Problem solving.

Everybody has problems, it’s just a question of what problems. It’s hence important that today’s youth realize that problems are part of life. Too many of them are so spoilt nowadays they rely on others to sort out their lives and expect money for nothing.

comment by Catarina Alexon — August 6, 2010 @ 7:17 am

This is a tough question. We all want our children to develop all of these skills

Problem solving is an important life skill. If you have good problem solving you will likely be improving imagination(thinking of solutions) and logical thinking at the same time

Focus- This skill will improve patience

Self-confidence- If you teach a child to think for them self and focus you will have a confident child.

comment by Julia M Lindsey — August 6, 2010 @ 7:51 am

Dear Laura,
Problem solving would be my biggest concern to help a child. It is something they can use in their lives for many different things.
Love,
Bettina

comment by Bettina Pope — August 6, 2010 @ 8:19 am

Laura – this is a tough call because they all apply. Since you want only ONE answer, I would choose Patience. People today don’t deal well with the concept of delayed gratification – they want it and they want it now!. The Internet age feeds into this by giving instant access to almost anything anywhere.

Chess requires patience in waiting for the other person to make their move, thinking about your own move and when played well, can take time to compete the game.

Hope this is helpful

comment by Julie Weishaar — August 6, 2010 @ 8:38 am

Logical thinking.

I think today’s youth have grown up with everything being instantaneous. They’re being asked to make split-second decisions. Think about the games they play on the X-Box and Wii. Everything is rapidly firing at them. Chess requires that you think. To succeed in chess, you need to asses the situation, think ahead and carefully/logically plan your next move.

comment by Sherryl Perry — August 6, 2010 @ 8:49 am

Laura – ONE answer? You kid us right? I won’t give you three but I will give you two, ok?

Focus – this helps in almost all your other areas. Children are already an open sponge so if they learn to focus, it’s easier for their thinking and problem solving. When they put those two skills into further practice, it will stir their imagination. So focus, in my way of looking at it, gets you three more skills.

Self-confidence – whether a child wins or loses of course can be quite a deal. I mean, we take this through to our adulthood right? Chess can give them self-confidence regardless win or lose. I love Julie’s comments about patience and know that as an adult, it’s my self-confidence that my patience is grounded in.

Tough question.

comment by Patricia Weber — August 6, 2010 @ 10:09 am

Logical thinking. Chess forces you to consider the consequences of your actions and that of your opponent. You must logically plan ahead for all eventualities.

comment by Rob Berman — August 6, 2010 @ 10:16 am

Sacrifice – sometimes a little bit of losing helps you win

comment by Martin Roche — August 6, 2010 @ 10:29 am

Focus.

Chess is alot like poker in many respects: it is as much a “mind game” as it is a game of skill. Chess lets you mess with the head of your opponent, churning his brain like scrambled eggs. Once you’ve achieved that, he is incapable of logical thought, which you can then deploy to your best advantage and to his cost.

To achieve these highly-beneficial outcomes, tho’, you *must* be able to focus. If you cannot focus, you cannot get inside his head and play dangerously with his psyche and his Immortal Soul.

Chess is *great* for focus: kids don’t learn to focus these days because they spend too much time on video games — which get inside *their* brains and churns *their brains* instead.

comment by Andy "Chieftain" Cawston — August 6, 2010 @ 10:33 am

With the right opponent, chess is pure fun.

And fun is what kids need to have!

comment by Bob Slate — August 6, 2010 @ 11:01 am

Logical thinking.

Here’s what I really think – it teaches strategic AND tactical thinking. As in “What’s the big picture here. the ultimate goal? Understanding that, then what do I avoid and what action(s) do I take right now, bearing in mind the ultimate outcome.

I am soooo glad to see you folks doing this. I know that learning chess when I was young helped me see things differently.

comment by Bart Gragg — August 6, 2010 @ 11:09 am

Self-confidence.

I’m interested in seeing kids learn that they have good brains and can win with them.

comment by Hugh Rutledge — August 6, 2010 @ 11:30 am

Logical thinking
It also teaches other skills that don’t seem to be taught in school –
you can’t win at everything
you need to do your best
that you can’t take back something that didn’t work
that time has a value
fun can be had without a computer

comment by Roberta Budvietas, — August 6, 2010 @ 11:37 am

Long Term Planning

It’s not on the list and is probably part of “Problem Solving”.

But learning chess makes you think beyond the next move. It tells you that you live in a dynamic world and that every move you make forces a reciprocal change that needs to be considered.

