Senate Concurrent Resolution No. 41

Introduced by Senator Hancock

April 13, 2015

Senate Concurrent Resolution No. 41—Relative to California’s Chess Month.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL’S DIGEST

SCR 41, as introduced, Hancock. California’s Chess Month.

This measure designates October as California’s Chess Month, encourages the people of California to observe Chess Month with appropriate programs and activities, and encourages schools to include chess as an educational tool in their classrooms.

Fiscal committee: no.

WHEREAS, Designating October as California’s Chess Month
would enhance awareness and encourage students and adults to
engage in a game known to enhance critical thinking,
determination, self-esteem, problem solving skills, and serves as
a gateway to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics
education; and

WHEREAS, There are 9,294 members of the United States
Chess Federation in the State of California, and unknown numbers
of additional people in California who play the game without
joining an official organization; and

WHEREAS, More than one-half of California’s members are
scholastic members, and many of the scholastic members join by
the age of eight; and

WHEREAS, There are more than 80,000 members of the United
States Chess Federation, and more than 2,000 affiliated chess clubs
and organizations today; and

WHEREAS, In 1992, New Jersey Governor Jim Florio signed
into law a bill to establish chess instruction in public schools and
cited, “In countries where chess is offered widely in schools
students exhibit excellence in the ability to recognize complex
patterns and consequently excel in math and science”; and

WHEREAS, Former United States Secretary of Education Terrel
Bell encouraged knowledge of chess as a way to develop a
preschooler’s intellect and academic readiness; and

WHEREAS, In Western Pennsylvania, more than 70 schools
and a dozen libraries offer chess programs, reaching several
thousand students each year; and

WHEREAS, In 2000, a report found that students who received
chess instruction scored significantly higher on all measures of
academic achievement, including math, spatial analysis, and
nonverbal reasoning ability; and

WHEREAS, America’s Foundation for Chess has been working
with 2nd and 3rd grade students and their teachers to promote the
use of chess as an educational tool through their First Move
curriculum to increase higher level thinking skills, advance math
and reading skills, and build self-confidence; and

WHEREAS, Independent studies conducted by the Kensington
Research Group in partnership with the Berkeley Chess School
for the 2011-12 school year in two of Oakland’s Title I schools
have linked chess programs to the improvement of student scores
in the San Francisco Bay Area in reading and math; and

WHEREAS, A 2013 independent study conducted by the
Department of Psychology and Cognitive Development of the
Graduate School of Education at the University of California,
Berkeley, highlighting chess skill acquisition and development,
showed dramatic increase in students’ fluid reasoning, as well as
enhancing students’ ability to better handle stressful situations,
which positively influence decisionmaking; and

WHEREAS, Chess is a powerful cognitive learning tool that
can be used to successfully enhance reading and math concepts;
and

WHEREAS, Chess engages students of all learning styles and
strengths and promotes problem solving and higher level thinking
skills; now, therefore, be it

Resolved by the Senate of the State of California, the Assembly
thereof concurring, That the Legislature hereby designates October
as California’s Chess Month, encourages the people of California
to observe Chess Month with appropriate programs and activities,
and encourages schools to include chess as an educational tool in
their classrooms.

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CORRECTIONS:

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