Garry Kasparov talking about the inauguration of the Kasparov Chess Foundation in São Paulo and the role of chess in the educational system:
Garry Kasparov: It’s not about learning chess to become great professionals. Its about learning chess to improve educational skills. It’s already proven beyond any doubt that chess in the education system helps kids, and I think it’s a very cost-effective system to improve education.
JS: Can you give us an example?
Garry Kasparov: I’ll give you one example: there was an experience run in Germany by one of the German universities. They had classes, two classes. One had extra hours of mathematics. Another class, the same class, parallel, had extra hours in chess. At the end of the year, they compared the results in… mathematics! The class with chess won. But moreover it’s about social integration, because it helps kids to gain some self-esteem, it boosts their attitude, sense of logic…
Check out the complete interview in the ChessBase News section.
Source: ChessBase
