Idaho Turns to Chess as Education Strategy

Once a week, Deborah McCoy, a third-grade teacher in Donnelly, Idaho, unpacks chessboards and pieces and spends an hour teaching her 20 students how to play the game.

Mrs. McCoy said of the program: “They learn give and take in chess. There are courtesies that you follow.”

Mrs. McCoy does not do this because she is passionate about chess; she barely knew how to play before this school year. But she began teaching it as part of an unusual pilot program under way in more than 100 second- and third-grade classrooms across Idaho.

On Thursday, state officials will announce in Boise that the program will be extended in the fall to all second and third graders — making Idaho the first state to offer a statewide chess curriculum.

By DYLAN LOEB McCLAIN

Full Story: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/20/us/20chess.html?_r=1&oref=slogin