Over the past four years, the New York City Schools Chess Program has shown that chess can:

1) instill a sense of self-confidence and self-worth

2) dramatically improve a child's ability to think rationally

3) increase cognitive skills

4) improve communication skills and pattern recognition

5) result in higher grades, especially in English and Math

6) build a sense of team spirit

7) teach the value of hard work, concentration, and commitment

8) help students take responsibility for their own actions and accept the consequences

9) teach young people to try their best to win, while accepting defeat with grace

10) provide an intellectual, competitive forum through which children can assert aggressiveness in an acceptable way

11) instill a sense of intellectual success that encourages a child to try other demanding endeavors

12) provide bright youngsters with an opportunity to use their intelligence in an exciting, rewarding, and continuing way

13) allow girls to compete with boys on a non-threatening, socially acceptable plane

14) help children make friends more easily because it provides an easy, safe forum for gathering and discussion

15) allow students and teachers to view each other in a more sympathetic way.