Why the NBA Loves Chess and What It Means for Chess for Kids
- Musical Chess
- 4 days ago
- 6 min read
A founder's response to ESPN's piece on the NBA's quiet chess boom
By Adrienne Tellier, Founder of Musical Chess
I teach chess to three-year-olds.
Not competitively. Not with a clock or a rating system. Through music, through movement, through the kind of joyful, full-body learning that makes a child's whole face light up when something clicks.
So when ESPN published its feature on the NBA's growing chess culture, covering players like Giannis Antetokounmpo, Victor Wembanyama, Derrick Rose, and Rajon Rondo, I did not read it as a sports fan.
I read it as a children's educator who has been watching chess do exactly what these athletes describe. Just with much younger players.
The NBA Is Putting a Spotlight on Something Powerful
Derrick Rose organized Chesstival in Las Vegas, bringing NBA players and grandmasters together to shine a light on chess for kids and women. Victor Wembanyama hosted community chess events, showing up at Washington Square Park in New York City to play with fans in the rain and hosting additional chess events in his hometown in France. Rajon Rondo is planning to make his AAU players put down their phones and play chess at tournaments. Grant Williams says he plays "every two minutes."
These athletes are not just playing chess. They are championing it. And that enthusiasm has the power to bring chess to families who might never have considered it before.
That kind of visibility is a gift to every chess educator, every parent who has wondered whether chess is for their child, and every child who has not yet had the chance to discover what they are capable of at the board.
What the Research Confirms
Here is the part that genuinely excites me as an early childhood educator.
Everything these athletes describe experiencing through chess, anticipating what comes next, regulating emotions under pressure, building resilience through losing, thinking flexibly when plans change, is exactly what the research on early childhood development has been documenting for years.
A peer-reviewed study published in Frontiers in Psychology examined chess instruction in young children across two kindergartens and found significant improvements in attention, memory, logical thinking, patience, self-discipline, and both math and reading scores compared to control groups. A separate study of novice primary school students who completed a structured chess training program found significant improvements in school performance, memory, and resistance to mental fatigue. Research evaluating chess as a therapeutic tool found it effective in reducing impulsivity in children with ADHD.
Rudy Gobert described making decisions while physically fatigued, explaining that mental fatigue makes every choice harder. Victor Wembanyama trains this way on purpose, combining conditioning with chess to practice clear thinking under pressure. The research explains why this works. The prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain responsible for planning, decision-making, and emotional regulation, is strengthened through exactly this kind of deliberate, effortful practice. And in early childhood, when the brain is developing fastest, these experiences leave the deepest impressions.
The Pause That Changes Everything
When a child is learning to move the King for the first time, something happens.
They slow down. They look at the whole board. They start to think, even just for a moment, about what comes next rather than what feels good right now.
That pause is everything.
It is the same pause Giannis Antetokounmpo describes when he read LeBron James' pick-and-roll before it even developed. It is the same pause Rondo built into his pregame routine, pulling out a chess board right before tip-off to get his thinking sharp before the game started. It is the pause between impulse and action that developmental researchers call self-regulation, one of the most important and predictive skills a young child can build.
Chess builds that pause through play. And the earlier children begin practicing it, the stronger it grows.
Music, Memory, and the Reason I Hum
One of the details in the ESPN piece that stayed with me was this: Derrick Rose played chess listening to Bob Marley before every game. Not as background noise. As preparation. As a way to calm his nervous system and arrive on the court in exactly the right mental state.
I see this connection every time I teach.
And here is something I love about what music does for young chess learners specifically. When a child forgets how a piece moves, I simply hum the song we learned for that piece, and they remember. Immediately. Every time.
That is not magic. That is how music works in the brain.
A 2009 study published in the Journal of Neuroscience found that musical experience as brief as 15 months in early childhood leads to structural brain changes and measurable improvements in motor and auditory skills. A controlled study using functional MRI imaging from Boston Children's Hospital, published in PLOS ONE, found a biological link between early musical training and improved executive functioning in both children and adults. Senior investigator Nadine Gaab noted that executive functioning is a strong predictor of academic achievement, even more so than IQ. Research consistently shows that songs with repetitive rhythms and movements strengthen neural connections, making information easier to retain and recall. Patterned sound and movement together engage neural circuits for memory, attention, and social bonding in ways that support deep, lasting learning.
