1. Investigating the Impact of Chess Play on Developing Brains at Different Levels
Of Education
By: Daven Rees

2. If you play chess or other brain-stretching games when you are older

3. Hypothesis - How can learning chess effectively help students at different levels of education, develop meta-cognitive abilities and mathematical problem-solving capabilities
Hypothesis - How effective can learning chess help students, at different levels of education,
develop meta-cognitive abilities and mathematical problem-solving capabilities
Metacognition is awareness and understanding of one's own thought processes.

4. Why Chess?
Chess increases intelligence creativity, Improves higher thinking skills, and when practiced students can show to be among the top in math and science classes.
Chess increases intelligence creativity, enhances strategic thinking and enriches problem- solving ability. Furthermore it increases self-esteem. Chess improves and develops higher order thinking skills (that is meta-cognitive skills); in addition youngsters evaluate the actions and results and predict future possibilities. When chess is highly practiced in specific countries, practicing students show ability to be among the top in math and science classes and recognize complicated patterns as well.

5. THE STUDY
By: Farhad Kazemi, Mozafar Yektayar, Ali Mohammadi Bolban Abad
Organized by: SciVerse ScienceDIrect
A study was taken by SciVerse ScienceDirect in They took a total of 180 randomly
selected students. Of those, 86 school-boy students were randomly selected and they were
taught chess for six months, and another group of 94 students were randomly selected
for the control group. The subjects were assessed via meta-cognitive questionnaire of
mathematical exams. The results indicated that chess students showed more
achievement in meta-cognitive abilities and mathematical problem solving capabilities
than the non-chess students. These results suggest that we can use chess as an
effective tool for developing higher order thinking skills. This study was conducted
under clear evidence and 25 different sources.

6. Non-Chess Player Students
Frequency of Participants (Table 1)
Chess Player Students
Non-Chess Player Students
Total:
5th Grade 28 29 57
8th Grade 27 32 59
9th Grade 31 33 64 86 94
180
This study was conducted with male students in these grades in primarily junior high schools in Sanandaji in west Iran.

7. Meta-cognitive Scores (Avg)
Results of independent samples t-test for comparing meta-cognitive score means between chess and non-Chess Players (Table 2)
Groups
Sample Size
Meta-cognitive Scores (Avg)
StDev t df
p(2-tailed)
Chess Player 86
132.75
7.23
5.08
178
0.000
Non-Chess Player 94
125.56
9.93

8. Results of independent samples (n) t-test for comparing meta-cognitive score means of students at different levels of education (Table 3)
Education Level
Groups n M
StDev t df
Significance Level
5th Grade
Chess 28
134.80
7.73
2.71 55
Lvl 99%
Non-Chess 29
124.57
10.49
p = 0.009
8th Grade 27
133.26
6.81
2.36 57
Lvl 95% 32
126.67
10.26
p = 0.02
9th Grade 31
133.10
7.31
3.76 62 33
125.09
9.30
p < 0.001

9. Benefits of Chess Focusing Visualizing Thinking Ahead Weighing Options
Analyzing Concretely
Thinking abstractly
Planning
A man by the name of J. Meyers says “we have brought chess to school because we
believe that it can directly contribute to academic performance. Chess makes children
smarter” It can do this by teaching us these following things.F- Children are taught to
learn about the advantages of observing & focusing. In addition, children cannot respond
to what is happening unless they watch it.V- Children are encouraged to imagine a series
of actions before it occurs by training and asking them to visualize and to move 1 piece
in their mind and then several moves ahead, developing a better visualization skill. TA-
Chess helps develop calmness and attentiveness. Students are more often to think more
about there actions, they often ask “If I do this, what may happen later and how can I
respond. W- Children may learn they dont haveto express whatever 1st occurs to their mind,
they learn to find outother choices and take into account the advantages of diff actions. AC-
Students learn to assess the results of particular actions and arrangments. They learn to
make decisions based on logic instead of impulse. Ta- Students sometimes are taught to
move back from details and focus on the whole picture. They learn to analyze patterns to
various related situations. P- Students are taught to define long-term goals and do their best
to achieve them. They feel the need to re-evaluate their plans particularly when new
improvements change the situation.

10. !Results!