When it comes to our kids, nothing is more important than investing in their well-being, future aspirations, and cultivating their creativity to play a good role in society.

Raphael and Elliott playing chess in early years.

My dad gave me the kids board game of chess when I was about 5 years old. It was on one of those red and black cardboard folding chess boards. Of course I didn’t know at the time what kind of monumental impact playing the board game would have.

It just happens that I liked this board game a lot and through elementary, middle, and high school continued to play and learn more.

I feel like it equipped me in many ways for life.

I was an indecisive person. And this perfect kids board game showed me the importance of balancing time and decisions. You can take all the time in the world to make one decision, but your going to run out of time. Or you can take the same amount of time to make 40 decisions that will have outcomes with intended consequences of winning and achieving a goal.

I had to learn that making the “perfect” decision was reserved for those that new more than me and that by making a series of smart, timely choices, I would gain the knowledge and momentum to achieve more.

This is just one practical example of how chess, the best kid’s board game ever invented, did for me. It gives young people tools for life that meet them where they’re at.

Boy am I glad my dad didn’t even give me video games or computer games. I found them myself, and spent just enough time on that to get a lot of fun from it and still not feel like I wasted a lot of my life there.

The simple board game of chess helped me be more goal oriented, more of an achiever, more strategic and logical, and aware of time and resources.

There are a lot of learning board games for kids, but you don’t have to look hard to see the value for kids in this classic, timeless, board game of chess.

I will pass it on to my kids. Maybe they will like it, and maybe they won’t, but I’m at least going to give them the same opportunity my dad gave me to develop my mind and aspirations.

My son is way too young to start in chess, so I’m going to wait until he’s 4 or 5.

Introducing chess to your child is easiest once they can read or watch and comprehend a movie with a level of concentration.

I think one of the easiest ways to get a child started with the chess board game is using a course like Elliott’s Chess School DVD which is presented so youngsters can engage and follow easily. Elliott plays and teaches the game with life skills in mind, not to make world champions out of every youngster

There’s also a home chess learning kit which combines this dvd with a chess set. That’s a good chess board game learning tool parents can use to pretty much let kid’s self learn.

Just like physical sports of soccer, hockey, football have their physical and social development qualities, as parents, we should give kids board games at a time in their life where their minds are the most influenced by what we give them.

Chess is a great gift when you’re looking for board games for kids that will benefit them for life. And someday they will pass it on.

-Raphael

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Two years ago Ella Baron and her husband Ian Anderson started the Belize Youth National Chess Federation (BYNCF) without a single student.

“We now have over 800 kids playing in 58 primary school teams throughout the country,” Anderson said. “Some of the villages where kids play chess do not even have electricity and the kids play by candle light. We have trained over 120 entry level chess coaches, held two national tournaments and one international tournament between primary players of Belize and Mexico.”

Since the summer of 2007, BYNCF (www.belizechess.org) has donated 450 chess sets to assist new chess clubs in getting started.

They focus their efforts on the 9-12 age group, believing that at this age children begin looking for leadership, guidance, support and direction, and are most eager and are in the best stage to learn.

“Our national wide chess program will offer them a safe environment where they will find attention, where they can grow their self-esteem, learn to be excited about learning and feel proud of their own accomplishments,” Anderson said.

In addition to the hugely successful promotion and participation of primary students in the chess program, BYNCF is also providing scholarships for a number of disenfranchised children in Belize to continue in primary school.

Last year they held a Chess Symposium to promote primary chess in schools and at that symposium, Jenifer Shahade, US womens champion and Womens Grand Master, and Jean Shaw, reknowned chess instructor, ( see www.9queens.org ) were guest speakers and assisted Ella in teaching a week chess camp of all primary aged girls.

David McNulty, an inspiring person in the chess community, NYC chess teacher, and a former Bronx teacher whose real-life story was made into the movie, ‘Knights of the South Bronx’, also spent a week in Belize teaching advance primary chess players.

“This year, Maurice Ashley, International Grand Master, will be the guest speaker at our second international chess symposium in October 2009,” Anderson said. “Along with Josh Watkins, whose real-life story was made into the movie, ‘Searching for Bobby Fisher.’”

The cost of running BNYCF is about $160,000 and has been funded almost entirely from three sources.

Ella, Ian, and their business, Caves Branch Jungle Lodge (www.cavesbranch.com).

“Between us and the business and a number of smaller supporters, we have created a truly fabulous national foundation,” Anderson said.

The mover and shaker of the foundation is Anderson’s wife Ella, who was the In School Program Director of the New York based “Chess In Schools” program before moving to Belize, marrying him and starting the Belize National Youth Chess Foundation.

“We are not-for-profit organization dedicated to promoting chess as an educational tool among the disenfranchised youth of Belize,” Anderson said. “We use chess as an educational and motivational tool for the purpose of stimulating their interest in the intellectual activity that will enhance their academic and social skills, while making learning fun and providing an environment that will keep them off the streets.”

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Unique rare chess set celebrates diversity with multicultural pieces. And… of course it has extra queens…a bailout for the player that loses a queen.

If you’re fast at clicking or the first to respond when it’s announced on twitter, you could be the one to claim this one-of-a-kind chess set for free when the first ever 3-Day Deals (Box-damage Open-box, Scratch-items) page is announced. Yes, it’s being given away free to the first responder. Follow ChessHouse on twitter to hear when!

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Being trounced by an 8-year-old was a sure-fire way to get Tom Cadwallader back into the game of chess.

“I think chess is so much more then a game,” Cadwallader said. “I love it! All the lessons in chess and the principles go hand in hand with life.”

He first learned chess in the 5th grade from one of his teachers.

“We had paper cut outs and we glued them on pennies,” he said.

After falling away from the game for a while, his defeat at the hands of his wife’s 8-year-old brother got him studying and playing again.

“I bought books and studied,” Cadwallader said. “I also found an online chess site, www.gameknot.com. I made a team there ‘Knights of Caddy’. I have 57 members from all walks of life and different periods of life as well.”

He has really enjoyed the relationships forged through this online community.

“I love how I can sit down with a complete stranger and not even be able to speak the same language and play chess with them all day,” Cadwallader said. “I feel connected to other people when I play them. I feel I don’t really get to know them until I play them at chess. I love my team mates, they are from all around the world, and through this game called chess we are connected. That is just a very small reason why I love this game so much.”

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