “balance beam” test and the “liquid” test), plus a series of aptitude tests as well