We Take A Break From English Class... To Have A Chess Party!

My first year students are getting keen on chess, so today I told them that as soon as we complete a reading a comprehension exercise we could have a chess party!

I brought two regular chess sets, two chess clocks, and a chess training set, for complete beginners, called "No Stress Chess." The "No Stress Chess" set comes with a set of cards that explain how the pieces move, which some of the students used during the games to help them navigate moves or understand what the other players were doing.

In the photo, the two girls who are playing on the left are the best improvers, bearing in mind that none of these students had ever played chess before, and most of them hadn't even played the popular Japanese variant called "Shogi."

The boy who's holding the phone gave me a pleasant surprise today. He is usually the least engaged of the students and I expected him to sit out the session without participating, as has been his wont hitherto, but today, as you can see, he joined us and was keen to learn how to play, and the other boy in the Adidas top taught him the moves.

Introducing chess to Japanese college students is always a fun and beneficial experience. Without realizing it, they work much harder and concentrate much better when playing chess than they do when "studying" English. Again, without realizing it, the level of English engagement also goes up as I explain everything in English, take photos at key points in the games and use them for post match training - again, all in English.

Once the students have played a few games, I introduce chess clocks. The girls played with ten minutes each on the clock, with no increment, while the boys played without a clock as it was the first time for one of them.

Next week, one of the students wants to challenge sensei to a game. I will play with a time handicap - something like two minutes on my clock and 10 minutes on hers.

Cheers!

David Hurley
#InspiredFocus

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