It allows people to think 3,4,5 or 6 steps ahead – in business, in school, at the grocery store – wherever.

It makes sure that your short term action does not contradict your long term goals.

comment by Gratuz — August 6, 2010 @ 11:49 am

Imagination.

comment by Bob Slate — August 6, 2010 @ 12:04 pm

Speaking as one of only a few girls in my junior high’s chess club, the ability to stick it out in a place where my gender wasn’t wanted.

I suppose the above would fall under “self confidence.”

comment by Martha Retallick — August 6, 2010 @ 12:37 pm

Logical thinking
Chess is one of the most logical games you can give children to play.

All of those skills are important. Here’s why I don’t think chess is the best place for them.

Self-confidence: Chess is competitive. Therefore, someone has to lose. What if your kid just isn’t that good at chess, will that help self-confidence?

Imagination: Can be taught better through art, rhyming and games like charades.

Focus: Kids have focus in games. The question is, does the focus they gain from chess translate to focus elsewhere? I doubt it. (same for Patience)

Problem Solving: Chess can be kind of good for this. But it’s not like real problems. Chess has very strict rules, and in this way is not like life.

comment by Vasco — August 6, 2010 @ 3:31 pm

Thank you to everyone for posting your thoughts. It is very appreciated.

Vasco, I did want to address your comments. I have been studying this area and teaching chess to young children for a few years now and have wanted to share a few articles I’ve written with you.

On self-confidence, children really do gain a lot from chess (win or lose). Just knowing how to play is a huge deal to many. Here are my thoughts on this:

http://sayyestochess.com/wordpress/2010/05/07/chess-teaches-self-confidence/

Regarding imagination, in order to play a good game of chess, one must imagine the outcome, know what direction to lead the game. Here is an article that I co-authored with Bill Kilpatrick on the subject (which was published with Inquirer.net in the Philippines):

http://sayyestochess.com/wordpress/2010/01/19/chess-imagination-and-the-arts/

On focus, I have seen this with my own eyes. It is amazing how effective chess is in this area. In this article I share my experiences:

http://sayyestochess.com/wordpress/2010/01/13/chess-helps-concentration/

And finally problem solving does very much translate to life. To this day I see the world as a giant chess game and my goals are the opponent’s king ready to be checkmated.

Here is an article I wrote about this subject:

http://sayyestochess.com/wordpress/2010/01/28/the-joy-of-problem-solving/

I would love to hear your thoughts on any of these articles (whether you agree or disagree). Thanks for taking the time to write!

comment by Your Chess Coach — August 6, 2010 @ 8:29 pm

I would say focus. I’m a duplicate bridge player and never learned chess but in both games you must be entirely focused on each move and thinking ahead to the end game. That’s a learned skill that will be extraordinarily helpful when a the child grows into an adult and a career.

comment by Jeannette Paladino — August 6, 2010 @ 8:43 pm

Leadership – For learning responsibility
Strategy – For planning the consequences
Concentration – For patience and clear thinking
Humility – For accepting with grace and for humanity
Sportsmanship – For rightful behavior.
Patience – For expanding awareness.

comment by Don Rath Jr — August 6, 2010 @ 9:41 pm

If we really are only picking one then I choose patience.

- it is through patience that we learn how to learn and hence think. Through chess a lot of patience is learned and developed from two perspectives;

1. They learn to be patient with themselves and their own temperament.

2. They must learn to use the time their opponent is giving them, while they wait their next turn, to plan ahead and to think strategically about their own next move considering the various options their opponent might take.

It’s difficult to select only one when all are needed and patience plays into all of the other choices.

comment by Don Rath Jr — August 6, 2010 @ 10:47 pm

Improves focus or concentration

comment by P. O'Rouark — August 6, 2010 @ 11:43 pm

After I answered your question, I was thinking.

The advantage of chess is that you can’t play it alone.

Ok, you can play those “make your next move” things in the newspaper, or you can play it on the computer, but the board game is essentially social.

The kind of one-on-one attention it takes to teach a child chess has all kinds of benefits over computer games. I don’t think computer chess has the same benefits as playing with real pieces does.

A lot depends on the people running the chess.

I do think chess has benefits, as part of a balanced education.

Happilly, people who hate chess don’t teach it to children. In required subjects, you get the danger of having a jaded teacher. Chess seems only to attract adults who care. (If it were put in the national curriculum however, chess may lose its magic.)

