Teachers nationwide are flummoxed by students' newfound chess obsession

[mopinko]

“I guess I’m happier they are playing chess rather than some shoot-'em-up game. Actually, I love it,” said Otterby, a chess enthusiast. “I just need them to do it at a better time.”
It is not just Otterby’s crop of middle-schoolers in the St. Charles Community district. Across the country, students from second-grade to senior year have stumbled across a new obsession, which is in fact a centuries-old game. Interviews with teachers and students in eight states paint a picture of captivated students squeezing in games wherever and whenever they can: At lunch, at recess and illicitly during lessons, a phenomenon that is at once bemusing, frustrating and delighting teachers.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2023/04/15/school-chess-class-clubs/

i’ve been answering folks wringing their hands about the decline in test scores since the plague w- kids are always learning. they didnt learn what u think is important, but trust me, they learned.
i’m thrilled that what they learned is to play chess!
as a former homeschool mom, i can assure you, kids are not only hardwired to always be learning, they’re hardwired to see what is going to be important in THEIR future. they’re generally better at this than the fogies telling them what to think

[ggma]

1. When I was a very young girl

my grandmother told me that most children don't know they can't until an adult tells them so. She said don't discourage your children.

gg

[mopinko]

2. your grandma was a wise woman.

we hs’d for 8 yrs, starting when my high functioning autistic kids (not even a word back then.) was 5.
we were very unschooled. i steered a bit, did some phonics, but i let them lead.
there were 4 of them, and they went to school when 3&4 were in 1st&2nd grade. guess which 1s flew and which 1s crashed.

[paleotn]

15. Very wise.

[oioioi]

3. Chess is a natural online game.

The advances in streaming makes chess practically a video game experience and it isn't surprising that it's suddenly surging in popularity. The kids who grew up playing online are amazing.

Hikaru Nakamura is one of the biggest names. He is a great player and he's very personable and open about sharing his knowledge as he plays. He's skillful at interacting with a streaming audience and a whiz at chess. If you've never seen him play, he is featured regularly at chess.com, which is a fantastic resource for chess players or students at any level. Hikaru is the biggest star in chess right now and he often plays "bullet chess" where they are on a 1 minute timer - it's amazing to watch the speed at which he can analyze and play chess, but there are plenty of other young chess masters - women and men - who stream their games to online audiences - often hundreds, sometimes thousands of viewers.

[link:https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwiO0ojX8av-AhVhJkQIHSc4AP8QFnoECCkQAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FHikaru_Nakamura&usg=AOvVaw2B2eyfP-O7x69TwQFVre4k|

Chess popularity exploded during the pandemic and it was obvious that it was being embraced by kids - it's just like a really well designed and universally popular video game now.

[mopinko]

6. i suspect 'the queens gambit' didnt hurt.

made me want to dust off the board, anyway.
maybe i should play online. not a gamer, and not much of a chess player. but i should do something beside doomscroll and kvetch on this thing.

[oioioi]

7. Chess.com - highly recommend

Lessons, chess bots at all levels. Thousands of players online from absolute beginners to grand masters, hardly any political noise - even the realime stream commenting seem notably free of the usual semi-literate idiocy from les deplorables.

[mopinko]

8. good point!

a spot online not infested by morons. of course it’s chess online.

[EYESORE 9001]

4. I did my best in high school to popularize chess

Especially senior year, when I had two free periods due to an administrative error on the part of the school. Oh well

[Shanti Shanti Shanti]

5. Nice, I taught myself chess in HS, was on the chess team playing tournys, guess I was a nerd, lol

[xmas74]

9. It's pretty easy to figure out these kids were at home

During the pandemic when The Queen's Gambit was released. The star is growing rapidly in popularity so some tuned in just for her. Once they finished watching they realized there are plenty of places online to help them learn and to find opponents for their skill level.
When the series was released on Netflix local toy stores, book stores and game shops stated they couldn't keep sets in stock.

[mopinko]

10. yeah, and i suspect

a whole lot of ‘misfits’ saw a place. the chess world is pretty welcoming, from what i know.

[xmas74]

29. Exactly

I haven't played in years. We have storms coming this afternoon. Maybe I'll log on for a bit.

[aocommunalpunch]

11. I brought Mancala to my students this year

And they love it. Next up is backgammon and chess.

[mopinko]

12. i'll have to fall by the local school

and see if the outdoor chessboards we installed when my kids were there are getting used.
they werent as popular as the teacher who talked us into it thought they would be. lol.

[Marthe48]

13. My grandkids play

A few years ago (pre-Covid) at their school, they had a living chess games. The students are divided into 4 houses, and each house entered a chess master. The school is from the 60s, probably, and they have the auditorium/gym/cafeteria, with the small stage. The chessmasters were on the stage. The floor was divided into squares with tape. The layout included numbers/letters, so everyone knew where to move. There was a process of elimination, which took about an hour. It was fun. The 2nd year, the notice about the game was sent out late, so there were hardly enough people to man the board. Along with total audience participation, we put a couple of chairs on. I was a willing pawn

[edisdead]

14. Funny that people think shoot'em up games are not strategic

Sure some aren’t.

But modern games are incredibly strategic especially those that are team based. take a look at overwatch or other modern shootem ups.

I love me some chess but honestly if you don’t know how many problem solving and strategic decisions go into online gaming you just don’t know.

And don’t get me into MMO games with 10, 20, and 40 person raids that require everyone to do their part and react to dynamic changing situations.

However the new online chess stuff is crazy cool with board that react to moves your opponent makes and the pieces move on the board. Crazycool.

