Stalemate?

Over the last decade, an increasing number of countries have integrated chess as a pedagogical tool and even as core content of their academic curricula. Nonetheless, the evidence regarding the causal effects of chess on a range of skills remains inconclusive. We report new evidence of the impact of...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Choi de Mendizabal, Álvaro Borja, Hurtado, Marta, Santín González, Daniel, Sicilia Suárez, Gabriela|||0000-0002-1078-7762, Simancas, Rosa|||0000-0001-9203-7334
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2025
País:España
Institución:Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
Repositorio:Dipòsit Digital de Documents de la UAB
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:ddd.uab.cat:324701
Acceso en línea:https://ddd.uab.cat/record/324701
https://dx.doi.org/urn:doi:10.1016/j.tsc.2025.101819
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Chess
Cognitive and non-cognitive skills
Primary education
Student evaluation
Descripción
Sumario:Over the last decade, an increasing number of countries have integrated chess as a pedagogical tool and even as core content of their academic curricula. Nonetheless, the evidence regarding the causal effects of chess on a range of skills remains inconclusive. We report new evidence of the impact of learning chess in school on a set of cognitive and non-cognitive skills of 12-year-old students to shed light on this matter. To do this, we take advantage of the implementation of a phase-in program introducing chess into a set of schools in Catalonia (Spain). This experimental setting enables us to estimate the causal effects of practicing educational chess at school on critical thinking, attention, patience, and risk aversion. Results show that, after one academic year, the differences between the treated and control group are not statistically significant for any of these outcomes. Students who took part in the chess program significantly outperformed the students in the control group only in terms of their chess-playing knowledge and proficiency.