Interesting post, as always, Bill.  My older daughter just graduated from a very large high school as valedictorian, but she doesn't really play chess. 

My younger daughter, who will graduate next year and is currently first in her entire school district, does play chess.  She and I founded a chess club at her math, science and technology magnet school.  She used to play here on chess.com, but is no longer a member.  While good at chess, she actually doesn't play that much.  Her "thing" is to memorize pi competitively. She actually hit the AP newswire last Pi Day, March 14.  Here's a link to my YouTube channel where you can watch her reciting 2,000 digits of pi from memory or else reciting 500 digits really, really fast!

Congratualations to your son! I'm curious: Where did you find a list of high-school valedictorians? Did you just Google it, or is there a reference somewhere?

A thousand years ago ... oops, 1975, but it seems like 1000 years ... I was valedictorian of Phillips Academy in Andover, MA, and president of the chess club. Except that they didn't have an official valedictorian. They had a "Faculty Prize" for the senior with the best academic average, and it was kept a surprise until the day of graduation. Actually, the first inkling I had was when someone from the school paper showed up to photograph me the day before graduation.

Chess had nothing to do with my being valedictorian. It had everything to do with having old-fashioned parents who pushed me very hard, and with my buying 100 percent into the idea that grades were the sole measure of my worth as a human being. I had to go through a certain amount of re-education later in life to realize that wasn't true.

Just a thought.  There are some 36,000 high schools in US according to some data on US Dept. of Ed. website.  So if we assume just 1% of high school kids play chess, you could see 360 class valedictorians that played chess every single year, without any statistical correlation whatsoever between chess and academic achievement.  To draw any inference from the fact that some valedictorians also played chess would require information about the proportion of students playing chess (generally) and the proportion of class valedictorians that play chess. 

An interesting subject.  While one might suspect a positive correlation, I could also see a negative correlation as student chess players get drawn in the dark abyss of chess.com and fail to study has hard as non-chess playing teenagers.

Congrats, Jonathan! Plans for college?

My chess background is similar to bondiggity's. Except I was one rank below valedictorian... and you wouldn't be able to tell by looking at my senior year/current grades.

I think there is more of a correlation with the ability to focus and pay attention. If you can concentrate in chess you probably are just more apt to concentrate on school. I dont think it actually helps.

". . .some of the best chess players in the world -- including what I think were only two American champs -- went insane."

Unless this refers to the former American, William Steinitz, and HN Pillsbury, I would have to assume it means Morphy and Fischer, neither of whom were ever insane.

Some of the smartest people to ever have lived were insane. Why should it be any different with chess?

So you're saying just because someone is good at chess or if they're smart, they'll get hit with mental illness?

If you read "The Immortal Game," you'll find several passages where the author notes how some of the best chess players in the world -- including what I think were only two American champs -- went insane. What good does it do to know how to move 16-piece armies on a 65-square board if you're not mentally healthy? So one can be a chess champ, valedictorian and all that. But in the "end game," so to speak, they may be checkmated by mental illness, which could very well be brought on by chess. I played a chess master once who admitted he was obsessed with chess and spoke of other great players who were extremely quirky and superstitious about circumstances under which they played games.

Haha, I was valedictorian of  my school (hence val08  ). I love chess, but I can't say it contributed anything to my being smart. I would say being smart made me want to play chess to prove how smart I was.

Do we remember that Bobby Fischer did terrible in school?  It was because he spent all his time studying chess.  Chess is certainly a kind of brilliance that can traverse those sorts of boundaries, but I wouldn't say chess necessarily makes someone smarter or a better person (both of which have been argued by others).

To RoyalFlush1991:  would have to disagree with your reading of the article.

I do not think he is saying valedictorians are attracted to chess.

I think he is saying that some valedictorians played chess and he believes that chess contributed to them becoming valedictorians.

I agree with RoyalFlush1991

I'd be more curious to know how many chess players can spell valedictorian.

Congratulations to your nephew. He's off to a good start.

Personally, I think the premise of the argument is false in the sense that Valedictorians are the most likely ones to be attracted to chess so you're essentially proving your thesis through roundabout logic. Nonetheless, it is an interesting topic for dicussion.

Congrats to Jonathan. 

I think, after my experiences with a multitude of students from different schools in different states, that there is a strong correlation to be found between any extra-curricular activity that is demanding and valedictorians.  I certainly think chess is an intellectual pursuit and is more demanding as such than most sports, but I've known two ladies who were both captains of their soccer teams and valedictorians (and there's a third coming down the pike...first in her class and captain of the JV squad).  Every person in the top ten of my class and their classes were extremely involved in sports and other activities.  The quarterback/point guard/ace pitcher in my 2000 class was ranked third and received a full scholarship to a Division II college for football. The fourth ranked in my class signed a contract with Dreamworks for six albums as a country artist (the music business subsequently treated her as it has countless others, but her talent was obviously there).  Their GPA's were somewhere in the neighborhood of 4.3 and higher (the valedictorian/soccer captain had a 4.6 due to AP weight)

I believe that bright people seek out other things to excel in because their lights are turned on and boredom is almost inescapable.  Chess is an excellent outlet, certainly, but I would be interested to see if it had a higher incidence as a hobby than other demanding pursuits.

All the best,

Ish

Good stuff Bill!

I was valedictorian of my high school class, but really only started playing chess seriously after that was already decided (valedictorian status didn't take into account grades from senior year, and I started playing summer before senior year.)