Here is an interesting article about kids in a local elementary school and their involvement in chess:

 

http://www.eagletribune.com/punewsnh/local_story_292095418 

 

In this article the kids have very positive views of chess which contradict the popular opinion that chess is a thing for "geeks" and "nerds". In the article the kids say things like "Chess is cool" and "It's a royal game with royal pieces" . If we can get scholastic kids and youth to see chess in a positive light rather that society's view that chess is "embarrassing" and a "geeky" thing then I am sure that the scholastic numbers involved in chess would see a dramatic growth.

In my elementary school, chess was always considered as cool and people would participate a lot and enjoy it, and we would have scholastic tournaments with very high participation rate, so to me the idea that kids found chess uncool was pretty new to me when I first heard it on this website, as I never witnessed or felt that.

Well in my experience when I was in the chess club in high school some of my fellow peers would tease me about it and joke around with the fact that I was on the chess team rather than a sports team.

 

I think this is more of an issue for high school youth rather than in the elementary schools. 

I don't think I've ever witnessed teasing based on someone's activity in high school beside that guy who was taking dance lessons. There was no chess club, but there was much "worse" than this.

The problem for US Chess is not creating scholastic players, but converting scholastic players to adult players.

it's a great new

at least for my selve

thanks ...

 

Right, I agree with Loomis. Once elementary kids who have been active scholastic players go to high school and college they usually quit chess for some reason. A strange phenomenon.

Matt it is something called the loss of having fun. They get bored of having to win all the time, having lost sight of the most important part, having fun. Few people will play a game with them just for fun, they probably play most often at tournys where the object is to win. The mind begins to dislike chess more and more because playing it stimulates fewer and fewer happy endorphines, the same chemical that is key to drug addiction.

No I am not giving you a psychology lesson, but if you want one...

That's definitely not what it is.
I play chess because I'm passionate about it!  Winning/losing a scholastic game is important, but I don't play to beat everyone.

I'm guessing that it has more to do with the stigma of chess in highschools than endorphines.  I get made fun of a lot for being on the chess team, because people just assume chess is boring and only played by losers.

However, instead of stopping, I joke about chess with them!  I have a scholastic registration tournament for the league my school plays in tomorrow, during my school's homecoming. 

There are so many potential hobbies for teenagers and college kids, why should they spend it on a game stereotyped to be boring and unsocial?

they just dont know how to live..

I am in high school, and I started a chess club.  We all play for fun. All 8 of us.  Chess is just not as popular among high school students versus when we were kids. With mounds of homework and tests, most high-schoolers dont have as much free time versus elementary school students to spend studying chess. These days, teens like me want a reputation, which apparently is gained by staying away from a chess board... But our lack of numbers in chess players won't stop us from playing. We are going to play other high schools in our area, and since we have no chess directors, we are setting it up ourselves. We have fun, but in USCF tournaments, it is only pressure and tension. 

In my school, chess is not a bad thing, but it's not good also... there are few real players in the school, even though almost everybody knows the rules...

I'm the best player in my school, and one of the best youth players in my city, and still i'm not such a good player... 

I think in Ukraine many kids think that chess is cool. And not only in Ukraine.

About leaving chess. This happens in all kinds of sports. Because adult sportsmen are the best from that children. It is a like a life-death competition in nature all over the Earth: a strong one lives, a weak one dyes. So, of course, the amount of younger players should be bigger.

in my school, all the senior guys are totally addicted to chess, especially the football players

but then my school is geeky, the football players are cool, and we have a kid who played football and is a US top 5 under 18 player, elliot liu (2350?)

i am my school chess champion, i plsy for the rugby and cricket team, and know one has mocked me for playing chess

chess is never cool and never will be that's just it

Patzer24 wrote: Right, I agree with Loomis. Once elementary kids who have been active scholastic players go to high school and college they usually quit chess for some reason. A strange phenomenon.

---

 I was one of those players. The reason I quit was that Im extremely competitive, and I wanted to win most of my games, but I knew that the only way to really play at the level I desired was to study chess all the time, play most every day, and just spend a lot of time with it. I had (and still have) a lot of other interests, and I, personally, had a difficult time reconsiling spending that much time with a board game. So I was faced with a dichotomy, either spend more time with it than I was willing to, or play at a lower level than I was comfortable with. I dealt with it by just not playing. It's only been in the last couple years that I have come to grips with the fact that I can play, not win very often, and still have fun. Then I try to learn what I can from my losses.

at my school at the momet most people hate chess!!

At my school, everyone plays chess...but then again everyone at my school is pretty geekful.

Unfortunately, I have noticed that as playing ability increases, coolness declines.