“Dear Andre,

As a parent of a child who attends your classes at Smart Kids Chess, I witnessed a remarkable transformation in my child’s academic performance since they began learning chess.

At first, I enrolled them at Smart Kids Chess to help them with focus and patience, but I realized it benefited them more. We started noticing improvements in his ability to recall things I’d asked him to do. For instance, when he was doing his math he was able to remember the steps in the equation he had to figure out. We asked him how he remembered the steps and he said that it was a technique he learnt in chess class called mnemonics. He just had a sense of confidence in what he was doing and even how he explained it to us.

We also noticed that he now approaches school assignments with more confidence, and we noticed he organized his notes differently. He mentioned a “Cornell Structure” for note taking which he told us you taught him.  He explained how it helped make understand how things relates to another. We never thought his chess classes would have helped him organize his work and thoughts.

Another change I noticed was his concentration. He got so hyper-focused in his homework the other night that we had to call him three times before he noticed we called him. Even in his school classes, his teacher told us he gained more patience and focus, it’s just carried over into his studies. He used to struggle with staying on task during his assignments, but now he seems engaged, and he just completes his homework without distractions. Its really saved us a lot of frustration to keep him on task.

Even his resilience to being challenged changed too. He’d shut down or get pretty upset and sometimes even discouraged. Instead, we noticed he thinks about his mistakes and now sees losses as opportunities to improve.

You folks helped him be more patient and confident. We laughed that it might have something to do with all that losing in chess cause now he picks himself back up.

But the most impressive change was his overall behaviour. He handles things at home differently. He seems more somehow present, aware of what things need to be done, and he organizes things in priority before beginning, he just puts more effort into caring about what he is doing. And then there was his school work; it just got done with no struggle from us.

You’ve undoubtedly helped him be more confident, removed our frustration, and helped him organize his work. Thank you for helping him succeed.

Thank you so much – R.T.”