Study on the Choice of the Optional Subject "Chess Education" in The School Year 2021- 2022

The purpose of the study was to identify the share of educational units in Romania, urban and rural, in which the optional subject "Chess Education" was implemented in the 2021-2022 school year, with the involvement of their management, taking into account the provisions of the Order 3249/31.03.2014. The research was carried out in the 2022-2023 school year and was carried out in collaboration with school inspectors for the discipline of physical education and sport in 40 counties of the country. In carrying it out, I used the questionnaire survey to collect information and the statistical-mathematical calculations for quantitative analysis. The research’s results show that only 31 educational institutions in Romania implemented this optional discipline, although chess has major impact on students’ personal development. Of these, 23 educational units (74.2%) are located in rural areas and only 8 educational units (25.8%) are in urban areas. It was observed that in only 18 counties (42.86% of the number of counties) there were pre-university education institutions where classes studied this optional discipline. It was found that 28 classes of middle school, 21 classes of primary and 4 classes of high school studied this optional subject. We believe that the small number of educational units in which the optional discipline "Education through chess" was implemented is determined by the lack of skills of specialists in physical education and sports regarding the teaching of chess, the discipline Theory and practice of chess being introduced in the curriculum of university education from 2019.