1. Chess spells STRATEGY

S – Safe Environment
Chess provides a safe environment to practice decision making, problem solving skills, and new tactics. Did you try something new?

T – Thinking Skills
Chess teaches efficient methods in thinking by managing impulsivity and acting with forethought. Did you take your time?

R – Rules
Chess teaches respect for rules of behavior. Did you play by the rules?

A – ‘Adeptability’
Chess gives opportunities to demonstrate competence. This builds confidence in ability to correct mistakes and improve performance. Did you improve?

T – Taking Risks
Chess gives occasions to risk and the consequences of choices. Chess provides opportunities for courageous decision making. Did you show initiative?

E – Everyday Applications
Chess applies habits of many everyday activities such as planning ahead, decision-making, setting priorities, and dealing with people with different goals. Can you apply these skills at home or school?

G – Gracefulness
Chess teaches sportsmanship. Chess gives opportunity for winning and losing gracefully. Did you practice good sportsmanship?

Y – Yardstick
Chess enables children to experience the gap between what they think they know and what really is accurate. Chess acts as a yardstick to measure this self-discovery. Did you learn something new?

In this way, Chess spells STRATEGY and teaches students how to think.

Chess – Chess Helps Every Student Succeed

2. "The nearly insurmountable low socio-economic, broken family, gang activity, and language barriers intertwine daily to undermine our work as educators to provide our students with the skills they need to become self-directed, productive members of society.  The hardships and uncertain futures our students face inspire us to explore and implement innovative instructional tools.  We believe chess has the power to equip our students with the "edge" necessary to maneuver the landmines posing daily threats to their academic/personal futures. Chess has the potential to transform basic academic skills into lifelong strategic skills by providing the opportunity for students to strengthen their higher order thinking skills.  Many students are too spontaneous and seek immediate resolutions to difficult situations.  Chess inheres the instructional capacity to teach students how to analyze their actions and consequences, and to visualize creative solutions for future possibilities.  Chess levels the playing field and transcends global boundaries and obstacles..."

5. “I utilize chess in our school as a board game program where all students participate equally. No concern for capacity, competency or ability in anyone. It is simple for anyone to begin to play chess. All students who play in our school, even at many different stages, can always have someone else to compete at their level, providing constant participation and hence, infinite progress in personal skill and self confidence.

The unique ability of chess is to increase thinking and concentration in a student’s memory, at a time of the life when the mind is constantly absorbing everything around them. These intense periods of concentration during a chess game, while also in a relaxed state of playful action, results in a progress of our students’ thinking skills. These skills develop by realistically encouraging a student’s independent reasoning, and also by allowing their own imagination to nurture during play. The more time involved in this thinking program, the more skill development one can recognize in the student. This learned capacity for intense and playful concentration applied to daily schoolwork, is part of a means to help to raise their participation in classes and raise grade point averages.

The students in our school are involved in chess following school. I anticipate our program will encourage participation and competition from other nearby schools.”

8. "[Our school] is located on [a Native American Reservation], and the students who attend its schools are descendants of the proud warriors who defeated Custer.  Yet evidence of that pride is sometimes hard to find, especially at school.  The No Child Left Behind Act has labeled the schools in our district as failures because the students don't make high enough scores on the required tests.  I don't know if the government realizes how that label affects the spirits of our children.

“We have a large population of second language students that I believe would benefit greatly from being exposed to chess. It would enhance our students’ logical thinking skills, as well as problem solving skills and logical reasoning… This is critical in our current situation of becoming citizens of the world and being able to analyze communication more critically in an age of explosive information technology. The rules of the game will greatly demonstrate to our students that there are infinite possibilities even though a discreet set of boundaries and rules would be followed at the same time. To be able to analyze a situation and anticipate an opponent’s next move is an invaluable talent which I believe all children would benefit from, regardless of ability…”

10.“Where has all the thinking gone? Teachers map it for their students, but fear it is lost. Parents hope it for their children, but fear it is impossible. Kids want it for themselves, but fear not having it. Chess has it, but fears the children will not learn it. So, where has all the thinking gone? Gone to “Think Like A King” that teaches it.

Chess fosters critical thinking as a basis for a reflective life that learns to be responsible to self and others. As an elementary school counselor, my goal is to promote a culture of peace. I plan on using the concept of chess thinking to provide the experience and know-how to accomplish this task.

