What is Chess Dreams?
Chess dreams is a registered 501 (c)(3) children’s non-profit organization. Chess Dreams gives underprivileged inner city children a chance to advance their knowledge and learning ability through chess. As Gary Kasparov once said “in an age when information is being created at rates well beyond that of any other era, it is not enough to assimilate that information; it must be processed in a highly intelligent way to meet the demands of living in a complex world. The children being taught chess today will be able to better understand this information and make better decisions for the rest of their lives.“ At Chess Dreams we strive to do just that. We want to enrich the children in our programs with the ability to make better decisions for the rest of their lives. All of our events and programs are free of charge and give these kids the ability to reach their full potential.
Chess Dreams Mission
Our mission is to educate inner-city youth on the basic concepts and strategy of chess and provide them with valuable lessons and discipline that will serve them in all aspects of life.
Chess Dreams Vision
Our vision is to teach as many of the kids as we can in the greater Jersey City community how to play the game of chess. Then hopefully, have the kids who benefit from this program see themselves become better students and advance to greater education, carriers, and lives.
Chess Dreams Services
- We find affluent chess players who are capable of teaching the game of chess to young children. We then bring them into the classroom to teach the kids.
- We create Chess Tournaments to reach out to more kids around the community.
- We provide chess boards and other chess oriented materials to the schools so kids can play chess during their free time with each other. So they can learn even more from each other on their own.
Bios of the Chess Dreams team
Ozzie Stone, Founder and CEO, is a decorated straight A student in high school and currently attends Hudson Catholic high school. Ozzie has business experience especially in the not-for-profit sector as a project manager at the Intrigue Agency. In addition, he has interned at Vanick Hudson and is the President of the model UN and mock trial teams at his school. Ozzie’s favorite piece in chess is the rook for its ability to easily complicate the game and any moment.
Wilson Vasquez, Volunteer, is a student at Hudson Catholic high school. Wilson learned how to play chess from his father at the age of 6. Wilson became a part of Chess Dreams to give back, just like his dad taught him. Wilson’s favorite piece in chess is the knight because no one ever sees it coming.
Danny Hermenez, Volunteer, is a former Hudson Catholic student. He is beginning his freshman year at Rutgers in the fall. Danny has played in many tournaments when he was younger. He claims that he likes the challenge every chess game puts him in. Danny’s favorite piece is the queen because of how powerful it is.
Ebrima Manjang, Volunteer, is a student at Hudson Catholic. Ebrima started playing chess in the 4thgrade. He then joined his school chess club. In 7th grade Ebrima made his school’s chess team and has continued to play the game. He is also the official photographer for all Chess Dreams events. Ebrima’s favorite piece is the King because without it there would be no game of chess.
Robert Devcich, Volunteer, is a senior in high school. Bobby has been playing Chess for the majority of his life, but still strives to improve his game by studying as many opening variations of Chess as he can. Bobby’s favorite piece is the pawn because it forms the openings of chess games.
Hector Astudillo, Volunteer, has an over 2000 rating! Hector competes in various tournaments and can beat many of his opponents in less than 15 moves. Hector also carries his high school Chess team through many competitions and loves teachings anyone how to play Chess. Hectors favorite piece is the queen because it is the most powerful.
Jemare Meadows, Volunteer, has a passion for Chess unmet by most people. He loves teaching the game and hopes one day everyone will know how to play chess. Jahmars favorite piece is the bishop becauses it is easily underestimated.
Ronald Stone, Board of directors, Ronald owns his own real estate development company. He asks all of his prospective employees if they know how to play chess. He says that if they can play chess he finds that they are usually better at solving difficult problems unlike the employees who do not know how to play chess. Ronald does not have a favorite piece because he sees every piece as equivalently valuable to the game.
Jonathan Rossman, Board of directors, Jonathan is an investment analyst who supports chess for all of its educational benefits. Jonathan’s favorite chess piece is the pawn for its ability to become any piece it wants to be when it reaches the end of the board.
Gina Bekendorf, Board of directors, Gina is a mom who has seen chess benefit her child in more ways than she could have possibly imagined. Gina’s favorite chess piece is the bishop because it can only attack from the side.
Proven benefits of chess
- Chess and IQ
Chess has been shown to raise student’s overall IQ scores. A Venezuelan study involving 4,000-second grade students found a significant increase in their IQ scores after only 4.5 months of systematically studying chess. Tournament chess games, which bind each player to make his move within the stipulated time, hone one’s ability to
perform under pressure, mimicking environments of most school and competitive exams.
