Article by Jerry Nash

February 23, 2020 – Students at Francisco de Quevedo Primary School in Fuenlabrada, Madrid have discovered a new way to learn math. They learn how to move chess pieces to collect one or more of the math information cards placed on each of the sixty-four squares of the chessboard. The cards contain math concepts such as addition, subtraction, multiplication, odd and even numbers, sequences, fractions, etc. Once they have collected their cards, they perform the math functions indicated.

The project, called “Transversality in Chess,” is the concept of Jose Antonio Coleto Calderon, a primary school teacher and chess player. Mr. Coleto began the activities four years ago in order to give support to his classes in both Language and Mathematics for primary grade students aged six to twelve years old. He asserts that this is the only project in Spain with this philosophy and methodology for using chess as a tool in the classroom.

He recalls, “I wanted to link two worlds: the educative and the chess world. So, I started to think about how I could do this. It began ten years ago. First, I started to write the philosophy of the project for two years. After that, I wrote the activities. Then I met Jose Manuel Gonzalez Guillorme, my headteacher, five years ago and I moved to CEIP Francisco de Quevedo state school to develop the project.”

Mr. Coleto is pleased with the response to his idea. “All my colleagues welcome the project and the whole school as well because they agree that chess (educative and transversal) is a great tool to be used in the classroom.” Even members of the educational board visited the school to observe the students and were impressed.

As a result, the initiative will expand to include an additional fifteen teachers at the same school. The teachers are currently participating in a year-long course led by Mr. Coleto. Not only will participants learn the chess and math activities, they will discover how to incorporate them in a way that builds on previous knowledge and encourages cooperative learning. As the idea catches on, Mr. Coleto hopes this initiative will move beyond Madrid to schools across Spain.