Educational actions for the teaching of Chess from

Cuban heroes

Abstract

Despite its tradition in Cuba, the complexity of Chess as a strategy sport and other

cultural and contextual factors affect that in children's ages it does not always reach the

motivation of other sports disciplines. The objective of the research was to propose

educational actions based on the approach to relevant personalities of the Cuban

one to evaluate the modification of their behavior regarding Chess and the History of

Cuba. The participation of the practitioners in the school under study was increased and

they achieve greater motivation in their practices.

Keywords: Children's chess, sports initiation, interdisciplinarity, history

Introduction

Chess in Cuba has a recognized tradition for its practice throughout the country's history.

It treasures the legendary figure of José Raúl Capablanca y Graupera world champion

(1921-1927) (Sánchez, 2017) and a presence in multiple high-level competitions in both

(Miló, 2018) and in the school environment (Bueno, et alt, 2017), this also as actions that

contribute to a strategic change in Chess national (Ramón et al., 2022). In turn, in the case

of the teaching of the History of Cuba in primary education, relevant figures of the wars

of independence in Cuba are shown in their approaches to Chess (García et alt 2010) and

(Negri, 2022) and in the revolutionary stage (González Bayolo, 2022).

It agrees with Fernández (2020) that when you learn to play Chess and people delve into

its secrets as a game of options and variants, attitudes are modified to face the problems

posed by daily life, but also how to solve those complex situations that demand flexible

and creative thinking.

The work focuses on the link between this sport and strategic board game, with relevant

Chess with the History of Cuba. The sample is intentional because it constitutes the school

group of infants who are beginning to practice this sport. Theoretical level methods were

used such as: analysis and synthesis, historical logic and induction deduction. At an

empirical level, the observation of performance, as well as an initial test based on a survey

questionnaire and another final one to evaluate the modification of their behavior

regarding Chess and the History of Cuba.

It was carried out at the José Smith Comas Elementary School in the San Miguel del

Padrón municipality of the capital, from March 2021 to September 2022. The population

corresponded to 5th grade infants. The intentional sample corresponded to 15 infants of

10 and 11 years of age, who work the first moments of the history of the Homeland and

Educational actions are proposed to address the object of inquiry, which is validated by 5

specialists, who meet the conditions of being licensed in Physical Culture or Education.

Be Chess teachers with more than 3 years of teaching experience, have worked with the

children's category and have basic knowledge of Cuban History.

Stages for the implementation of educational actions

• Creation and preparation of a coordinating group to prepare and implement the action

plan.

• Diagnosis or initial test on the Chess-History of Cuba link.

• Design of the action plan and its application schedule.

• Evaluation and feedback of the educational actions carried out.

At the end, a post test is carried out to assess the modification that has occurred in the

Results and Discussion

The different moments of the implementation of the system of actions are revealed below

as an expression of the main results, to attend to the object of inquiry:

History teachers, the Physical Education teacher, the librarian, who designed the

educational actions and proposed the different moments for their implementation.

2) Development of the initial test. The initial or diagnostic test explored the knowledge

of the link of the History of Cuba with Chess applied to the sample investigated revealed

the following results. See table 1

Table 1 Initial test

Table 1 shows that none of the children know the origins of Chess (0%), only one knows

that the Spanish introduced it (6.66%), five (33.33%) know of patriots who practiced it,

school. See Table 2

Table 2 Actions to improve the teaching of Chess

No

1

Preparation of the teams for the

(15 children are divided into

three groups of five members:

two female and three male)

Actions from the plan are

4

Consult Chess experts to

enrich the topic

actions carried out and

feedback

at the University of Physical

Culture and Sports Sciences

3) As an essential part of the design of the Educational Action Plan, the topics of the

Chess Circle of Interest are proposed:

• Topic 1 Brief review of the emergence of Chess and its arrival in Cuba. Objective: to

and National Hero, respectively) with Chess to strengthen the motivation for this game in

students.

• Topic 3 José Raúl Capablanca y Graupera, a genius child and pride of Cuba. Objective:

to encourage chess practicing children based on the talent and values of the Cuban world

champion José Raúl Capablanca-, in his childhood years.

• Topic 4 Ernesto Che Guevara and Fidel Castro Ruz, promoters of Chess after 1959.

Objective: to deepen in children their approach to Chess and the history of Cuba, based

on Che and Fidel's actions to promote the game.

basic bibliography

• JIT Newspaper (April 18, 2018) Passion for chess. Taken from rebel youth

https://www.jit.cu/NewsDetails.aspx?idnoticia=46989

• Sánchez, MA (2017) Capablanca, legend and reality. Union Editions

ISBN 978-959-308-266-2

The results are presented below, combining the different methods used. The observation

revealed that the infants showed amazement and interest in how Chess arises and arrives

in Cuba, knowing relevant figures of History and their relationship with this science

game. They tried to learn about these and other patriots who also had a similar inclination.

In the discussions it was confirmed that they searched for bibliographical material, and

2

yes

4

know of patriots being Che and Fidel the most cited, since only one mentions Céspedes,

ignoring figures such as - Martí, Perucho Figueredo, Enrique José Varona, Francisco

Vicente Aguilera among others. Note that only two children (13.33%) know something

about Chess and only two (13.33%) know a Chess book.

Progress is appreciated in a before and after. Other works deal with issues related to

patriots who played Chess, but not precisely linking the History of Cuba with Chess to

encourage the incorporation of infants into this sport, as well as motivate them for this

important subject for the development of their identity History of Cuba . That is its

novelty. These results are confirmed in Negri, S (2022) and Santiago, O. (2022). It is

legacy is very beneficial for primary school children, since On the one hand, it motivates

them and makes the study of this part of history more fluent by awakening their curiosity,

at the same time that it encourages them to learn about this game and it is undeniable that

it is precisely at an early age that interest in Chess should born, because on the one hand

it is more feasible to pave the way step by step looking for a new Capablanca.

According to (Ramón et al., 2022) this strategic line of work for the development of

school Chess is strengthened, for the sake of its double educational role and for the

selection of high-level chess players in the period 2022-2028. Therefore, this research

also provides a step on the path of dissemination and massification of Chess through its

link with the history of the Homeland, in a sustainable project due to its few resources.

surveys, since the figures of Che and Fidel are barely known.