- Chess improves reading skills
In an often cited 1991 study (The Effect of Chess on Reading Scores), Dr. Stuart Margulies studied the reading performance of 53 elementary school students who participated in a chess program and evaluated them compared to non-chess-playing students in the district and around the country. He found definitive results that playing chess caused increased performance in reading. In a district where the average students tested below the national average, kids from the district who played the game tested above it.
- Chess teaches analysis, logic, and problem solving
Playing chess well involves multiple aptitudes. Dr Albert Frank found that learning chess, even as teenagers, strengthened both numerical and verbal aptitudes. Some studies have even claimed that playing chess can strengthen a child’s memory [1]. A 1990-92 study [2] in New Brunswick, Canada, found that by integrating chess into the traditional mathematics curriculum teachers were able to raise significantly the average problem solving scores of their students. These students fared much better on problem solving tests than ones who just took the standard mathematics course.
- Chess improves verbal skills
How could chess possibly improve English skills? The young students learned to make connections based on chess moves; this helped them connect different aspects of what they read in English courses & texts. Thus, the ability to make connections improves the overall IQ score.
- Chess increases problem-solving skills
A chess match is like one big puzzle that needs solving, and solving on the fly, because your opponent is constantly changing the parameters. Nearly 450 fifth-grade students were split into three groups in a 1992 study in New Brunswick. Group A was the control group and went through the traditional math curriculum. Group B supplemented the math with chess instruction after first grade, and Group C began the chess in first grade. On a standardized test, Group C’s grades went up to 81.2% from 62% and outpaced Group A by 21.46%.
- Chess improves concentration
Chess masters might come off like scattered nutty professors, but the truth is their antics during games are usually the result of intense concentration that the game demands and improves in its players. Looking away or thinking about something else for even a moment can result in the loss of a match, as an opponent is not required to tell you how he moved if you didn’t pay attention. Numerous studies of students in the U.S., Russia, China, and elsewhere have proven time and again that young people’s ability to focus is sharpened with chess.
- Chess increases creativity
Since the right hemisphere of the brain is responsible for creativity, it should come as no surprise that activating the right side of your brain helps develop your creative side. Specifically, chess greatly increases originality. One four-year study had students from grades 7 to 9 play chess, use computers, or do other activities once a week for 32 weeks to see which activity fostered the most growth in creative thinking. The chess group scored higher in all measures of creativity, with originality being their biggest area of gain.
- Chess improves memory
Chess players know — as an anecdote — that playing chess improves your memory. Being a good player means remembering how your opponent has operated in the past and recalling moves that have helped you win before. But there’s hard evidence also. In a two-year study in 1985, young students who were given regular opportunities to play chess improved their grades in all subjects, and their teachers noticed better memory and better organizational skills in the kids. A similar study of Pennsylvania sixth-graders found similar results. Students who had never before played chess improved their memories and verbal skills after playing.
- Chess exercises both sides of the brain
In a German study, researchers showed chess experts and novices simple geometric shapes and chess positions and measured the subjects’ reactions in identifying them. They expected to find the experts’ left-brains being much more active, but they did not expect the right hemisphere of the brain to do so as well. Their reaction times to the simple shapes were the same, but the experts were using both sides of their brains to more quickly respond to the chess position questions.
- Chess teaches planning and foresight
Having teenagers play chess might just save their lives. It goes like this: one of the last parts of the brain to develop is the prefrontal cortex, the area of the brain responsible for planning, judgment, and self-control. So adolescents are scientifically immature until this part develops. Strategy games like chess can promote prefrontal cortex development and help them make better decisions in all areas of life, perhaps keeping them from making a stupid, risky choice of the kind associated with being a teenager.
- Chess improves spatial intelligence
The ability to perceive possibilities for movement is particularly crucial to chess thinking, as is the capacity to build up a system of knowledge and experience. Chess thinking often involves a complex, hierarchical structure of problems and sub-problems, and the capacity for retaining and manipulating such complex structures of data concurrently never deviating from the goals, all correlate with having a high IQ.
- Chess grows dendrites
Dendrites are the tree-like branches that conduct signals from other neural cells into the neurons they are attached to. Think of them like antennas picking up signals from other brain cells. The more antennas you have and the bigger they are, the more signals you’ll pick up. Learning a new skill like chess playing causes dendrites to grow. But that growth doesn’t stop once you’ve learned the game interaction with people in challenging activities also fuels dendrite growth, and chess is a perfect example.
*Attributed to the renaissance knights