Making the Right Moves

It’s recess. Yet rather than play soccer or tag, the Montalvo brothers hover over a chess set in Roosevelt School’s cafeteria in Santa Ana. “Dang,” 8-year-old Ken says as John takes out a knight with a bishop. John, 9, rapidly dismantles all but Ken’s king, but the game ends in a stalemate.

Like dozens of other students on campus, the two brothers have the chess bug. Ever since the school hired an instructor to teach students chess last year, the brothers often play the game before class, during recess, at lunch and after school. Here, it’s not unusual to see 25 games of chess in progress at once.

Chess, commonly played at home and in clubs and tournaments, is gaining a following at many campuses nationwide as more educators introduce the game to students hoping to foster traits such as logic, concentration, patience and objective thinking.

“Chess helps children to look ahead and to plan and see the consequences of their ideas,” said Michael Cavallow, executive director of the U.S. Chess Federation. “That’s all very useful. . . . Teachers are starting to know this.”

Schools in such countries as Russia, Yugoslavia and Hungary have a long-standing practice of introducing chess in the schools. That practice has caught on more slowly in the United States, but it has become more widespread this past decade, said U.S. Chess Federation officials.

In addition, Cavallow said, youth membership in the federation has increased steadily. When he joined the group 34 years ago at age 14, about 95% of members were adults. Of the more than 80,000 members today, more than half are in the two scholastic categories for those under 14 and 19 years old.

Some schools have hired full-time instructors who do nothing but teach chess. Others, such as Roosevelt, have hired instructors for a set number of lessons.

The school’s principal, Nadine Rodriguez, decided she wanted chess for her students, who live in a predominantly Latino, blue-collar neighborhood, after watching an interview on C-Span. The interviewer asked the CEO of a major corporation with an MBA from Harvard what in his background most prepared him for his position. Chess, the man replied. That clinched it for Rodriguez, who wanted to bring out the traits in her students that would help them succeed.

“If they can anticipate and think ahead, those are the things that are going to help them in the course of a day in academia,” Rodriguez said. “Chess does enforce a lot of what we ask of our students in schools.” Some critics argue, though, that it isn’t that chess develops smarts or planning ability, but that the game may attract those who already possess such qualities.

Yet one study in 1996 sponsored by Intel Corp. compared the reading scores of students who were and were not given chess lessons and concluded that those receiving the lessons made more gains in reading scores than those who did not play chess.

The researcher, Stuart Margulies, is an educational psychologist who has written numerous books on how to teach reading.

During the study, he examined third- and fourth-grade students at four inner-city public schools in Los Angeles and one in New York. From each school, he studied two classrooms. Students in both groups had similar reading levels and were unaware they were part of a study. One class later received chess lessons and the other did not. By the end of the year, at each school, the chess-playing groups made moderate gains over the regular students on standardized reading tests.

It’s hard to prove too much in one year, but “chess helps slightly,” Margulies concluded about chess and its relation to reading skills.

In Orange County, schools that have hired or plan to hire instructors soon include Buena Park Junior High School, Yorba Linda Middle School, and Harbor View and Harbor Day Schools in Corona del Mar. In addition, the PTA at El Morro Elementary School in Laguna Beach is underwriting an after-school chess class for its students starting in January, and the LEARN program in that city offers summer-school classes in the game for young children.

Others are Trinity Lutheran in Anaheim, St. John the Baptist in Costa Mesa, William T. Newland Elementary School in Fountain Valley, and Pegasus School in Huntington Beach.

Although chess’ benefit on academic performance is a continuing subject of research, some teachers say they have already noticed advantages.

One of Roosevelt’s fifth-grade teachers, Chad Hammit, oversaw the school’s chess program last year. During his reading sessions, he said, he has noticed that his chess students have become better at anticipating what will happen in a story.

“I think that’s something that’s very difficult, especially for elementary school students who tend to think more about the present moment,” Hammit said. Others said it’s a game that requires perseverance because it takes only a lesson or two to learn the rules but a lifetime to master.

In a chess game, a player pays the price for sloppy thinking instantly and learns accountability, said Robert Snyder, who heads the Huntington Beach-based Chess for Juniors, which teaches students chess for a fee.

It’s a war of two minds on an extremely controlled battlefield, he said. “You can’t blame a team member. The only way for you to lose is for you to be imperfect. . . . If you don’t analyze and spend time, you’re not going to play well.”

Where to Learn, Play

These are some of the places where children and older students can learn about and play chess.

* Chess for Juniors, Huntington Beach, (714) 531-5238. For ages 6 to 16.

* Academic Chess, Irvine, (949) 770-9720. Holds Friday night tournaments at Abraham Lincoln Elementary in Corona del Mar and El Camino Real Elementary in Irvine for K-6 students.

* The Chess Center, Newport Beach, (949) 474-6909. For all ages.

* Labate Chess Club, Orange, (714) 744-1141. For all ages.

* La Palma Chess Club, La Palma, (714) 523-2550. Children younger than junior high school age must be accompanied by an adult.

* L.E.A.R.N. Summer Fun School, Laguna Beach, (949) 497-6011. For elementary school students.