Spanish Chess Federation: teaching chess in schools would help improve results

The introduction of chess into the Spanish school curriculum would be a positive move which would help improve the habitually low marks Spanish children receive in reading and mathematics.

That is the opinion of Javier Ochoa, the president of the Spanish Chess Federation shared in an interview with Xinhua in the Spanish capital in the wake of a decision taken by the Spanish Congress to pass a non-binding resolution to make chess part of the curriculum in schools.

The resolution was passed with the unanimous support of all of Spain's political parties, somewhat of a miracle in itself, given the turbulent Spanish political climate, as the politicians deferred to the weight of evidence showing the benefits of having chess as a compulsory school subject.

"There are a lot of studies which have been carried out in other countries as well as in Spain," explained Ochoa, who said that comparative studies between "groups of people who studied chess and others who didn't see improvements of up to 16 percent in subjects such as mathematics among those who studied chess."

He explained that chess is believed to help children stimulate and develop strategic abilities and memory, decision making, coordination and concentration.

"I think it is important for young people; chess has been shown to promote intelligence and many qualities," Ochoa told Xinhua. He added that although children develop these qualities "naturally," playing chess would, "help them develop even more."

"I think it is going to mean progress for education in Spain," he said, before explaining that, although the federation hoped to see the introduction of chess into the curriculum as early as next year, its full implementation would be a long term process.

"In the first year, children of four or five years old would learn the basic movements of the pieces, while the introduction of strategy and all that involves comes with time," he said.

Chess in its current form was actually invented in Spain around 500 years ago and no other country has organized more international chess tournaments over the past 25 years, while some Spanish schools are already aware of its educational benefits.

The Catalan regional government supported studies into the advantages of chess by the universities of Lleida and Girona and chess is already on the curriculum in over 100 schools in the region, while the government of Cantabria has also introduced chess in schools in that part of Spain.

"We calculate around 1,200 schools that already teach chess," said Ochoa, who highlighted the very low cost of teaching chess, something that could be a factor when the question is taken to the sectorial committee at the ministry of education, which is the next step in making their historic game part of the current educational landscape. Endit