.... I intend to use chess in my counseling sessions, my involvement with special ed. Students and the gifted and talented. To my amazement over half the school [of 450 fourth and fifth graders] wanted to sign up to join a recess chess club. Daily, I am bombarded with students asking: When will the chess club begin? Chess has its own magnetic powers to draw students together, a counselor’s dream. A counselor’s nightmare, I have no systematic way to teach chess.

My vision also includes parents and teachers who will engage in chess with our students, and will together use chess to build a community of thinkers. So where has all the thinking gone? It will be here. With thanks to “Think Like A King”

11. “… Most of our schools are located on [an] Indian Reservation. Our district is one of the largest geographically and one of the poorest in the country. Because of the poverty, our kids live in an area where alcoholism and high unemployment are common. The majority of [students] here do not go off to college, or if they do, they are not successful and have to return home without a degree.

So, this fall I have finally been rallying the teachers in our district to start a chess club at their schools…

Thank you, I know that your software could help our schools gain the tools they need for chess to become a hugely beneficial part of our students’ lives.”

14. “I am a special needs teacher… I currently run an after-school chess program. I see students who were unmotivated to complete homework or classwork assignments become star students after joining the chess club…

I have two former students who are shining at the high school. One of them was not used to the social aspect of middle school and had a difficult time adjusting. He had no friends, was failing his classes, and was “acting out.” He soon became the [chess] club president, made several close friends, met the requirements for the “Honor Roll,” and became a class leader. He continues to come every Wednesday after school to help me run the chess club because the High School does not have one. His teachers tell me he is one of their best students and his family tells me they have become closer because they now have “Game Night” at their home.

Unfortunately, there are few activities for students who do not participate in sports. Chess has provided an avenue for the disenfranchised students at my school to shine. It teachers them to think through things… to see that there may be several steps involved in solving a math problem… that by adding details, their writing springs to life. It has even brought families closer.”

20. “We would be thrilled to be able to utilize “Think Like A King” with our Afterschool Chess Club and in our classrooms. Four years ago, I adopted our school chess club which consisted of about 10 to 15 students. The club quickly grew to 80,100 and now 130 chess hungry students. It is like candy for their brains and I feel like Willie Wonka.

One of our greatest challenges is providing adequate instruction to this large a group… Individual and small group instruction is almost impossible with these large numbers. A program such as [Think Like A King] would be ideal for us. We could also use it in our 2 nd and 3 rd grade classrooms who are now incorporating some chess into their classrooms as part of their math curriculum.

As one of our 5 th grade chess players once shared with me, “Because of chess, I get better grades in school, I think before I write down an answer and I don’t rush through my work, I’m more patient and I think ahead. At [our school] we truly believe chess has a positive impact on school and social success.”

21. “[Our middle school] is a large rural sixth through eighth grade school with a poverty level of over 40%. The affecting poverty, however, is more in a social sense rather than economic. Our community is less than forty miles from [a large city], yet many of our students have never been there. This simple fact points to some of the inherent poverty of world view our students sometimes exhibit. A lack of ability to see beyond ourselves seriously inhibits learning and understanding.

Chess, with its broad appeal and multi-leveled challenges can inspire confidence and surges of synaptic functioning unlike any other activity.A chess program, while initially teaching the standard higher order thinking skills and brain patterning usually associated with the game, would most benefit our students by giving them a common language with other people across social, language, economic, cultural and age barriers.

24. “I teach science at a school that is 65% Hispanic and 15% Native American. I teach grades 7 th through 12 th. Few of our students seem interested in academics, but I can really connect with my students through chess. I started the chess club at the beginning of the school year. We’ve had several meetings and are planning to do fund raisers so that we can afford boards, pieces, and clocks (we have no clocks and the boards and pieces are what I have been able to get from thrift stores.) I want to be able to get the kids on more standard equipment and get them used to playing by tournament standards.

I allow my students “free time” when I finish my lectures. So even though the club has only 12 members at this time, many more of my students are quick to grab the boards during free time to pay a few minutes before the bell rings.

I am struggling to get my students to view academics as a viable option for their future. I really believe that chess provides me with the means to reach them.”