Bobby Fischer Would Be Pleased

via Alan Light/Wikimedia

A bit tangential to math, but I dare say a lot of math enthusiasts also enjoy the game of chess...

Forget about last year's debate over algebra in high school, the below essay argues that CHESS ought be a mandatory class in the U.S. school system:

http://www.realclearscience.com/blog/2013/04/chess-should-be-required-in-us-schools.html

One quotation from within the article reads as follows:

"Chess trains logical thinking. It teaches how to make decisions, trains memory, strengthens will power, motivates children to win and teaches them how to deal with defeat. It's the only school subject that can do all this."

I was actually led to this piece by a Jason Rosenhouse post, which included another quote toward the end that I liked:

“The ability to play chess is the sign of high intellect. The ability to play chess well is the sign of high intellect gone wrong.” ;-)

(...makes us rank amateurs feel a tad better)

ADDENDUM: interestingly, just as I was completing this post 'All Things Considered' on NPR was running a story on "The Final Four" of college chess competition coming up this very weekend:

http://www.npr.org/2013/04/05/176368227/the-other-final-four-trades-in-courts-for-chess-boards?ft=1&f=1003