Some teachers have mixed feelings about the clandestine playing of chess in their classes....
Why wouldn't all teachers have unmixed negative feelings about the unauthorized playing of chess in class?
This is just part of the problem of internet access during class. How does the teacher even know which website students are checking? The article clumsily compares Wewers to another teacher who "sees nothing but positives" but seems to be talking about chess played during a free period.
I see no basis for seeing teachers as flummoxed. But it's great to know kids are playing chess.
There's some stress in the article on how there's a "transcendence of social groups." A librarian asserts that "It pairs different sets of kids together that you don’t normally see," kids who "normally would never... interact."
But it doesn't specify which groups are mixing! Rich and poor? Black and white? Gay and straight? Neurodivergent and neurotypical? Male and female? I have no idea. The big photo at the top of the article shows empty chairs at a chess table. There's another photograph, a small one, that shows 8 persons who are referred to as "students." They all look like boys.
Is the flummoxing about the burgeoning of an activity that doesn't include girls? Again, I have no idea, but it certainly seems as though the article is actively excluding the information. The word "student" is used 23 times. Words that don't appear even once: "boy," "girl," "male," "female," "gender," "sex." Flummoxing, indeed!
ADDED: Reading some of the comments over there, I can discern another reason for adults to fret about the interest in chess. Some children lock in too hard. They seem obsessed. I think to some adults, this looks crazy and abnormal. They see all this brain power going into a pointless game rather than into something more substantive, like history or science. They worry the children will become robotic and disengaged and — to throw gender back into the mix — that boys will shape themselves into something that girls won't relate to.
And then how will civilization carry on?
Less dire but perhaps more likely to trouble teachers: What are the political predilections of the mind of a chess player?
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73 comments:
So, the issue is not chess. Conflation of choices and consequences.
Genderized chess in the news plus biological males intrude on women's sports
Kenyan male chess player disguises in hijab for women’s competition, caught
my liberal nephew, whom i have carped about before..
His claim to 'intelligence' is that he was in chess club in high school.
He can't do Calc.. he don't know ANY physics.. knows No foreign languages.. he can NOT read a map..
BUT! he was in chess club, back in high school; so, as far as HE is concerned: he's SUPER SMART.
Back in high school, *i* was sneaking quantum physics books during class.. But that just made Me a geek
Something about this story doesn't add up for me. I can't quite put my finger on it, though. This passage "wishes her students would stop clicking to Chess.com" rings false, but I can't explain why.
I expect the kids are getting more out of chess.com than they do from a high school geography class. But seriously, why do the schools not have content filtering software on their WiFi network? They simply must have it, so if students are accessing chess.com using their chromebooks, then it must be permitted.
Down deep, I suspect Althouse is secretly delighted by any phenomenon that inspires use of her favorite word, flummoxed. Indeed, I even suspect that she takes a certain delight in the actual flummoxing of any serious humans, including teachers.
Discovery is the privilege of a child "a child who's not afraid, who has not yet been told it cannot be done".
Hint: Lex video clip of a conversation.
Inmates... something, something... asylum.
"...Less dire but perhaps more likely to trouble teachers: What are the political predilections of the mind of a chess player?"
Great point! These kids might develop into skeptics. You know, people who understand logic and rules --the game of chess is merely a manifestation of such an intellectual structure and process-- and such people might tend not to swallow the usual bullshit when it's served up on a big platter of "It's true because I say so."
flummox (v.)
1837, cant word, also flummux, of uncertain origin, probably risen out of a British dialect (OED finds candidate words in Herefordshire, Gloucestershire, southern Cheshire, and Sheffield). "The formation seems to be onomatopœic, expressive of the notion of throwing down roughly and untidily" [OED]. Related: Flummoxed; flummoxing.
Editorial irony. That said, just the facts, madam.
We don't need no education, no thought control... Hey, JournoLists, leave us kids alone.
Anything that leads to better problem solving skills is a good thing, IMHO.
Who here is a chess player? I am.
The follow up is how serious? Do you own chess books? Do you have a rating? Do you still study? Do you play on chess.com?
Are you a e4, d4, c4 player as White?
As Black, do you play Sicilian against e4? As Black against d4, do you play Nimzo, Kings Indian, or Classical?
Cheers!
Compare and contrast feminine and masculine genders. Perhaps girls and boys, respectively, too.
