Using Chess to Teach Math in Elementary Schools

Using Chess to Teach Math in Elementary Schoolsinnovative technologies, namely they are listed as
Frank Hofollows:
Founder of Ho Math and Chess™ Learning
Centre, Vancouver1. Geometry Chess Symbols
Canada certified math teacher2. Ho Math and Chess™ Teaching Set
Chess has been heralded as a miracle to help3. Frankho Chess Mazes
children develop their math skills. How true is it?4. Frankho IQ Chess Math Brainpower Workout
After my over 10 years of research and teaching5. Math and Chess Integrated Workbooks
of math, I think the answer is not a simple yes or
no, rather it depends on how chess instruction isOur research and experiment at Ho Math and
delivered. If chess is delivered as a pure gameChess™ has found out that the marriage of
and taught in a way that it has nothing to do withmath, chess and IQ math puzzles has significant in
math then the impact on math learning isimproving children’s math ability. The
minimum. On the other hand, if chess is integratedcombination of math pure number crunching
into math worksheets then the effect is moreproblems, along with chess puzzles, word
significant. This is proven from my own teachingproblems, and IQ puzzles give children the
observation and also the USA research dataopportunities to expose an array of problems of
collected in Illinois (visit for details.).pattern, table, diagrams, symbols, equations, and
A simple minded approach to use chess to teachfigures. Children tend to get involved more in their
math in the elementary schools is to have chessthinking process with integrated materials. It is this
lessons in a math class and chess in this case iskind of deep thinking process which truly raise
treated as a separate project or as a part ofchildren’s math ability. The truly integrated
problem solving set. For those children who do notworksheet of math, chess, IQ puzzles also is
like to play chess, this could present problems formore challenged for children. Most of children like
them since the benefits of playing chess can notintegrated worksheet more than pure
be delivered to those who do not necessarily playcomputational style worksheets.
chess. In this model, math worksheets have veryTo get the true benefits of using chess to teach
little to do with chess and chess benefits onmath in elementary school, it requires the key
computation is very minimum.which links math and chess. I have found and
The more robust approach is truly integratingdiscovered the key which links between chess
chess into math curriculum such that whenand math and by using the key, I have created
children work on math worksheets, they directlyover 20 math and chess integrated workbooks.
work on math and chess integrated worksheets.Not only these math and chess integrated
The trouble is how to truly mesh or integrateworkbooks can raise children’s math
chess into math worksheets? At Ho Math andmarks at their day schools, they are also fun to
Chess™, we have successfully in trulywork with and provide entertainment and
integrating chess into math using our inventedchallenge for children.