Students’ Thoughts About Chess

Transcript:

Melissa Milner 0:09

For a change in this minisode, I'm actually going to be having the students do all the talking, I asked students what they love about chess, their favorite parts of chess, and whether teachers should be allowing some time in the school day at some point for students to play chess. So here are my fourth graders, some of them that were willing to talk, and I hope you enjoy it. My last minisode was about the benefits of chess, so this is a follow up to that. Enjoy.

Student #1 0:39

I really like chess, because it's fun to play. And it's very simple. Home not very complicated. It's a pretty good game.

Melissa Milner 0:50

How do you play chess?

Student #1 0:52

How we play chess is each piece has a different movement. And you are trying to make all the pieces put the other king in jeopardy, where her the king's pieces can't kill the piece. Putting your king in jeopardy, The king can't move anywhere to escape from being in jeopardy. And no pieces King Go to protect the king from being in jeopardy.

Melissa Milner 1:30

Okay. And what's the number one strategy you would teach a new player?

Student #2 1:34

Not to move too many pawns. And protect your king with other pieces around it?

Melissa Milner 1:41

So do the pawns protect the king?

Student #2 1:44

Yes, but there are also other pieces like the queen who are very good at protecting the king.

Melissa Milner 1:48

Awesome. Thank you guys.

Alright, what do you guys like about chess?

Student #3 1:53

I just like, like how you have to, like, think and see what could happen later on in the game before you move.

Melissa Milner 2:01

Ah. So before you move, you're thinking of if I do this, then this, this, this, and this will happen. Or you're trying to figure out what your opponent's doing. And block it interesting. So how long have you been playing chess?

Student #3 2:12

Probably like, three, four years.

Melissa Milner 2:15

Wow. What's the best advice you ever got?

Student #3 2:17

Um, I didn't really get advice. I had to learn how to learn. Um, I will always play against my granddad and my brother. I would end up just like seeing things like how to do things. And what's a good move.

Melissa Milner 2:33

Like while you're playing? Yeah, very cool. Thank you.

What do you like about chess?

Student #4 2:39

I like it, cuz it's a game of like, thinking of what moves so you can get checked me or check to get the CheckMate. I just think it's a game of chance. That's, I just like that it's a good game to play when you're bored.

Melissa Milner 2:55

Oh, cool. What do you like about chess?

Student #5 2:58

I like chess. It's a really fun strategy game. And it can be really stressful, because one move can mess up your entire strategy that happened. He didn't even know what my strategy was. I had like all my pieces, and it looked like I was gonna surge, like, right at him. And then I just had this one rook at the very side that was just gonna come in and demolish him. But that did not work because he moved a piece.

Melissa Milner 3:21

Without even knowing he did something that just messed your whole strategy up?

Student #5 3:24

Yeah, yeah.

Melissa Milner 3:24

Wow. How did you learn how to play chess?

Student #4 3:27

My neighbor had the chess club when he was in middle school. So we played games for a while. And he taught me even though he beat me in two moves once, I have always just like to play against him to see who won.

Melissa Milner 3:42

Nice. How about you?

Student #5 3:44

I used to chess app, because it's not just it'll show you some moves. But you have to actually free it's for free. But you can like sign up to play random people online. But then it shows you what moves and otherwise you can just like figure out the pieces.

Melissa Milner 4:00

And when you play on the app, that means you could probably play more games than like, in real life. If you were to play, someone wants to play one game, and then they want to move on to do something else. But you could play multiple games.

Student #5 4:10

Yeah, it's a lot easier on that to play just to play just one game because you don't have to put the game away.

Melissa Milner 4:16

Right. So here's a question. What would you say to teachers about allowing time for chess in their classroom?

Student #4 4:23

If I were the teacher, I would do that, because it's a nice chance for people to learn a new game. So we can have tournaments, like in the school. So yes, I think we should.

Student #5 4:34

I think we should because there's like a lot of strategy. And you can like, learn new ways to play the more you play, like on the chess app, you can get better by doing assisted and then you just like, watch what it tells you to do against like a really good player. You watch what they do. Yeah. And it like you like watch what they do you observe, like kind of what it wants you to do.

Melissa Milner 4:55

Cool. So you think teachers should maybe even share the app on maybe iPads at school?

Student #5 5:00

Yeah, it's the most confusing part is sometimes it goes back and forth, because you can't figure out which is better.

Melissa Milner 5:06

Yeah. What's the name of the app that

Speaker 2 5:07

you use? It's, I think it's just called Chess or something like that. I don't know. Exactly. You could also like change the background change the sounds that it makes.

Melissa Milner 5:18

Do you agree that chess kind of helps with some math skills?

Student #5 5:22

Yeah.

Student #4 5:22

It does.

Melissa Milner 5:24

Awesome. Anything else you want to say about chess?

Student #4 5:26

That if anyone's looking for a new game to play, just play chess. If you if you your neighbor has a board, someone you know, has a board, go over to their house and just play with them.

Melissa Milner 5:38

I love that. What about you anything else want to say?

Student #5 5:41

It may be kind of hard to learn, like you gotta learn strategies. Cuz once I beat a grandparent in like 11 moves. My record is 10. I beat a computer player. It was not very, it was not the easiest computer player either.

Melissa Milner 5:56

So are you saying the more practice, the better you're gonna get at?

Student #5 6:00

Yeah.

Melissa Milner 6:01

Knowing your strategies.

Student #5 6:03

Yeah.

Melissa Milner 6:04

All right. Awesome.

What do you love about chess?

Student #6 6:07

I like how much strategy there is. And I like, I don't know, I just like playing the game. I think it's fun.

Melissa Milner 6:13

Yeah. Why should teachers allow time in class for playing chess?

Student #7 6:20

Because like, it's a, it's sort of like math, like you have to think to go where you where you should go. And like, it would just like, have like, there's lots of kids in our class that love to play chess, and there's lots people in the school. So like, if there could be like a free chess time it would be, it'd be really, really fun.

Student #6 6:39

I think it would be good for the school because it's like learning how to like, think before you do something, and it's a cool game. And I think there's a lot of strategy involved.

Melissa Milner 6:53

For my blog, transcripts of this episode, and links to any resources mentioned, visit my website at www.theteacheras.com. You can reach me on Twitter and Instagram @melissabmilner and I hope you check out The Teacher As... Facebook page for episode updates. Thanks for listening. And that's a wrap.