Does playing chess help students succeed in school?
Does playing chess help with academic learning? While this question dates back to the 19th century, it was in the 2000s that programs promoting chess began to take root in schools. What are the real benefits of this approach? What do teachers have to say about it?
Fabien Groeninger, University of Montpellier and Yves Léal, University of Toulouse
Chess, which has long suffered from a stuffy image in society, is now all the rage among young people thanks to TV series such as The Queen’s Gambit (2020), the growth of esports, and initiatives by French NBA star Victor Wembanyama. Last July, Wembanyama proposed combining basketball and chess in a single competition, noting: “We need a variety of things to be able to grow.”
Thus, since the 1970s, what began as isolated initiatives have grown in number, aiming to introduce chess into classrooms, based on the belief that playing the game would help students develop a wide range of skills and enhance their academic learning.
Does initial feedback from the field confirm this? What kind of approach to learning does playing chess facilitate?
Local pilot projects before widespread implementation
The educational value of chess is nothing new. Traces of this can be found as early as the19thcentury, such as this letter from a reader to a specialized magazine suggesting thatstudents be kept occupied during recess with a “noble pastime.” But it wasn’t until the 1970s and 1980s that concrete initiatives emerged, often in the form of school clubs.
In a few “pilot schools, ” chess is sometimes incorporated into the students’ schedule as a required class. That said, a dissertation defended in 1988 shows that chess is still often an after-school or extracurricular activity.
When teachers incorporate chess into their classrooms—with the approval of their superiors—some note that they feel chess helps develop skills such as intuition and spatial reasoning, but they are not certain that students’ progress in these areas is attributable solely to learning chess.
In 2007, after a U.S. study demonstrated the benefits of chess for students struggling with mathematics and complex problem-solving, the French Chess Federation—which had since become a sports federation—signed a framework agreement with the French Ministry of Education to officially regulate and authorize the teaching of chess in classrooms.
However, these projects remain the preserve of teachers who are passionate about chess—often club players—who translate their chess experience into effective classroom instruction.
The Class’Échecs Program
Throughout the 2000s, numerous international studies demonstrated the benefits of chess for students. Some countries incorporated chess into their school curricula or implemented major initiatives.
In France, in 2022, the French Chess Federation (FFE) launched the Class’Échecs program and signed an amendment to the agreement to promote its implementation in elementary schools. Four principles were thus highlighted:
- The program is open to all teachers, regardless of their level of chess skill;
- Chess becomes a means of developing academic skills and is not an end in itself;
- The program is cooperative in nature, designed to foster the development of social and interpersonal skills;
- The content is designed with an educational focus for classroom use, and all materials are made available to teachers free of charge. The FFE also offers game kits at discounted prices so that schools can purchase them at a lower cost.
The initiative quickly gained traction, with approximately 2,000 teachers participating in the first year; by 2025, that number had grown to over 8,000, meaning 160,000 students are introduced to chess each year. https://www.youtube.com/embed/GNCs2OJVH64?wmode=transparent&start=0 Report on Class’Échecs (France 3 Provence-Alpes-Côte-d’Azur, 2023).
The survey conducted in 2022–2023 among teachers who offer Class’Échecs provides insight into their interest in the program. They see it as a way to teach mathematics differently. They note strong student engagement and interest and also believe that these sessions help develop skills in moral and civic education. However, 87% of these teachers know very little or nothing at all about chess and therefore teach it without fully mastering the content, even though chess is often considered a complicated game.
The keys to success: a holistic approach to education
Why do elementary school teachers who have not been trained in chess instruction and do not have a firm grasp of its fundamentals embark on this endeavor? The 2022–2023 survey offers some possible explanations, pointing to a form of holistic education whose roots date back to the 19th century.
First of all, the project-based approach transcends the silos of academic disciplines, a fact that is particularly relevant in elementary school, where teachers are generalists. It offers undeniable benefits for teachers because it gives meaning to learning, fostering greater student engagement and helping students associate school more closely with the joy of learning.
This approach advocates for a more holistic view of the student, in which various skills that connect the body and the mind are developed within the same instructional setting. Chess, as an educational tool, seems particularly well-suited: its playful nature stimulates interest and engagement, and handling the pieces facilitates the transition from experimentation to abstraction.
Language skills are not a prerequisite for success, as the visual-spatial nature of the situations directly engages cognitive functions without requiring mastery of linguistic conventions—a real obstacle for some students. Furthermore, the ability to create open-ended problems allows students to develop a solid foundation in mathematics—a true institutional necessity—while challenging their understanding of the subject.
Finally, at a time when AI and the internet are making knowledge accessible to everyone, the project encourages teachers to shift their approach to foster discussion and critical thinking, inspiring students to construct their learning collaboratively.
Fabien Groeninger, Associate Professor, Faculty of Education, LIRDEF (Interdisciplinary Research Laboratory in Didactics, Education, and Training), University of Montpellier and Yves Léal, Associate Professor of Education, University of Toulouse
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Readthe original article.