Chess is a Sport?

publication date: Mar 10, 2008

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author/source: Kate Copsey / STAFF

By Kate Copsey/ STAFF

Jim Mundy plays chess with Lake Windward student

Mundy is the Lake Windward Elementary School Chess Club teacher. He has had incredible success teaching these young children how to not just play the game, but also to win at competitions. His success with the kindergarten-6th grade Lake Windward students includes winning second place – out of 29 schools – in the Georgia Western Region State Championship Tournament. The Kindergarten-3rd grade also won honors at the regional championship. All these students will be going on to compete in the Georgia State Championship.

Mundy has been teaching chess for 10 years and currently teaches the subject at 12 schools around the region. He has been playing chess for over 30 years and entered his first tournament when he was just 12 years old.

Teaching Chess to Young Students
Teaching young children the strategy of chess takes time and patience, but it also has to be done in a way that keeps the children motivated. Mundy does this with a set of cards that record the progress of each child.

The method that Mundy uses was first developed and used to study how chess could be of benefit to students in school. The study used a control group of 4th and 5th grade honors level students, and an experimental group of special education students. None of the students in either group had played chess before.

At the end of the school year, a tournament was held. Two students from the experimental group won the tournament. More importantly, they also benefited from the focus and concentration that is needed to play chess, and this helped them focus better in other subjects.

The Cards
The specially designed cards are a way to document progress and learning, both of which were important in the initial experiment. The cards are coded and have a set of criteria that must be demonstrated to move from that card to the next level.

Mundy had to put a curriculum in place and to do that "we had to have a way to keep track of progress" he said. Graduated achievement cards allow the system to develop a curriculum. The ability to track progress is an important part of every educational process. With a rigorous curriculum in place, Mundy and other chess fans hope to see chess taught in more schools.

This simple method also gives the child a similar sense of achievement that karate students get when they attain the next belt color.

The Games
With children this age, each game takes about 15 minutes. The club has a ladder for the kids to progress along and competitive spirit runs high with the group. During this part of the class, the whole room is quiet, with kids concentrating on their game.

The noisy part of the class occurs at the end of the game phase. This is when the kids watch each other play non-competitively or try to gain another sticker on their cards.

A Sport?
If you look at the brain activity used by athletes versus that used when playing chess, then chess could be classed as a sport. Additionally, the mental concentration when playing a game can be as tiring on the body as many sports.

Chess in Georgia
Mundy is member of the Atlanta Chess Club, which is one of the largest in the southeast. Club members participate in tournaments on both a regional and state level. They also play in national competitions.