BOYLSTON CHESS FOUNDATION

• Why Chess Works
• Chess Education Studies
• Boylston Chess Foundation Activities
• Membership Information
• List of Directors
• Previous Contributions
• Boylston Chess Foundation Financial Summary
• Articles on the Boylston Chess Club/Foundation

WHY CHESS WORKS

Children need to apply their brains to the problems of learning and life. Through systematic instruction in chess, children between grades 3-8 can achieve a level of competence in reasoning skills, and transfer these skills to high school and beyond. Playing chess creates a thinking system that, when used faithfully, results in higher academic scores for fluency and originality.

Specifically, children who learn chess improve in the following areas:

• Attention span & concentration skills
  During a chess game a child must pay attention to the entire chessboard instead of the particular squares of the board where a piece can be moved. At all times the touch move rule -- touch a piece and you must move it -- requires planned moves to be mentally checked before they are played.
• Problem solving
  Chess provides a rich variety of problems for practice; the problems that children face in the 70-100 positions of an average chess game are mostly new. The contexts are familiar and themes repeat, but the game positions never do.
• Decision making techniques
  With the exception of super-computers, no one can calculate all the possible variations in a chess game (10 to the 120th). Children must thus develop and rely upon intuition to choose a handful of moves for every position, consider the consequences for each chosen set of moves, and go with the courage of their "best" move.
• Heuristic self-improvement
  Chess gives direct, immediate feedback -- good moves win and bad moves lose. Progress occurs by learning from a loss, and by not making the same mistakes twice.
• Sportsmanship
  A basic rule of chess conduct is that everybody must shake hands before and after every game. Children in scholastic tournaments also learn to wish their opponents good luck, and to analyze their game afterwards together.

Chess rules are easy to learn, but take a lifetime to master, and children who learn to play chess well have a steady source of self-esteem. The links below document cases of students who dramatically improved their grades and behavior after playing competitive chess:

CHESS EDUCATION STUDIES

The table below shows Controlled Chess-Academic Evaluation Studies from 1974 to 1992. Copies are available for viewing at the Boylston Chess Club, or for purchase at the United States Chess Federation.

DESCRIPTION OF ACTIVITIES

The Boylston Chess Foundation was formed exclusively for charitable and educational purposes. The Foundation is an educational community organization formed to educate and instruct children and the Greater Boston Community in the game and appreciation of chess, emphasizing sportsmanship, collaborative learning, individual responsibility, respect for others and the development of and commitment to continuous community involvement and learning.

Volunteer coaches plan and direct seminars and clinics, teaching children and other new members the basics of chess and encouraging the development of collaborative learning skills. Additionally, the Foundation hosts quarterly masters' seminars, at which prominent chessplayers share their knowledge and provide instruction. The Foundation also sponsors level-appropriate matches between members of the Foundation and other entrants, in which members compete in a supportive environment. The volunteer directors and officers provide rules, structure, and organization, giving an organized and adult-supervised forum for children to participate in the Foundation's chess instruction during otherwise unscheduled and unsupervised leisure time. In addition, parents of children participating in the Foundation's programs benefit from knowing that their children are involved in a productive activity, rather than aimless, sedentary, and possibly counterproductive "hanging out."

MEMBERSHIP INFORMATION

LIST OF DIRECTORS

PREVIOUS CONTRIBUTIONS

The Boylston Chess Foundation does not employ any professional fundraisers. The Foundation meets privately with individual and corporate donors instead, and fundraising is carried out by the Board of Directors, the members of the Foundation, and their families.

• Lyman Chess Foundation - $5000 (Grant)
• Charles Alex - $1500 (Grant)
• Bernardo Iglesias - $1375 (Waived Tournament Director fees)
• USCF Trust - $1140 (Grant)
• The Chess House - Chess Sets and Clocks (Est. Retail Value of $200)
• Crispin Birnbaum - $100
• Don and Marilyn Malpass (in memory of Jerome Cherniack) - $1016

BOYLSTON CHESS FOUNDATION FINANCIAL SUMMARY

ARTICLES ON THE BOYLSTON CHESS CLUB/FOUNDATION

The Boylston Chess Club of the Boylston Chess Foundation is the largest chess club in Boston, and the third oldest chess organization in the United States. Starting in the 1850s the Boston Young Men's Christian Union (YMCU) maintained a small room for chess; John F. Barry, Harry Nelson Pillsbury, C.F. Burille, Franklin K. Young and Walcott frequented it in the 1890s.

The club was formally organized on August 27, 1919 at the YMCU. There were 22 charter members, and Augustus Seaver was elected as the first Club President. In its history, many leading chess figures have been Club President, including Master Emeritus Harry Lyman. In 1945, the club received charter number 51 from the newly formed United States Chess Federation.

In 1989, facing sharply increased rent and deteriorating facilities, the Boylston Chess Club moved to the 8th floor of the YWCA at 140 Clarendon St. in Boston. The club was incorporated as a Massachusetts non-profit corporation in 1995. In December 2003, the YWCA's building renovation plans forced the club to move to a new home in Davis Square, Somerville.

The Boylston Chess Foundation -- the 501(c)(3) organization -- was founded in 2005.

• Boylston Chess Club in Somerville
• Boylston Chess Foundation and the Kennedy School (.gif file, 141K)
• Boylston Chess Club and the Intel Grant (1 of 3) (.gif file, 735K)

Boylston Chess Club and the Intel Grant (2 of 3) (.gif file, 1041K)
Boylston Chess Club and the Intel Grant (3 of 3) (.gif file, 1063K)
• Boylston Chess Club and Chess Camps (.pdf file, 641K)