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+ − 7 <body text="#000000" link="#0000ff" vlink="#551a8b" alink="#ff0000" bgcolor="#c0c0c0">
+ − 8 <a name="There Is No Satisfactory Alternative T">
+ − 9 <p><strong><hr>
+ − 10 </strong>
+ − 11 <br wp="br1"><br wp="br2">
+ − 12 <p><strong>There Is No Satisfactory Alternative To Go</strong>
+ − 13
+ − 14 <p><strong>© 2002 Milton N. Bradley</a></strong>
+ − 15
+ − 16 <p>As one of the world's great strategic board games, Chess shares certain important characteristics
+ − 17 with Go that also makes it a valuable pedagogical adjunct to the standard curriculum, and it has
+ − 18 often been used in that role outside the Orient in places where Go was unknown. As Shelby
+ − 19 Lyman noted in his nationally syndicated Chess column in Long Island's premiere newspaper
+ − 20 Newsday on Sept 10, 1991, "Chess works in an educational environment because ......it is a
+ − 21 sport....and it is played for fun." He continued "... children playing Chess engage their full
+ − 22 intellect, will and strength to a remarkable extent. They alertly attend the chessboard: observing,
+ − 23 remembering, generating ideas, testing those ideas, making decisions and mistakes and learning
+ − 24 from those mistakes." He concluded "Chess has an advantage over most school subjects: it
+ − 25 combines both theory and practice. Ideas are honed and tested in the crucible of competitive play.
+ − 26 Poor formulation or poor execution of ideas loses games. Careless, faulty thinking is ruthlessly
+ − 27 refuted on the chessboard."
+ − 28
+ − 29 <p>The validity of Lyman's contention that Chess can improve student performance was recently
+ − 30 abundantly demonstrated in New York City's Mott Hall School, as reported by Brent Staples in
+ − 31 the Sunday New York Times of Dec 15, 2002, and described in considerable detail in the section
+ − 32 of this web page entitled "Teaching The New 'R' Of Reasoning".
+ − 33
+ − 34 <p><em><strong>Go is far superior to Chess as a pedagogical tool because it not only fully shares <u>all</u> of these
+ − 35 considerable assets, but also possesses several others of transcendent importance that <u>Chess
+ − 36 lacks almost completely</u>:</strong></em>
+ − 37
+ − 38 <p><UL type = disc>
+ − 39
+ − 40 <p><LI> Most readily apparent is Go's far greater accessibility, especially by the very young. It is
+ − 41 free of all the artificial complexities (e.g. different piece moves, promotion, castling, en passant
+ − 42 capture, etc.) that beset Chess. The structure of Go is as simple and almost as easy to learn in
+ − 43 rudimentary fashion as Checkers, so it is possible for almost anyone to quickly and effortlessly
+ − 44 begin playing it.
+ − 45
+ − 46 <p><LI> The rigid starting setup of Chess vastly reduces the number of options available, thereby
+ − 47 inhibiting the free flow of the player's imagination. In contrast, <em>the Go board starts empty and
+ − 48 the players create their own unique structure in every game, thus allowing full reign to their
+ − 49 creativity and imagination.</em>
+ − 50
+ − 51 <p><LI> The simplistic objective of Chess of catching the opposing King together with its small 8 x
+ − 52 8 square scale and constricting starting lineup lead to a "quick kill" mentality in which the
+ − 53 capture of some material or a successful "mating attack" on the opposing King can lead to an
+ − 54 instant win. The result is a game that is very strongly biased toward the tactical, with very little
+ − 55 opportunity for the development of much more than elemental strategy. In contrast, the 19 x 19
+ − 56 line Go board has enormous scale. Coupled with the need to trade off short term profits and their
+ − 57 costs against the possibility of later achieving greater long term gain, this leads to incredibly
+ − 58 profound strategy whose realization depends upon the precise execution of tactics every bit as
+ − 59 incisive as those of Chess. <em><strong>This gives Go an entire dimension for intellectual development
+ − 60 almost entirely lacking in Chess.</em></strong>
+ − 61
+ − 62 <p><LI> Perhaps most important of all, the vast scale of the Go board makes it impossible to
+ − 63 precisely calculate anticipated outcomes during the crucial opening stages of the game, and this
+ − 64 requires the players to rely entirely upon general strategic principles and such right brain
+ − 65 functions as pattern recognition and "instinct". <em><strong>This integration of right and left brain function
+ − 66 provided by Go is crucial to the complete development of the brain, and is also almost
+ − 67 completely lacking in Chess (or any other known human activity).</em></strong>
+ − 68
+ − 69 <p>This unique integration of left and right brain function in playing Go was recently directly
+ − 70 demonstrated for the first time by MRI brain scans, in experiments described in the report
+ − 71 referenced in the section of this web page "Comparison Between Chess and Go".
