A Mindsets Conference discussion offered a powerful reminder that the true value of chess education extends far beyond tournament victories. This article is distilled from a panel at the Mindsets Chess in Education Conference, produced by the National Scholastic Chess Foundation and the Kasparov Chess Foundation, and held in New York City in December 2025. You can see video clips from the conversation on Youtube. Click the name to see Jack Kochansky, Benson Schexnaydre, and Will Trepp making the case for broader definitions of chess success. Longer presentations are also included in this Mindsets playlist.
REDEFINING CHESS SUCCESS: HOW CHESS EDUCATION BUILDS SKILLS FOR LIFE
At the Mindsets Chess in Education Conference in New York, a panel discussion titled “Redefining Success at Chess” offered a powerful reminder that the true value of chess education extends far beyond tournament victories. Led by FIDE Master Sunil Weeramantry, the conversation with three former scholastic players revealed how chess shapes young minds in ways that matter long after the last piece is captured.
The Early Advantage: Imprinting Critical Thinking
Will Trepp, now COO of The Rockport Group, credits his chess foundation to starting at just four and a half years old. “My thesis is the earlier you learn chess, the deeper it gets into your consciousness,” he explained. Learning chess young doesn’t just teach children how pieces move—it fundamentally changes how they think about problems.
Trepp recalls a lesson about combination sequences that illustrates this transformation. Instead of simply executing moves in order (A-B-C-D), chess players learn to reverse engineer solutions, considering how doing them backward (D-C-B-A) might change timing and outcomes. “That’s a very common mindset to a chess player,” he noted, “and I think most of the world does not think that way.”
This mental flexibility translates directly into professional life. In complex business negotiations, Trepp deliberately pulls up to what he calls a “50,000-foot view,” examining situations like a chess position. He analyzes the people involved, predicts their likely reactions, and strategizes which topics will advance conversations productively—all skills honed over years at the chessboard.
Perhaps most importantly, competitive chess at a young age provides a unique form of confidence. “Playing for that kind of challenge at that age suddenly makes a presentation seem trivial,” Trepp explained. “A complex negotiation isn’t scary because I’ve already sat one-on-one competitively in this intellectual contest with someone across the board for my entire childhood.”
Community and Belonging: The Social Power of Chess
Not every chess student becomes a national champion—and that’s perfectly fine. Jack Kochansky, now an Associate at Boston Consulting Group, offers a refreshing perspective on chess success. He was never competing for national titles, but chess gave him something equally valuable: community.
Starting in first grade, Kochansky quickly discovered that chess created lasting friendships. “Even over the years, as some of them stopped playing chess, I stayed close with them,” he recalled. The bonds formed through NSCF chess camps and clubs proved so strong that during college, he returned as an instructor—a testament to the community’s enduring pull.
For educators concerned about student engagement, Kochansky’s story offers an important lesson: chess teaches students to “love these kinds of really complex problems” and to find satisfaction in continuous improvement rather than perfect solutions. “You’re never going to quite crack chess, but you’re going to do the best that you can. You’re going to continuously improve, and you’re going to have a lot of fun, hopefully, while you do it.”
This mindset—embracing complexity, valuing progress over perfection, and finding joy in the journey—serves students well throughout their academic and professional lives.
The Unexpected Ripple Effects
Perhaps the most compelling testimony came from Benson Schexnaydre who became a National Master in Mississippi—a notable achievement given the state’s smaller chess community. His chess journey illustrates how one passion can unlock others.
Schexnaydre wasn’t a natural reader as a child, but chess changed that. After picking up Weeramantry’s book “Great Moves: Learning Chess Through History” and reading it cover to cover, he discovered a love of literature that extended to Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, The Call of the Wild, and Lord of the Flies. “I found I actually had a passion for other things, and it started as a love of chess,” he explained.
The discipline required for tournament play even inspired physical fitness. After exhausting six-hour rounds, Schexnaydre decided he needed to get in better shape. Despite being “kind of chubby” and initially unable to keep up with his sister during runs, he persevered. “Through chess, I was able to get more fit,” he reflected.
Most significantly, teaching chess at age 16 revealed a passion for helping others that shaped his career path. “I realized I enjoy helping people, making an impact on people’s lives,” he said. “So much so that I intend to be a doctor, and I want to help heal and benefit people.”
The Science of Transfer: Teaching Skills That Matter
The panel discussion also addressed a critical question for educators: Do chess skills actually transfer to other domains? The answer, according to these panelists and research by Dr. Stuart Margulies, is a resounding yes—but with an important caveat.
Margulies’s doctoral dissertation concluded that transfer can be achieved if educators “teach for transfer.” As Weeramantry emphasized, instructors must help students see connections between chess thinking and real-world applications. It’s not enough to simply teach chess; educators should periodically stop and ask students why they’re learning these concepts and how they might apply elsewhere.
The transferable skills are significant and develop relatively early. By the time students reach intermediate levels (around 1600-1800 rating), they’ve already internalized valuable patterns of thinking that don’t require mastery-level play to be beneficial. Will Trepp emphasized this point: “You don’t have to be a 2200 or 2400 to have it truly be imprinted on you and valuable.”
Building Mental Stamina in a Distracted World
Jack Kochansky raised a concern that should resonate with every educator today: “We’re living in a world now where it’s so easy not to think.” With constant digital distractions, social media, and AI tools like ChatGPT providing instant answers, students’ capacity for deep, sustained thinking is diminishing.
“What I’ve been seeing for my generation, and younger generations, is this muscle that’s withering away because we’re not thinking as deeply and as critically as we’ve had to in the past,” Kochansky observed. Chess provides an antidote. Sitting in front of a chessboard for hours builds mental stamina that’s increasingly difficult to develop elsewhere.
Chess also develops hypothesis-based thinking—a critical skill across disciplines. Students learn to evaluate multiple options, test each one thoroughly, and make informed decisions. This methodical approach to problem-solving proves invaluable in careers like consulting, science, and any field requiring complex analysis.
The Autodidactic Advantage
Perhaps one of chess’s most important gifts to students is teaching them how to teach themselves. Benson Schexnaydre discovered this when preparing for the ACT. After an expensive prep class yielded no improvement, he applied chess thinking to his test preparation: creating a schedule, taking practice tests, analyzing results, and identifying weaknesses—just like analyzing chess games.
“It gave me more confidence in myself that I can teach myself something,” he explained. In an era demanding lifelong learning, this self-directed approach to skill development is invaluable.
Redefining Success for Chess Education
The panel’s most important message for educators: chess success shouldn’t be measured solely by ratings and trophies. For every student who becomes a master, dozens more develop critical thinking, build lasting friendships, gain confidence, and discover new passions. These former scholastic players—now a business executive, a consultant, and a future doctor—stand as living proof that chess education’s greatest victories happen not in tournaments, but in classrooms, boardrooms, and communities where chess-trained minds tackle the world’s challenges with creativity, resilience, and strategic thinking.
