Chess provides gateway to teaching for Werklund grad

June 9, 2016 - While Vlad Rekhson was teaching chess to children in a Calgary after-school program, he was learning something about himself — he needed to change course and pursue a career in education.

Now a Werklund School of Education graduate, Rekhson will convocate with an Bachelor of Education after a rigorous two-year program and an eight-week practicum at the private Renert School. The school has ties to the Bright Minds program where Rekhson’s passion for teaching was first sparked.

“I was working with the kids, teaching them chess, and I really liked it,” Rekhson says. “I thought, 'why don’t I get a degree so I can actually teach in school and other subjects as well?'”

Chess title brings him to Calgary

Rekhson, who was born in Russia and has lived in Israel and the U.S., moved to Edmonton and completed his business degree in 2009. He says his father first taught him to play chess at six, but that he didn’t really get it until he was eight years old.

“I never expected to be a great chess player; it’s just something I liked — a hobby — and I didn’t expect to be playing chess as an adult,” Rekhson says. “Then, it just happened there was an opportunity in Alberta.”

Having earned a National Master title for chess in Canada, Rekhson came to Calgary in 2010 to take an administrative position as executive director with the Alberta Chess Association.

Teaching chess in after-school program and connecting with kids

Rekhson’s name was added to an online list of local chess coaches, and that’s where Aaron Renert found him. Renert, who is co-founder of the Renert Centre, The Renert School and the Bright Minds program, has a strong belief in the value of young kids learning chess.

“There is a lot of research that kids who are exposed to chess at a young age do better academically,” Renert says. “Chess teaches respect for an opponent, humility, how to lose gracefully and it teaches discipline. If you want to get good at chess, you learn it takes years and years of very deep practice and contemplation.”

Rekhson started teaching young kids chess in the after-school program. He enjoyed it, and, Renert says, he was very good.

“Vlad is a natural,” Renert says. “To be a good teacher, you have to, not only have a very deep understanding of the subject matter and how to convey it, but the hardest thing is to have that ability to connect. Vlad has that in spades.”

Renert says he admires how effortless it seems for Rekhson to sit on the carpet with young kids and teach chess moves. And it didn’t take long before he asked whether Rekhson was also strong in mathematics — he was. The plan now is for Rekhson to teach both math and chess at The Renert School, starting next year.

Power of game lies in helping kids' critical thinking

Rekhson believes in the power of chess to help kids think critically as well.

“Chess trains you to think about what you are doing, and with kids it gets them to slow down, think about what options they have, how they can improve on something by taking their time," he says. "That’s very important.”

In a sped-up world of iPads and Candy Crush, deep contemplation and patience is clearly something to behold, especially in the very young.

“It’s amazing to see a couple of young children, setting up the chess board, looking at their position for 45 to 60 seconds,” Renert says. “A whole minute? That’s a lifetime for a six year old!”