The Game of Chess

As I  was fingering through the news this morning, I came upon an article in World Magazine about the game of chess that caught my attention. If my memory is correct, chess was a game we army brats played to pass the time while serving in Germany. I’m not that good, but the game is fascinating requiring concentration rather than quick decisions. Seth, my grandson, at the age of sixteen, beat me a few years back. And, the game is prominent in my novel “Just a Matter of Time.”

“We’re going to play chess,” Jimmy says, looking to Julia for a reaction.

“Chess? Yeah,” Julia says. “Ah, you’re one of those, are you? Yeah, thinking girls can’t play that game of analytics and deep concentration. Ha, this is going to be fun.” 
She looks at the Director. “We may forgo lunch.”

From World Magazine, I quote:
“Success Academy, a newer network of 48 charter schools in the city(New York), now requires chess instruction for students in kindergarten through second grade. (After second grade, students can elect to take chess classes and can specialize in chess when they’re in high school.) The network’s chess program has about 10,000 students a year.
The philosophy behind requiring chess: It develops analytical thinking skills, concentration, and self-control. Times, the head of Success’ chess program, says learning chess has similar effects on the brain as learning a language. A study of New York students in 1993 showed that chess improved reading scores, while previous studies showed math improvements. Chess students might be a self-selected group, so those studies aren’t conclusive, but chess clearly improves basic skills like concentration and creativity.”

https://world.wng.org/2019/08/life_after_chess