Chess is the ultimate low-tech answer to the challenge of AI

Large chess pieces on the street in Armenia's capital Yerevan lets everyone play a game. Photo: Shutterstock

In classrooms across the world, educators are grappling with an urgent question: How to prepare children for a complex, fast-changing world? Precisely at a moment when artificial intelligence risks making us lazier, we face a greater need than ever to train young people to focus, think critically, make thoughtful decisions, and persist through challenges.

We want them to be analytical, but also creative — able to pause, reflect, and plan several moves ahead in a way that is somehow also different from what others will do. What if there was already a tool, thousands of years old, that trains precisely those skills? There is! Is it the latest super-premium upgrade of ChatGPT? Not at all. The low-tech tool is chess.

For too long, chess has been narrowly categorized — either as a pastime for enthusiasts or a competitive pursuit for the gifted. But growing evidence suggests that chess is far more than a game. When taught early and systematically, it becomes a remarkable educational instrument that can improve not just how students perform in school, but how they think.

Chess teaches pattern recognition, problem solving, forward planning, and strategic decision-making. It requires patience and practice. It rewards critical thinking over impulsive action. In a world that overwhelms us with distractions, those qualities are vital.

And they are becoming even more essential in the age of artificial intelligence. As AI tools grow more advanced — and more embedded in everyday life — many educators and parents worry that young people will lose the ability to think deeply, question assumptions, and solve problems independently. With machines completing assignments and suggesting solutions, the risk is that students will outsource their minds before they have had a chance to train them. In this context, chess is not a luxury but a necessity. It forces learners to engage without shortcuts. There is no autofill on a chessboard. Every move must be reasoned.

That is why in 2011, Armenia became the first country to make chess a mandatory part of the national school curriculum, and it remains the only one to this day. From second through fourth grade, every public school student learns chess as a core subject, with trained teachers, structured materials, and measurable learning outcomes.

Several other countries’ education systems are looking at our chess programs. France and Uruguay have express interest and India is reportedly considering a nationwide initiative. Georgia has launched its own version of early chess education. Three years ago, Georgia launched a similar but more restricted program. Infrastructure, training, and long-term vision will be the key to success.

In our case, the groundwork began years earlier. We spent five years building the foundation —developing a curriculum, designing age-appropriate methods, piloting the approach in a variety of schools, and, most importantly, training teachers. We were not just adding a hobby to the school day but creating a new kind of classroom experience that demanded rigor, reflection, and results.

From the beginning, we were determined to treat chess not as a luxury or a plaything for the intellectual elite, but as a tool for equity and cognitive development. And we backed it with research. We established a Chess Research Institute — the first of its kind in the world — to study the effects of chess education.

The findings have been powerful. Children who received systematic chess instruction showed significantly higher achievement in math and reading. They performed better on tests of logic and decision-making. They even demonstrated stronger social and emotional skills — better self-control, greater confidence, and improved focus.

We designed controlled comparisons, in one case comparing two cohorts — one group that began learning chess in second grade, and another that had not yet started. By fourth grade, the chess-educated group had meaningfully outperformed their peers across multiple academic domains.

One comprehensive study published two years ago by the Armenian State Pedagogical University after Khachatur Abovian, found a high correlation between chess and the development of “cognitive processes and skills of the 21st century as: decision making, critical thinking, cooperation and creative thinking.”

With the aid of such studies, we strive for continuous improvement. Every three years, the national curriculum is updated based on teacher feedback and new pedagogical insights. Teachers are required to pass certification exams and attend ongoing training. We collect feedback not just from educators, but also from parents and students. And we do not aim to produce only grandmasters (though, of course, Levon Aronian is of Armenian background). Our goal is to shape better thinkers, stronger learners, and more prepared citizens.

One student story that illustrates this journey is that of Mariam Mkrtchyan. She had never played chess before encountering it in school. But something clicked. She not only became proficient — she fell in love with the game. Today, Mariam is a Women’s International Master and plays on the Armenian women’s national chess team, in turn serving as a mentor to younger students. Without the program, she might never have discovered this passion, or the confidence it gave her.

Stories like Mariam’s are common across Armenia. And they underscore something essential: children do not need to be born with a special aptitude for chess. They simply need the opportunity to learn. That is why on July 20th, Armenia marked the International Chess Day will with an event where children had the opportunity to play chess with Grandmasters.

This understanding should not be limited by geography, so we are heartened that the interest we are seeing from other countries is growing. At international education conferences, chess is increasingly on the agenda. Policymakers ask: how can we replicate what you have done? Our answer is always the same: it is possible — but it requires preparation, investment, and belief.

We are now working on tools that can help other nations take this step. We want to make what we have built adaptable to different systems, cultures, and languages. And we believe this is not just Armenia’s story — it is a model the world can learn from.

We also know this: the more chaotic and unpredictable the world becomes, the more essential it is that we equip children with calm minds, structured thinking, and confidence in their ability to reason through problems. Chess will not solve every challenge in education. But it offers something rare: a proven, affordable, scalable way to build minds that can thrive in uncertainty. And in a world of short-term thinking, it might be the one subject that teaches students to think long-term—literally, move by move.

Arpine Lputyan is Ambassador and Program Manager of the Chess in Schools program

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Armenia, childhood education, education, South Caucasus