An unexpected discovery. This is what led students in the first year of high school at Centro Integrado de Educação Pública 240 Haroldo Teixeira Valladão, in São Gonçalo, southeastern Brazil, to teach chess. As Rodrigo dos Santos Cardoso, 15, remembers, “We were going to do a project on martial arts and needed to get some mats from the school’s locker room. When we picked up the mats, there was a box with some chess pieces, and clocks to time the plays. From that moment on, we would play chess whenever we had some free time.”

He spent one month playing with his classmates Rogério Castro da Rocha, 17, Leonardo de Araújo Alves, 17, and Jefferson Souza de Oliveira, 15, until the four got tired of always facing the same opponents. “We held a tournament between ourselves, but got bored of always playing each other, so we thought: why don’t we give classes so we can have more people to play against?” recalls da Rocha.

The students would spend their lunch break developing the project, with help from a teacher. Their first step was to study the game in books, finding out about its origins, rules and strategies, and its main benefits. This was how they learned that chess offers more than just fun and leisure: it also helps players develop concentration, focus, and strategic thinking. “At first we didn’t have lesson plans. Now we sit down on Fridays [when they meet] to decide what we will do on Monday. We evaluate ourselves and develop our methodology,” explains da Rocha.

THE GAME OF LIFE
At the moment, the chess classes have attracted between 10 and 15 students, from the sixth grade and older. In order to explain the relationship between the game and real life, the group comes up with activities besides the chess lessons. “We take them into a dark room, put on music, and give a short talk on subjects that are present both in chess and in life, like decision making, for example. If you don’t make up your mind in chess, you lose everything – and life can be like that too,” explains da Rocha.

The group has also prepared an informational mural on chess, created a play explaining the game’s origins, and collected materials to make other board games.

The introduction of chess into the school, through these workshops, has developed concentration, memory and logical thinking among the students who participate. “The teachers tell us that many of the students have improved. The ones that used to talk the whole time now stop and ask others to be quiet. Students that didn’t study now show interest and ask questions,” says Alves.

The photo shows three chess boards on tables in a row, and young people playing the game.

Concentration, strategy and logical thinking: life lessons offered by the students from the Checkmate project (Photo: Criativos da Escola/Design for Change)

Ines Rocha Petereit, the teacher that guided the teenagers in this project, explains that the students giving the lessons have worked to develop a pedagogical presence that holds their pupils’ interest. “The atmosphere in the classes is guided by a spirit of camaraderie, with everyone helping to make the activities happen.”

The results have been positive, and have encouraged the project’s four founders to keep going. As Rodrigo Cardoso explains, “It makes us proud to see how the students have developed. And it’s a small victory that grows over time. This project will go far!”

Their challenge now is to expand the initiative, taking it to other schools and to the community. “We are making pamphlets to distribute to people’s homes. Our headquarters will still be our school, where the project began, and we will ask our teacher to help connect with the principals in other schools,” explains da Rocha. And are they nervous about this endeavour? “No, no, we’re not nervous at all, we’re confident!”

 

The Xeque-mate (Checkmate) project was one of the winners of the 2017 Design for Change Challenge. Organized by Alana in Brazil, Design for Change encourages children and young people to transform their realities, recognizing them as the protagonists of their own stories of change. The initiative is part of a global movement that started in India and is now present in 65 countries, inspiring over 2.2 million children and youngsters around the world.