Is Chess Just a Game, or is it a Mirror that Reflects the Child's Inner World?

Abstract

Children learn so many things (rules, science, mathematics, etc.) by the help of the games. Chess is also an enjoyable game for most children. The chess grandmaster Karpov stated that chess is everything – art, science, and sport. However, this raises the questions concerning how children evaluate chess and whether chess reflects the child’s inner worlds? The purpose of this study is to investigate how children evaluate chess, to understand children’s inner world via chess and also examine the children’s chess analogies. The study was carried out with 87 six year old children (42 girls and 45 boys), from a public preschool in Ankara, during the spring of 2015-2016 academic year. The Children’s Chess Questionnaire used as the data collection instrument in this study. A descriptive analysis method was used to classify the children’s responses. The findings show that children have positive attitudes to chess and chess reflects their inherent desire to win. This is a product of the ego just because the ego always tries to protect the organism from all kind of harmful effects, especially internal effects. Furthermore, children are able to make various analogies between chess and real life.