Abstract:
The primary purpose of this research was to evaluate the impact of playing chess on
the development of cognitive skills in school students being trained under the chess
association of Ampara district. A quantitative research approach was followed to analyze
the cognitive skill of the school students under the chess association of Ampara district
and to identify the strategies of the chess players and coaches to improvise the impact
of playing chess among the selected school students. The sample consists of 30 male
students in each, the Control Group (CG) and the Experimental Group (EG), studying
in grades 6-8. All of the students were given an IQ test consisting of 25 questions for
the pre-test exam. After that, only the students in the EG students participated in the
chess practice program and again both groups were given the same IQ test paper with a
changed order of questions compared to the pre-test exam paper. Statistical analysis of
data revealed that the students in the control group and the experimental group achieved
50.13 and 51.47 as the average marks respectively, in the pre-test exam. In the post-test
exam, students in the control group achieved 51.20 as average marks while the students
in the experimental group achieved 64.27 as average marks. Based on the results,
there is a significant improvement (p=0.000) in the cognitive skills of the experimental
group after the chess training and there is no significant improvement (p=0.174) in
the cognitive skills in the control group. The results indicate the improvement in the
cognitive skills of the students who are playing chess compared to the normal school
students. Hence, the impact of playing chess on the development of cognitive skills in
schools being trained under the chess association of Ampara district can be identified
from the study.
