we have mandatory physical education, i'd see this as a form of mental education which can be incredibly helpful

i wasn't aware that it was mandatory in russia

i was going off my own experiences playing chess competetively when i was younger and the correlation between the number of years absent from chess against the decline in my math grades and mental number crunching capabilities



i say it is for the greater good of society

This post was edited by duffman316 on Sep 21 2014 06:56pm

Chess is a very specific skill, I don't think society would benefit if we forced all kids to learn it.
A program after school is just fine - just like Music and Sports , also good to keep kids out of trouble.

computers are still worse than human in some aspects of the game, such as strategy, they are unbeatable in pure calculation of course.

by the same way, you think mathematic should not be not mandatory ? i doubt any human can challenge a computer on that.

This post was edited by 2sexy4u on Sep 21 2014 07:08pm

Chess help to improve so many skills

- memory
- control of emotions
- psychology
- maths
- creativity
- mental endurance
- other things i can hardly translate like abstraction / schematization ...
- lot more ..

No, computers are strictly better than humans at every aspect of the game (except POSSIBLY at predicting human tendencies, but that isn't really an optimal way of playing the game anyway). Keep in mind chess is purely a computational game and can be solved with enough computing power, the optimal strategy can be purely calculated.

Mathematical skills are still relevant, but yes I think that rote equation solving only need be learned to understand the fundamentals of math. Computers still need to be programmed to perform mathematical operations of course, so humans need to know how.



Indeed.



But there are so many activities that improve so many skills, should they all be mandatory?

Why not Go instead, which is a far more complex and cognitively difficult game, one that the best human players are still better than the best computers in?

This post was edited by Voyaging on Sep 21 2014 07:44pm

chess was an example

could be chess, could be something else

I guess I just don't get the point, I don't think learning random skills that aren't directly relevant except in maybe making you slightly better at performing specific cognitive functions should be mandatory

Computers still need to be programmed to perform chess game of course, so humans need to know how.

See how your point was irrelevant



Just a matter of time before computer always win in go too, its only recently that computer can beat world champion in chess, and computer are still beatable if you don't consider the most expensive and specialized ones.

i agree that Go would be a solid option, school lack games like this to captive kids interest.

No, humans don't need to know how because nobody gives a fuck about marginally improving the abilities of chess engines, are you honestly telling me it is so urgent of an issue that it should be compulsory we train our kids to make better chess engines?

Math is actually relevant to human progress, see how your point was irrelevant?




I literally have a program on my 4 year old computer that would STOMP the best player in the world. It would never lose, ever.

what do you think the goals of education should be?

i don't expect to win but i'd be interested in tackling that computer program of yours

This post was edited by duffman316 on Sep 21 2014 08:11pm