I was playing last night with my step-daughter as a bit of a way to kill time. Watching her learn to play is very interesting for me in that she is relatively new to the game and her attention span is normally pretty low. If the game isn’t always moving then her attention drifts.

But she is always keen for the game and her technique is improving rapidly – she is going to be a decent little player with a few more games under her belt. Even last night I suddenly found her starting to grasp the angles and movements of the game – she nailed me when she realized her knight could move backwards and take my queen – suddenly she was looking at the board as a playground on which she could control the dynamics of the pieces.

Patience isn’t her strongest point and her attention tends to go toward the end of the game. But since she started playing her attention span, concentration and “ethic” toward the game has improved immeasurably. Now she takes a keen interest in what the other person is doing with their pieces and then starts to plan forward.

I do believe that is something that schools could have looked at promoting a lot more than they do at junior levels. The idea isn’t necessarily to create a number of young geniuses but to use the game to stimulate different aspects of concentration amongst kids.

Teachers – maybe consider it?