Compare and contrast feminine and masculine genders. Perhaps girls and boys, respectively, too.
"The word "student" is used 23 times. Words that don't appear even once: "boy," "girl," "male," "female," "gender," "sex." Flummoxing, indeed!"
Flummoxing has become SOP in the swirling world of gender. But we have, apparently, decided language is (non-gender) fluid. Language has always evolved. But lately the left has implemented gain of function for that evolution.
Ain't my fault.
Just wondering why grades re not discipline enough. Is the course so easy that no one needs it? Or does modern EDU forbid giving bad grades to its $ 60,000 a year paying disciples?
Teachers (and their union) like control.
It's all boys.
At least the good players are all boys...
lichess is great for quick games; at night I frequently intend to play one or two and end up playing eight nor nine.
First, I blame Anya Taylor-Joy
Second, given what is taught in school in 2023, anyone with evidence of life above the shoulders would be exercising their brains with something else. Chess or Go would be perfect in this regard, as the amount of brain power required for either is effectively infinite
That's the real reason teachers hate it. They don't want their little mind slaves going off the teachers' map. I experience the a similar thing as a child, because I consumed massive amounts of reading off-map. The teachers thought I was disabled!
>Less dire but perhaps more likely to trouble teachers: What are the political predilections of the mind of a chess player? <
Kings and queens - entirely too binary for today's schools. Hell, probably even transphobic...
I wonder if this is because of the Botez sisters. They are lots of fun. The younger one had, Andrea, had a chess boxing match a few weeks ago. She was robbed since she should have won on a TKO.
Chess requires a discipline of intellect, regulation of emotions and establishment of base principles. The students who become educated will be less malleable to the agenda of the educators. And boys are more likely to devote the time to chess and that goes against all the training of the "educators". Boys must be broken and complacent. This is terrible for teachers, students who develop freedom of thought, how horrible.
Another BS WaPo article. Sometimes I think they make news up. Virtually every school I know makes students store their devices if not part of instruction
When the lessons are not sufficiently engaging, the captive students will find alternatives for their concentration. As it always has been, so it always will be. The only change is the flavor of the alternatives.
and then there is Chinese Chess aka Go
this could be Russian collusion and not China subverting
So is there an issue because white kids are playing with black kids and teachers are irritated because their CRT ideas will start to fall on deaf ears? Or that chess is truly a thinking person’s game & they are irritated that kids might learn critical thinking on their own and not convoluted thinking like a union teacher might want to present? Or is it that the teachers are afraid they may look like dummies because they don’t know how to play chess and can’t talk about a particular move with a student? Students may start READING chess guides instead of reading books about anal sexual, fisting and gay sex. That would totally turn their curriculum up side down!
In my mind there are so many reasons why a union school teacher would be irritated that “students” would play chess.
They can't use Althouse's favorite word to describe this. Instead: insulted, feeling ignored, rendered obsolete, grasping at straws to be offended ...
We don't need no education
We don't need no thought control
No dark sarcasm in the classroom
Teachers leave them kids alone
Hey! Teachers! Leave them kids alone
Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) from over four hundred US chess players (Kelly, 1985). This study indicates that chess players are more introverted and intuitive compared with the general population.
Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) from competitive and average chess players, and non-players from Israel (Avni et al., 1987). Competitive players score higher than non-players do in suspiciousness, unconventional thinking, and orderliness.
When comparing the non-professional sample of chess players with the available normative data, stronger support for inter-group differences arose for neuroticism and expressive suppression. These findings underline that higher emotional stability and the ability to manage emotions differentiated chess players from the general population.
Obviously a desperate bid for the intellectual challenge that formerly was public education. Those 9th graders could play many games, most of them being tests of hand-eye coordination or reaction time. The fact that they choose chess shows they crave mental stimulation. They want to exercise their ability to reason strategically. They don't want to hear another CRT-tinged lecture about nothing of importance.
If these 9th graders obey and put aside the chess, what will be the result? An increased likelihood of graduating without the ability to read English or reason with numbers is my supposition. Leave them alone, better to encourage autodidactic teenagers than make them captives of the evil Department of Education.
Kings and queens - entirely too binary for today's schools. Hell, probably even transphobic...
Also, diversity, equity, inclusion: bishops, rooks, knights, pawns... empowered female, toxic masculinity. But, no "burdens", so there is that concession.