And I liked your articles.

comment by Vasco — August 7, 2010 @ 2:21 am

Self Confidence.

Because you think you can,… you can.

With this attribute, a child would have the capacity and confidence to try anything, learn anything (including all the rest of the skills listed, school, etc) and therefore do almost anything.

I don’t have a child, but I analysed this since childhood… children with self confidence do better all round because they are not afraid to try, and because they believe in themselves, they most often do better than the rest.

Self confidence can come in parts – self confidence in mental skill, or social skill, or spiritual skill… but if chess can give an all round self confidence that does not depend on or is not determined by one’s background, social stature, mental capacity, etc, then chess is surely a very good game for children to learn.

comment by Ophelia — August 7, 2010 @ 4:23 am

Self confidence.

I taught my son chess because I hoped to help him in this area. I thought it might help because you must use imagination, coupled with logical thought to solve the problems posed by the game. You need patience and focus to see it through to a result. If you can bring all that together then it can only improve self confidence.

As it turned out chess helped me more than it did my son. We were watching a televised chess championship and the game came to my rescue because it really grabbed his attention. He asked me “Where did the second white knight go?” This was a much easier question to answer than his previous “Dad, how does a man make a woman pregnant?”

comment by John Ratcliffe — August 7, 2010 @ 7:09 am

Logical thinking. it helped a lot because I went into electronics where you have to think logically. You can be a little creative, but logic makes the circuit work. I learned at a school famous for chess, the previous headmaster was a grand master. It doesn’t really help me write fiction, but when I write on finance I think it probably helps. it certainly helps in web design where you have to have structure. A chess game has a structure to it.

comment by Mike Maynard — August 7, 2010 @ 9:52 am

I would like to say ‘Logical thinking’, for with that, problem solving is more likely assured. I really would rank ‘patience’ and ‘focus’ as equally important desirable traits for any human being.

comment by Bill Nigh — August 7, 2010 @ 10:10 am

Playing chess develops problem solving skills. Players think about (and calculate) the probable outcomes of each move. This is game theory.

comment by Heidi T — August 7, 2010 @ 4:20 pm

Hi Laura,

If I could only choose one I guess it would be focus altough I was tossing us with another couple.

comment by Susan Oakes — August 7, 2010 @ 9:57 pm

Before I even finished reading the post my first thought was patience. Then I read the choices and “problem solving” jumped out at me. I’m a huge believer in emotional intellgence skills and not just academic ones. Learning how to navigate a test at school is one things, but kids need to learn how to navigate the tests of life. Problem solving skills are vital for this.

comment by Keyuri Joshi (on the ball parent coach) — August 8, 2010 @ 5:42 am

Think Strategically

comment by Wei — August 8, 2010 @ 7:20 am

Self-confidence…

A self-confident person can see himself through any situation.

comment by Colin — August 10, 2010 @ 1:31 pm

For me, learning to play chess as a child gave me time with my Father as we were the only players in the family and we didn’t really do ‘family time’. My Father worked a lot when I was young so this was really important time for me. Maybe not an obvious answer, but for me a very valid one.

comment by Susan — August 11, 2010 @ 1:14 am

TO be honest, as an avid chess player, I’d say “to be able to play chess” – it’s an end in of itself

comment by Mark Stacey — August 11, 2010 @ 9:25 am

Problem solving!!

comment by Allie LeBaron — August 11, 2010 @ 1:48 pm

Problem Solving is a skill disparately needed to be taught to youth and future workers.

comment by I. Michael Snyder — August 17, 2010 @ 9:24 am

Hi, Laura. I would have to say logical thinking if it means “critical” thinking. If not, then problem solving, since they are so closely related. I think it is imperative that our kids learn how to analyze situations and find/determine a resolve. That is not something that was taught when I was growing up; although, I did learn it in college. I believe without this, our kids will not have an edge in business or life.

comment by Sherry Zander — August 17, 2010 @ 1:27 pm

Logical Thinking. Building the neural network to enjoy deep thinking on the complicated issues of our times

comment by William Lasley — September 21, 2010 @ 11:12 am

They are not in the list but following 2 are perhaps most beneficial in life:
1. Time management.
2. Taking responsibility for your actions.

Chess is especially good at teaching both.

comment by Skand Bhargava — October 24, 2010 @ 10:38 pm

Logical Thinking: In chess emotions are useless and usually problematic. As in life emotions usually get you into problems. If children can learn to see past their emotions and focus in on what is really important.

comment by Ken Bloss — January 2, 2011 @ 8:50 am