[mopinko]

17. i've never been a gamer, but lived w a house full of them.

i’ve known what you say for a long time. i’ve been totally curious how this has affected the brain structures of kids.
1 of my fave things is characters like burglars, who have important roles. a bit of nuance i always appreciated. i think hubs and the kids played every one of the might and magic games.
they played a lot of sims, the tycoon games. yeah, deep stuff.
they liked doom too, but…

my older son dropped out of hs about the time group gaming got big. dont remember what he was playing, but he played w a lot of ppl in japan. had 2 yrs of hs japanese and got quite fluent.

i’ve felt all along that this stuff made the world a smaller place, and that’s always good.

[GregariousGroundhog]

33. It's not just strategic planning, video games also help hand eye coordination

Lacroscopic surgeons who played videogames growing up perform surgeries faster and make fewer mistakes than those surgeons who did not play videogames. Apparently, being good at using a joystick in a video game (such as to point a gun) translates into being able to better use a joystick for controlling robotic tools inside a persons body.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

16. Kids need civics and critical thinking. Chess helps with the latter, but kids have no clue civics is

Kids have no clue how important civics is.

That Air National Guard TRAITOR undoubtedly got shorted on civics. Empty Greene defending him got shorted on civics. All the fascists trying to overturn elections and stymie democracy got shorted on civics.

I take issue with the statement that kids know what they need to learn. They do not. Yes, they are sponges for learning until it gets beaten out of them by math-phobic parents and short-sighted parents who think all you need is some "skill".

But kids (and most parents) do not know that fundamentals are so important.

[mopinko]

20. well, not entirely, but then

my classroom was in the real world. my son went from being obsessed w legos to a phd in theoretical math. we vastly underestimate how much babies know. and the big thing they know is how to figure out what is important to learn.
his sister used to read all night, and it didnt disrupt her learning, cuz sleeping was a big thing w us.
they are focused on the future. their minds are not clouded by our biases, until we inculcate them. they dont care about the dear dead days. it’s why i couldnt teach them cursive to save my soul. and ya know what? nobody cares.

and yeah, math fear. said son did a lot of teaching. he had a long twitter thread about math anxiety that started out w-
kids w math anxiety arent afraid of numbers, they’re afraid of YOU.
they know they can get the right answer 100 times in a row, and it wont matter when they get 1 wrong.

something about how the maths work there. but more about how adults act.

[boston bean]

18. Queens gambit on Netflix probably had a lot to bring it into fashion.

[BoomaofBandM]

19. My 6th grade grandson just joined newly formed chess club at his school.

We will see how it goes. My husband says the grandson has learned what he can from him.

[Johnny2X2X]

21. World championship going on right now

Ian Nepomniachtchi Vs Ding Liren. Been a great match as Ian leads 3-2 after 5 of 14 games.

Chess is so great for kids to learn.

[malthaussen]

26. And the best player in the world has decided to no longer compete in it.

Strange times for chess, what with the cheating scandals and all.

-- Mal

[Johnny2X2X]

27. Cheating scandal wasn't a scandal.

Overblown nothing and done for attention.

And Magnus is still the top player, but just is tired from all the preparation. I think he’ll enter the next Candidates tournament because he won’t like not being world champion.

[The Jungle 1]

22. My youngest son loved to read.

He was no angle, but did love to read. When I sent him to his room I had to say no reading. I just stopped sending him to his room. I couldn't do it.
He is a Captain in the Pa N.G. and is starting a union apprenticeship with a major electric supplier. I guess the room time didn't matter.
You have some level of control until age 5. After that you are just along for the ride.

[mopinko]

24. boy howdy. lol.

imho, they are born who they are. they only question is will you let them grow as they will, or try to bend them.
i’m the 6th of 7. i always thought my neglect was a gift. i was so free.

[Paladin]

23. What a delightful, encouraging bit of news!

And eternal thanks to my father, who taught me the basics of chess when I was young, many years ago.

[Hortensis]

25. One of our grandsons has been hooked for some while. I was very happy

to learn this year that he much prefers playing in person with others in his school's chess club to on-line games. This after half a short lifetime of gaming mostly alone or trying to kill anonymous opponents on line. Very healthy development.

[tornado34jh]

28. There are loads of chess streamers on Twitch

In fact, some of them have something called ChessKids, where masters of chess teach the kids this stuff. I don't remember who does it, but some do. Most chess streamers are from Europe, but there are some from North America. Some common chess ones are Hikaru Nakamura, Eric Rosen, Alexandra Botez, Anna Rudolf, Keti Tsatsalashvilli, and the like. Chess.com even did Pogchamps, where they would bring in popular streamers and while being coached by actual chess players, they would do a tournament.

[ananda]

30. I think they'd also like Bridge.

I know some young bridge players who are already
life masters.

Their potential at the game seems to be exponential.

[hatrack]

31. This is a pretty cool problem to have!

I hope they're "flummoxed" in the best possible way.

to the next generation of afficionados.

[ProfessorGAC]

32. See It All The Time When Subbing

Junior high kids playing on laptops, high school kids playing chess on their phones.
A few in every class when their work is done, it seems.

[mopinko]

34. watch- in a year or 2,

there will be a ‘surprising’ bump up in math scores.

[ProfessorGAC]

35. That Could Be

Actually, the district here in town got preliminary results on IAR testing. I ran into the 8th grade social studies teacher, and the teachers are bouncing off the ceiling.
They not only made up the COVID deficit, but it looks like it will be higher than before the pandemic.
So, if they're already making progress the chess thing could help keep momentum.

[mopinko]

37. wonder how many of them spent time making music.

yeah, it’s gonna be a kinda fun social experiment to see where these kids go.

[purr-rat beauty]

36. HAHAHA....my 14 year old is really into it right now

I really enjoy chess, not a master but was skilled back when my friends and I in out mid to late 20s played at our gatherings

he loves his Overwatch though but nice to see him play another/new game passionately.