Back in my day you didn’t learn chess online, you learned by losing over and over at the kitchen table to your dad playing the same scholars mate trick on you. Somewhere long the line I learned the tricks and became better than him. I don’t remember how but at 14 I found out about an adult chess club that met Wednesday nights at a shoney’s and I some how convinced my mom to leave me across town to play. I didn’t play as much after going to college but now that the kids are out of the house I’m trying to get back to playing over the board. I’m 55 now and my old 1500 rating is down to like 1250 because I’m getting crushed by 8 year olds. I played against a 13 year old girl the other week and she started with c4 and I’m thinking “what the hell, kids trying to play this kind of stuff”. Then internet has allowed a lot more kids to learn how to play which is great. And they have the resources to learn more than I ever did at that age.
And yes, I have chess books. I watch Gotham Chess every day. But I mostly play slow daily games on chess.com.
Oh yeah. I watched that chess boxing event not knowing what to expect and was greatly entertained. I couldn’t imagine such an event having 20k live attendees and 300k live on line for an event involving chess? Wow. And Andrea did get robbed but she milked it for her channel and nice to see her and Dina are still friends and it was all for the fun and experience.
There are some really great young ladies doing chess online and I think getting solid respect from their audiences. And everyone likes when Anna. Cramling has her GM mom in her videos, one of the OG top female players.
Gadfly doing his bizarre cut and paste without attribution thing again.
Gadfly, quit pretending you know things and just give us the link to the content you are plaigarizing.
Geography doesn't have to be 'taught'; it offers teachers a wonderful opportunity to interest students in exploration. I believe there would be less chess in the classroom if actual geography (physical and cultural) was the focus.
I kinda suspect many geography classes are now all about climate change, European (white) colonization and theft of natural resources.
"The word "student" is used 23 times. Words that don't appear even once: "boy," "girl," "male," "female," "gender," "sex." Flummoxing, indeed!"
What does this mean for the teaching of foreign languages?
Goodbye der/die/das?
@ Space Mountain 12:10. Another good one.
Chess can be addicting. Playing a friend, decided to take it to his house.
Forgot I had two four year olds sleeping in another room until wife called me at friends house.
She was mildly piqued. Fortunately kids did not awaken during absence.
Oh, and I beat Koltonowski once. Of course he was playing ten people blindfold at the time, but still..
Blogger stutefish said...
"Something about this story doesn't add up for me."
Astute observation by stutefish.
As a recently retired teacher, there are many problems with this article.
Teachers have been dealing with students distracted by phones since texting became popular. Students accessing the wrong website on their Chromebooks has been a problem since we gave them the phony laptops. Except in extreme cases, we don't care what they are viewing on the devices, we object to their lack of attention and focus. That they are playing chess, rather than paying attention, is completely irrelevant to us.
We aren't very interested in how they spend their free time outside of class. We prefer that it's something more productive than social media, but we aren't their parents and it's not our job.
Kids get swept up in silly fads all the time. There is no long term significance. My high school had 500 students, almost a third of the student body, join Fish Club that was started as a joke by a popular teacher who liked aquariums. Some of my students joined, even though they hadn't had that teacher and didn't know if Fish Club was about maintaining aquariums, fishing, cooking fish, or something else. The teacher understood the situation and played along to the end of the year, then it was forgotten.
I signed up for Chess.com and played my first game against the computer. A beginner bot won in eight moves. The results say I made four 'blunders'. So room for improvement there.
Kids could do a lot worse than playing chess during class.
I'm guessing the teachers don't know how to play chess.
Maybe the teacher should play against her students.
I can't believe we still have schools! It's the fucking twenty-first century! Schools were invented by Prussians during the Industrial Revolution to turn the German peasantry into factory workers and soldiers. Which worked out pretty well. For a while, anyway. Naturally, the institution was brought to the US by shitheads from Massachusetts. Any time you need a shithead to fuck things up, count on Massachusetts to provide one. At least one, usually more.
Public education is like public transportation. It's sometimes better than nothing, if it's all you've got. But it wastes huge amounts of time and money, and doesn't usually take you where you actually want to go.
Do the daily puzzles on Chess.com. It's not only a great way to learn how to play the game, but how to finish one.
I don't have a problem with kids paying less attention in class, considering most public school is little more than leftwing indoctrination.
