Math
Learning chess leads to the development of key cognitive abilities that are essential for doing well in math, including logical reasoning, spatial awareness, and pattern recognition.
BENEFITS OF CHESS
Chess Drives Better Academic Outcomes
Through chess instruction, Ajedrez Aspiracional delivers a multitude of benefits, including:
Concentration
Playing chess increases attentiveness, poise, and analytical skills – all of which contribute to achieving deeper and longer periods of concentration and focus.
Perseverance
Participating in chess boosts self-esteem and increases grit, specifically the tenacity to cope with and overcome adversity. This important life skill leads to better outcomes.
Character
Competing in chess develops patience, as well as the ability to win and lose graciously. It also teaches students how to manage stress in competitive environments.
Community
Engaging in chess is fun and brings people together, whether it is played with friends at school or family at home. It fosters meaningful connections both locally and globally.
Confidence
Through practice and achievement in chess, students build self-confidence that translates into improved performance in school and life.
Summary Research
Skilled chess players learn to anticipate the opponent’s next moves. To predict what another person will do, a player must develop the ability to adopt another person’s perspective and infer what action he is likely to take. Behavioral scientists call this ability the “theory of mind” — essential for empathy and building healthy social relationships. Multiple studies show that chess strengthens this perspective-taking skill, leading to better communication and improved behavior.
There are over 4,000 research articles and projects examining how teaching chess enhances math, reading, and cognitive skills. Notably, studies demonstrate that even introductory chess instruction produces measurable benefits.
“We may conclude that exposure to chess instruction is associated with positive results in mathematics performance in the general population of primary and middle school students.”
– Sala G, Gobet F. The effects of chess instruction on pupils' cognitive and academic skills: state of the art and theoretical challenges. Front Psychol. 2016;7:2020.
“Playing chess requires perspective taking in order to consistently infer the opponent’s next moves… These findings suggest that long-term chess experience might be associated with children’s more efficient perspective-taking of other people’s viewpoints without exhausting their cognitive resources.”
– Wu IJ, Wu WL, Lin KC, Li MJ. Secret of the masters: young chess players show advanced visual perspective taking. Front Psychol. 2019;10:2396.
“We report the cognitive benefits of playing chess for school-aged children. The most benefitted areas appear to be math and reading... Given this evidence, it is suggested that chess be used as a tool to improve academic performance in boys and girls.”
– Sala, G. Neuroscientific evidence supports that chess improves academic performance in school. ResearchGate, 2019.