This is why Musical Chess weaves music and movement into everything. Not as decoration on top of chess instruction but as the entry point that makes chess feel safe, joyful, and genuinely memorable for young children.
What Losing Teaches, and Why It Is Worth Learning Young
Rajon Rondo said something in the ESPN piece that I keep coming back to.
"You might lose your queen. Do you panic? How do you handle adversity? They're all life lessons."
In chess, you cannot undo a move. You cannot call a timeout or draw up a new plan. You sit with what just happened and decide what to do next. For young children, that experience in a safe, warm, playful context is genuinely powerful.
Quinten Post described it this way: you cannot be results-oriented if you want to improve. You have to focus on getting better every single day. Psychologist Carol Dweck spent decades studying exactly this mindset and found that children who approach challenges with curiosity rather than fear of failure develop greater resilience, stronger academic performance, and more confidence over time.
Chess, played without pressure and without fear of judgment, is one of the most natural ways children develop that orientation. Small challenges. Real consequences. Room to try again. And a trusted adult who responds to mistakes with encouragement and curiosity.
That combination builds the kind of confidence that does not depend on winning. It comes from knowing you can handle what comes next.
Making Chess for Kids Approachable for Every Family
One of the things Rose, Rondo, and Wembanyama all share is a desire to make chess more accessible. Rose is focused specifically on kids and women. Wembanyama showed up in the rain to play with fans. Rondo wants his young athletes engaging their minds at the board instead of scrolling.
The common thread is this: chess is powerful, and more people deserve access to it.
For young children and their families, chess can sometimes feel like something that requires a certain level of readiness, formality, or prior knowledge before you can begin. Musical Chess exists to take that intimidation factor completely off the table, for children and for the parents and caregivers who want to share this experience with them.
When a child's first experience of chess is a song about the King, a movement game inspired by how the Knight moves, and an educator who is having a blast, the game transforms. It becomes approachable. It becomes fun. It becomes something a three-year-old genuinely wants to do again.
That is the entry point Musical Chess is building. Joyful, musical, movement-based, and designed for the youngest learners so the love of chess begins early, long before pressure or comparison ever enters the picture.
What This Means for Your Family Right Now
The NBA is telling us something important about what the mind needs to grow, to stay sharp, and to perform well when it matters most.
Focus. Adaptability. Emotional regulation. Resilience. The ability to think clearly even when things are hard.
These are not just basketball skills or board game skills. They are life skills. And the research is consistent: the earlier children begin building them through play, the stronger the foundation.
If elite athletes are using chess to train their minds, imagine what chess for kids can build when it starts at age three or four.
Chess sets the stage. But the real growth happens far beyond the board.
Musical Chess is an edutainment platform that introduces children to chess through music, movement, and playful digital learning. Designed for ages 3 to 7, Musical Chess supports the emotional, social, and intellectual development of the whole child. Explore our app and YouTube channel at playmusicalchess.com.
Sources
Ye, Y. (2025). Research on the application of chess teaching in the intellectual development of young children: analysis of educational models and strategies. Frontiers in Psychology, 16, 1592247. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1592247
Gliga, F., and Flesner, P.I. (2014). Cognitive benefits of chess training in novice children. Procedia: Social and Behavioral Sciences, 116, 962–967. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2014.01.328
Agarwal, N.K. (2023). Evaluating the effectiveness of chess as a therapeutic tool in the comprehensive management of ADHD. Journal of Mind and Medical Sciences, 10(2), 191–195. https://doi.org/10.22543/2392-7674.1405
Hyde, K.L., Lerch, J., Norton, A., Forgeard, M., Winner, E., Evans, A.C., and Schlaug, G. (2009). Musical training shapes structural brain development. Journal of Neuroscience, 29(10), 3019–3025. https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.5118-08.2009
Zuk, J., Benjamin, C., Kenyon, A., and Gaab, N. (2014). Behavioral and neural correlates of executive functioning in musicians and non-musicians. PLOS ONE, 9(6), e99868. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0099868
Dweck, C.S. (2006). Mindset: The New Psychology of Success. Random House.