I was a 1800 50 years ago. Probably lucky if I could maintain 1200 today, but I still love the game. I loved the 2 hours of following the strategy and tactics. During the 90's when chess online first appeared I thought cool! time to brush up my game, but everyone wanted 5min speed chess which does nothing for me. Occasionally I could talk them into 15min, but that kind of game is full of mistakes at my level of play, and I lost interest. I wonder if the kids are playing speed chess or a longer game? I think that would make a difference in what they are taking away from it. I think that playing speed chess during class would be just diddling away time, and longer games would be the same as skipping class, so I can see why teachers wouldn't like it.
The chess club I was in in the early 70's was full of business owners and techies (who were always telling me that the soon to be internet was going to bigger than sliced bread). I played a GM once when I was at a high of 1853. He was playing 31 of us at the same time. I resigned after 9 moves and I wasn't the first out. One of us, a 2150 lasted 22 moves. There's a HUGE difference between 1800 and 2600.
Chess-greatest game ever. If students are going to diddle away class, better chess than TicTok or some game requiring rote memorization of which way to push a thumbstick.
Back in college there was an event where a chess master would play as many people who signed up for the event. A friend of mine and I did. I played a very unconventional strategy and was way ahead early on. The chess master started paying attention to me. My friend played totally conventionally. I ended up losing, my friend offered a draw which was accepted.
Chess is good for the mind.
"something more substantive, like history or science."
Heh.
In 7th and 8th grade a bunch of us played chess nearly every day after school. No, gadfly, we weren't neurotic.
Who has "Chess is racist" on their bingo cards? It's coming.
It's because some kids are better at chess and anything that could prove intelligence freaks them out.
Too bad I didn't have a computer game or a Cell phone in 9th grade. When i think of all the hours wasted in all those boring classes.
And imagine the plight of some poor kid today. He's probably getting forced fed crap about Susan B. Anthony, the Holocaust, and the Color Purple 24/7. Chess is probably the only thing keeping him sane.
Chess is a great game, you can play your entire life. Most of us never master it. Its like Golf.
"I wonder if the kids are playing speed chess or a longer game?"
Blitz mostly, bullet chess at higher levels. You can find games at longer time formats, but cheating goes up exponentially the longer the time format.
"Who here is a chess player? I am.
The follow up is how serious? Do you own chess books? Do you have a rating? Do you still study? Do you play on chess.com?
Are you a e4, d4, c4 player as White?
As Black, do you play Sicilian against e4? As Black against d4, do you play Nimzo, Kings Indian, or Classical?"
I played on Yahoo's chess server for close to 12 years before they closed down the games rooms in 2014, though I only played sporadically growing up, I really didn't get into serious chess until grad school when I played old fashioned correspondance chess for about 5 years. On Yahoo, my rating was about 1900 by the time I stopped, and on Chess.com, it was around the same before I stopped playing altogether in 2016 or so- just no time for it, and waning interest. My main online chess activity over the years, though, has been chess problem solving- in particular endgame studies, but I have mostly left that behind the last 3 years or so, and rarely study them any longer (I did it regularly on Susan Polgar's blogger site, and followed her a couple blog moves before stopping). I still regularly watch game analysis on a couple of vlogs (Agadmator and Jozarov on youtube). I don't know that I will play again.
As to the opening choices- I mostly opened with 1.e4 as white, and when I didn't, it would be 1.Nf3 (the Reti), that usually transposed into 1.d4 lines most of the time. Against 1.e4, I was completely dedicated to the Sicilian, opting for the Najdorf almost all the time when given the option. Against 1.d4 I always replied with 1. ....d5, usually ending up in Queens' Gambit Declined/Accepted lines, but would sometimes opt for Slav Defense lines. I once did an statitistical analysis on all my games online, and as black I faced 1.e4 like 80% of the time.
Ambrose: "Who has "Chess is racist" on their bingo cards? It's coming."
Given that the dems/lefties have already declared being punctual or showing up on time or adhering to schedule is literally White Supremacy, time-limited-chess like Speed Chess or Blitz Chess is clearly White Supremacy on steroids.
Kat Tempf, on Gutfeld!, said that females had better emotional IQ than males and therefore never became so isolated and lonely as to get good at chess.
Blogger Drago said...
Gadfly doing his bizarre cut and paste without attribution thing again.
Gadfly, quit pretending you know things and just give us the link to the content you are plaigarizing [sic].
Drago - Since when did you ever do attribution to support any of your distorted posts?