+ − 72
+ − 73 <p></UL>
+ − 74
+ − 75 <p>For these reasons, <em><strong>Go</em> not only provides <em>unlimited scope</em> for even the most brilliant to
+ − 76 exercise their mental capabilities to the fullest, but <em>an effectiveness in improving the brain
+ − 77 function and academic performance of even underachievers unmatched by any other known
+ − 78 pedagogical mechanism.</em></strong>
+ − 79 <a name="Caveats "></a>
+ − 80 <p><u><strong>Caveats</u></strong>
+ − 81
+ − 82 <p>There are some significant caveats that must be addressed in implementing a school Go program,
+ − 83 especially in the US:
+ − 84
+ − 85 <p><UL type = disc>
+ − 86
+ − 87 <p><LI> Most important is the realization that <em>Go is not a form of magic wand</em>, despite the
+ − 88 enormous benefits that its participants ultimately enjoy. Mere brief exposure to the elegant basic
+ − 89 concepts of Go and occasional casual play may be pleasurable, but will <u>not</u> result in substantive
+ − 90 salutary changes in the student's thinking processes or study habits!
+ − 91
+ − 92 <p><em><strong>The benefits Go provides can <u>only</u> be achieved over a period of months and years during
+ − 93 which the student actively studies and plays Go, and progresses well into the advanced stages
+ − 94 of skill.</em> </strong>The reason is that a deep understanding of and ability to appropriately address the
+ − 95 complex interactions between Go's strategy, tactics, and elegant structural concepts are what
+ − 96 actually improve the student's intellectual capabilities. Coupled with Go's subtle development
+ − 97 and inculcation of improved study habits, this then translates into improved academic
+ − 98 performance.
+ − 99
+ − 100 <p><LI> It is this "rewiring" of the brain to enable it to efficiently engage in the kind of <em> advanced
+ − 101 REASONING</em> essential to both playing Go and solving real world problems that is most readily
+ − 102 accomplished at about age 4 or 5. As noted in some detail in the section of this web page
+ − 103 "Teaching The New 'R' Of Reasoning", the ideal learning method for such young children is
+ − 104 largely but not wholly informal, supplemented by a small irreducible minimum of formal
+ − 105 instruction. Unfortunately, the ideal combination of conditions to permit using this preferred
+ − 106 method does not routinely exist anywhere in the US today outside a very few Oriental
+ − 107 communities. Therefore there is no practical alternative to a more formal, intrinsically less
+ − 108 desirable (but still effective) approach.
+ − 109
+ − 110 <p><LI> In Japan, Go is a well established and highly respected cultural/social activity and almost
+ − 111 every child is already aware of its existence long before entering school, so participation in an in-school Go program is fairly readily obtained and accepted. In the US Go is almost completely
+ − 112 unknown to all but a few students of Oriental extraction. Far worse, in our basically anti-intellectual society, activities like playing Go are also often characterized by many students and
+ − 113 parents as "nerdy", and are viewed disapprovingly. Overcoming this erroneous negative
+ − 114 preconception may constitute a formidable challenge, at least until the program is well
+ − 115 established and its value demonstrated beyond question.
+ − 116
+ − 117 <p></UL>
+ − 118
+ − 119 <p><a href="SHUNTGO.html"><Font Color="#0033FF"><strong>Continue</strong></Font></a>
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