BBC: Should every child be made to play chess?

Resource management isn't a bad one, I can blame Warcraft 2, Starcraft, and Age of Empires for the great grasp of arithmetic I had as a child. Especially Ao E and other games where you can buy and sell resources, have to understand the exchange rates to take advantage of anything.

I feel that based on things like the situation I described above, having a time sensitive situation that relies on having a variety of tools at your disposal that you need to know the effects of and use appropriately to beat the situation with the best possible outcome teaches some basic risk management and the ability to think outside the box.

I'm not saying that knowing military tactics is an immensely invaluable skill for children, all I'm saying is application of military tactics involves certain types of cerebral thinking that I feel are beneficial to a developing mind.(or even an adult mind)

edited 26th Apr '11 2:59:35 PM by Barkey

Heh, you know what they should play? Mule.

bluh linking syntax

edited 26th Apr '11 3:02:31 PM by Tzetze

[1] This facsimile operated in part by synAC.

I think that 'real-life skills you can learn from playing games' are overestimated. Playing games teaches little more then playing games.

Sports (or other really physical games, such as tag) are pretty much a necessity for proper development of the body. But contrary to popular belief, the brain is not a muscle, and can not be 'trained' the same way you train your legs. You gain knowledge, and refresh said knowledge every now and then. While there are ways to make that more fun, there is no roundabout Wax On, Wax Off approach that teaches your brain to do something by letting it do something vaguely resembling it.

edited 26th Apr '11 3:36:36 PM by Kayeka

It's not just knowledge, it's also skills. I certainly wouldn't call it "exercising the brain" but it's true that there are certain learnable mental skills that not everyone has, and some of them can be applied outside of the context in which they were learned.

edited 26th Apr '11 3:49:24 PM by Clarste

In a way you really can train your brain. It's just that aside from specific knowledge, all you can really do is get your brain to overcome specific types of obstacles better through repetition. Things like problem solving, critical thinking, memorization, et cetera.

True, but specific types of problems are rather specific. Being good at chess problems won't get you through the military academy. Being good at Sudoku won't make you a maths wiz. As said before in this thread: being good at chess makes you good at chess. Nothing more. And that goes for pretty much all other games discussed here.

That's pretty much my beef with the whole "Force the kids to learn games" idea. It won't do them any good in the real world.

I like chess. I don't play it enough to be good at it, but I like it. We need a TV Tropes chess club.

I think that students should be able to get a basic grasp of the fundamentals of chess. But forced to play it? A good way to annihilate interest in it. Teach them to stop bugging people who are playing chess instead.

On the contrary, it would help tremendously, especially as a frame of reference when being formally taught strategy.

Managing to catch your opponent in a flank with a Rook while he's pinned from moving away by a queen has a lot in common with suppressing fire from a machinegun letting a rifleman squad move around to flank.

I think games could be great for teaching kids certain skills, but I don't think Chess is the holy grail it's made out to be.

Power corrupts. Knowledge is Power. Study hard. Be evil.

List of cool stuffs that kids should learn/do:

1. Go
2. Chess
3. Shogi
4. Read the book of five rings
5. Checkers
6. Tetris
7. Ballet

I'm sure one could add more to this list.

Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation? Tell me, if you understand. Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know! ~ GOD

Ballet? A latin class is more likely to show up in elementary school first before THAT ever gets approved.

Why do we need both chess and shogi? Seems redundant. Get them playing Mahjong instead.

Yeah that is definitely too redundant...Shogi is just chess with a few additional pieces. It plays more or less entirely the same.

If someone wants to accuse us of eating coconut shells, then that's their business. We know what we're doing. - Achaan Chah

I can't win strategy games against other humans. I just can't. I've been known to lose at chess in four moves. I would inevitably have flunked the class and become a more bitter person for it.

That's Feo . . . He's a disgusting, mysoginistic, paedophilic asshat who moonlights as a shitty writer—Something Awful

Just another skill that can be learned.

Your mind holds you back. It's also the biggest brain in the animal kingdom in comparison to the rest of the body. Rats are second place in that area.

edited 26th Apr '11 11:23:56 PM by ViralLamb

Power corrupts. Knowledge is Power. Study hard. Be evil.

Actually, hummingbirds are far superior - their brain is 4.2% of their total body weight, while if I am not mistaken human brains are about 2.5% of their.

But in any case, brain-to-body weight is a very poor measure of mental potential: birds, in particular, tend to be much cleverer than their comparatively small brains would suggest.

However, I agree with your main point - the average human brain is a ludicrously powerful instrument, and with enough training it can pull impressive feats. Now, if one is not interested in strategy games, that's another matter - it's easily possible to get enough intellectual stimulation through other means, after all...

edited 27th Apr '11 12:32:47 AM by Carciofus

But they seem to know where they are going, the ones who walk away from Omelas.

Huh, you're right. My books have been lying to me. Damn them.

Power corrupts. Knowledge is Power. Study hard. Be evil.

Scholar's Mate is a great anti-beginner weapon.

Hint: move your Knights earlier.

I find that Age Of Empires helps me understand military history. When my Dad's describing how a historic battle went, I often make an analogy to a strategy I've used in Age Of Empires.

edited 27th Apr '11 8:35:23 AM by Ettina

If I'm asking for advice on a story idea, don't tell me it can't be done.

If I were to make any game a requirement, it would be puzzle games like The Incredible Machine (I think we've got a page on that).

Fight smart, not fair.

Picking any one game and making it the mandatory one would be ludicrous when there are literally hundreds of good games out there. But schools should offer gaming clubs and game theory classes.

In general, chess is good because it's popular, not because it's actually a teaching tool for life skills or critical thinking. Games with imperfect information and random elements are much more useful in that regard (and much more complex - so much so that many of the more esoteric ones are beyond the ability of AI to competantly play).

Watch out where you step, or we'll be afoot.

By the way, the OP link about Armenia making chess obligatory, actualy makes more sense. Chess to armenians is what Starcraft is to koreans. In such an environment, learning it can be an important part of everyday life, socialization, and preparednes about local cuture.

It could be useful for the same reason as learning grammar is useful: You don't really need it, but it helps you pass as an educated person in the community's eye.

edited 30th Oct '12 3:40:34 PM by Ever9

How has no one mentioned Stratego,it's Chess meets Memory except with all sorts of crazy little in-rules (not quite as bad a Go! however).

As much as we hate Deus ex Machina much of the time in books,it's very much a good thing when it's us that needs it. Stratego with it's multi-spaced weak pieces and other quirky pieces makes it perfect for that.

I'm not actually suggesting this should be mandatory by the way,strong encouraged sure. Mostly it's a Single-Issue Wonk that this game gets excluded so quickly.

edited 30th Oct '12 3:41:50 PM by terlwyth

Grammar is a part of language, and good use of language allows you to communicate more clearly. It's not exactly useless.

What's precedent ever done for us?

While I'm not in favour of making Chess classes compulsry. I am in favor of a sort of logics games class that allows kids to chose from a variety of games that are linked to logical skills.

I'm having to learn to pay the price