I did indeed include a link to the information about chess players (that you failed to open) but I overestimated your intelligence by assuming that people know the Pink Floyd song lyrics (or at least know how to Google the words).
No pretentions here - except in your fantasy.
Yahoo chess was fantastic. And the chat rooms were hilarious. I don’t know which I enjoyed more. That was the free wheeling internet of the late 90s. It will never exist again. I’m so glad I was able to experience it.
Chess has on defense against being racist. It was invented in India. That may not be enough for the "equity" dopes. After all, one person wins without shooting the other.
Blogger ken in tx said...
Kat Tempf, on Gutfeld!, said that females had better emotional IQ than males and therefore never became so isolated and lonely as to get good at chess.
If they look like Kat Timpf they have no worries about being lonely.
If they look like Bella Abzug, that is a strong incentive to change genders. Like our Public Health admiral. Somehow, he got that backwords.
Who cares that women and girls don't play chess. Everytime women are underepresented in some activity we all have get CONCERNED and stroke our chins and wonder "Is there sexism goin' on?"
Anyhow, some women do play chess. And the best aren't as good as the best men, for the same reason the best female Hard scientists, Mathematicians, statisticians, Engineers, and computer nerds aren't as good as the best men.
Go look at the Math SAT and compare the top scores. You'll see the same variation since they started the test.
And a lot women could be good at chess, but don't want to play it. Lots of Young women like "real life". And they want to dance and have fun. Or do arts. Not play a "game". And whats wrong with that? Nothing. And whats wrong with some guy playing chess? Nothing.
I'm flumoxed by the whole arguement.
BTW, there a lot of Youtube channels who go over the Grandmaster Chess games. Like Mr. Spock I find them fascinating.
Ambrose: "Who has "Chess is racist" on their bingo cards? It's coming."
=======
since White moves first >>> atleast Surpemancy
I played chess before there was an internet and helped teach my 8-tyear-old nephew how to play. One day I made a move and I saw his eyes narrow in. I lost that day and never played again. Really I only knew how to move the pieces. But in my dreams I start to play again and this time with all my life experience I can plan. I'm playing and my eyes narrow...
Yes sir, you got trouble
Right here in River City
That's trouble with a capital T
That rhymes with C that stands for chess
A chess board, don't you understand?
Friend, either you're closing your eyes
To a situation you do not wish to acknowledge
Or you are not aware of the caliber of disaster indicated
By the presence of a chess board in your community
I say, first, medicinal wine from a teaspoon
Then beer from a bottle
And the next thing you know
Your son is playing for money in a pinch-back suit
And listenin' to some big outta town jasper
Hearin' him tell about NFT gamblin'
Yes you got lots and lots of trouble
I'm thinkin' of the kids in the knickerbockers
Shirt-tail young ones, peekin' at the chess boars in the park after school
You got trouble, folks
Right here in River City, trouble with a capital "T"
And that rhymes with "C" and that stands for Chess
Schools should have ability to control tech use during class.
Parents should be able to audit the classroom experience at will.
... wishes her students would stop clicking to Chess.com on their Chromebooks and iPhones mid-lesson ...
Clicking? I haven't, in the last 30 years or so, owned or seen an electronic device with a keyboard that "clicks."
My experience is that if teachers make their classes interesting and (perceived as) relevant to the students, the students will be more likely to pay attention. Sort of like Tic Tok.
I thought (think?) everyone knows how to play chess. Maybe that’s not true, today, and I’d like to know why not? (Rhetorical).
Either the reporter is lying, the teachers are lying, or the teachers are stupid. Substitute ‘and’ if you wish.
Based on my limited experience volunteering in a local high school, kids will bury their noses into their phones if they possibly can.
I think this chess story is slow news day click bait
In chess, as in our society, queens can do anything.
Only tangentially related, but let me hip you to the truth about "Chinese Checkers"
They see all this brain power going into a pointless game rather than into something more substantive, like history or science.
As a lad, I was obsessed with baseball: watching games, collecting cards, poring over statistics, inventing various dice-based simulations, etc. My older brother used to joke that if I took just half the time I spent on baseball and applied it to world problems, we'd be living in Utopia by now.
I outgrew that obsession, took on a variety of others, became an adult, gravitated back to baseball (though less obsessively), and generally did alright.
Too much thinking involved in Chess, interferes with the programming.
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