{"id":65260,"date":"2022-10-14T00:16:11","date_gmt":"2022-10-14T04:16:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/world.edu\/?p=65260"},"modified":"2022-10-14T00:16:11","modified_gmt":"2022-10-14T04:16:11","slug":"why-canada-should-invest-more-in-teaching-kids-how-to-play-chess","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/world.edu\/why-canada-should-invest-more-in-teaching-kids-how-to-play-chess\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Canada should invest more in teaching kids how to play chess"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Chess has recently been in the news far more than usual. First, there was the runaway success of the Netflix miniseries\u00a0The Queen\u2019s Gambit<\/em>. That made chessboards the new toilet paper as retailers and\u00a0manufacturers struggled to meet the demand<\/a>. Now there\u2019s a high-profile\u00a0cheating scandal<\/a>\u00a0rocking the chess world.<\/p>\n

But amid those headlines, the best recent chess news for Canadians is the quieter story of Shawn Rodrigue-Lemieux, a Qu\u00e9bec teen who recently\u00a0won the world under-18 chess championship<\/a>: a first for a Qu\u00e9becer and only the second time for a Canadian.<\/p>\n

Unlike the cheating scandal and the fictional depiction of chess in\u00a0The Queen\u2019s Gambit<\/em>, the story of Rodrigue-Lemieux is unequivocally good and real. It should inspire and motivate us as a nation to invest more in chess so that his accomplishment leads to more Canadian success at international competitions.<\/p>\n

Success at the highest levels of chess costs money. Investing in chess as a sport and as a mandatory subject in schools would be money well spent.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Participants compete in the 44th Chess Olympiad in Mamallapuram, India on July 29, 2022. (AP Photo)<\/p><\/div>\n

Chess as a sport<\/strong><\/h4>\n

This year\u00a0Sport Canada has supported<\/a>\u00a0hockey in Canada with nearly $7 million. It has given an additional $1.5 million toward individual hockey players through its athlete assistance program. But Sport Canada isn\u2019t just generous to hockey. It\u2019s giving more than $300,000 to bowling; $5.2 million to curling; $200,000 to surfing; over $1 million to cricket; almost $700,000 to ringette; about $250,000 to skateboarding; and more than $500,000 to archery.<\/p>\n

What does chess get from Sport Canada? Nothing.<\/p>\n

According to Sport Canada<\/a>, chess does not qualify for sport funding for the simple reason that chess is not a sport. But chess satisfies every single criterion for being a sport, except one: it is not considered a physical activity. It is merely a \u201cgame of skill,\u201d a board game like Monopoly or Scrabble, that requires mental effort but no physical, bodily effort.<\/p>\n

Sport Canada\u2019s position on chess may be shared by many Canadians, but it is mistaken and out of step with the position of many other nations for at least two reasons.<\/p>\n

First, in 1999, the International Olympic Committee recognized chess as a sport. Chess was even featured as an exhibition event at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney. There was an effort to get\u00a0chess into the 2024 Paris Olympics, but this was rejected<\/a>.<\/p>\n

When the time comes and chess is featured at the Olympics, Canada will not be ready to compete unless we start funding chess now.<\/p>\n

Second, when chess is played at the highest levels, it is indeed a physical activity, contrary to the na\u00efve position of Sport Canada. In a 2014\u00a0interview with the BBC<\/a>, the greatest chess player of all time and current world champion, Magnus Carlsen revealed: \u201cFor me chess is first and foremost a sport and then secondly an art and a science.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carlsen credited two of his wins against former world champion, Vishy Anand, to his superior athleticism rather than to his superior chess playing. The games were long ones and, according to Carlsen, \u201cwere very much decided in the fifth and sixth hours by physical strength.\u201d<\/p>\n

Investing in chess<\/strong><\/h4>\n

The wisest way for Canada to invest in chess would be to follow the examples of other nations,\u00a0including Spain<\/a>,\u00a0Armenia<\/a>, and\u00a0Georgia<\/a>, that have made chess a mandatory subject in elementary or high school.<\/p>\n

The case for including chess among school curricula is usually based on the benefits for improving math skills. But this is not the only benefit of chess.<\/p>\n

Chess is a prime example of an interdisciplinary activity. The best chess players throughout history have had one thing in common: they saw in chess something far more serious than a game. The first official champion, Wilhelm Steinitz, declared that chess is a science, and\u00a0wrote a treatise on the principles of this science<\/a>. The next champion, Emanuel Lasker, saw chess as a perfect\u00a0model of every human struggle<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Teaching chess is school can help children to see the unity of all the other disciplines they learn at school. (Shutterstock<\/p><\/div>\n

Another champion,\u00a0Alexander Alekhine<\/a>, thought chess was an art, an opinion that was corroborated by one of the world\u2019s most famous artists, Marcel Duchamp,\u00a0who quit making art to focus on chess<\/a>. Computer scientists frequently turn to chess as a\u00a0test for artificial intelligence<\/a>. And former world champion Garry Kasparov has assimilated all of these insights and\u00a0written a book<\/a>\u00a0arguing that chess is a model of all aspects of life.<\/p>\n

Teaching chess in Canadian schools would train children to see the unity of all the other disciplines they learn at school. It would challenge them to use their minds, and yes, even their bodies, to learn, compete and have fun. While chess is in the spotlight, we should not miss this opportunity to build on the enthusiasm for chess that is present in Canada.<\/p>\n

Author Bio:<\/strong> Michael Hickson is Associate Professor, Department of Philosophy at Trent University<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chess has recently been in the news far more than usual. First, there was the runaway success of the Netflix miniseries\u00a0The Queen\u2019s Gambit. That made chessboards the new toilet paper as retailers and\u00a0manufacturers struggled to meet the demand. Now there\u2019s a high-profile\u00a0cheating scandal\u00a0rocking the chess world. But amid those headlines, the best recent chess news […]\n… learn more→<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15645],"tags":[433670],"coauthors":[11733],"class_list":["post-65260","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-education","tag-chess"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nWhy Canada should invest more in teaching kids how to play chess - World leading higher education information and services<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/world.edu\/why-canada-should-invest-more-in-teaching-kids-how-to-play-chess\/\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Why Canada should invest more in teaching kids how to play chess - World leading higher education information and services\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Chess has recently been in the news far more than usual. 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