Chess in Education

Chess In Education

Since children enjoy learning through play, chess can be a powerful educational tool for the development of academic, 21st-century skills and life lessons.


Educational chess offers a multi-purpose approach that addresses the needs of educators and creates a positive learning environment for pupils. The advantage of educational chess is that it offers high impact on skill development in a short period of time.


Every game of chess is a test of a new situation with problems that have never been seen before regardless of the playing level of the game partners. Chess draws upon memories of past games and experiences. That’s a healthy cognitive activity at any age. Recognizing a problem and figuring out a solution occurs multiple times during a game of chess.

21st Century Skills

  • Critical thinking

    • Pattern recognition

    • Strategic planning

    • Assessing solutions

    • Defense of reasoning

    • Meta-cognitive reflection

  • Communication

    • Listening carefully

    • Substantiation and argumentation

    • Body language

    • Managing emotions

  • Creativity

    • Lateral thinking

    • Wealth of resources

    • Originality

    • Flexibility of ideas

  • Collaboration

    • Teamwork

    • Solidarity

    • Engament

    • Active listening

    • Cooperative problem solving

Life Skills

  • Impulse control

  • Decision under pressure

  • Perseverance

  • Focus

  • Respect

  • Dealing with tension

  • Sacrifice

  • Sensitivity

  • Empathy

  • Patience

  • Adaption to change

  • Forseeing consequences

Academic Skills

  • Literacy

    • Reading informational text

    • Language acquisition

    • Perspective

    • Collaborative conversations

    • Visual and oral presentation

  • Mathematics

    • Concrete, pictorial abstract method

    • Coordinate systems

    • Point value

    • Problem solving vs rote learning