There's No After-School Club for Memorizing NOVA Episodes. Except There Is.

The following is adapted from Decoding Genius by Dan Shapiro.

My son Harry tested as remarkably bright, but with real social, emotional, and learning challenges. He fits into a growing category of kids known as "twice exceptional," meaning he is both exceptionally talented and exceptionally challenged. The out-of-sync development so typical in these kids was exactly what was driving us nuts as parents.

Like parents everywhere, my wife Becca and I wanted to help our child succeed. We enlisted therapists, doctors, and coaches, and we knew Harry needed enrichment to keep his brain productively busy. Our school, like most, offered a buffet of after-school activities. If your child draws well, there are art programs. If they're a great baseball player, there's Little League. Perfect pitch? Piano lessons.

But what if your child's talents don't fit the usual categories of sports and the arts? Harry's strengths were a probing mind, an intuitive knack for distilling the complex, and a passion for learning how the world works. At five, he asked me where babies come from. After I explained conception, he paused and said, "So when your cell and mom's cell came together to make me, your cell must have brought more... information." He grasped dominant and recessive genes instantly, without anyone teaching him.

Harry has watched every episode of NOVA and memorized many of them. At first, we thought there wasn't an obvious club for him. After all, there isn't one called "Sitting around memorizing facts from NOVA."

Except there is. It's called a chess club.

After a small taste of chess before COVID-19, it was Harry who said, "I think I want to try chess again." It made sense. His curiosity, analytical mind, and excellent memory are exactly the abilities good chess players use. He started studying with a teacher, playing online, and competing in tournaments. At the chess club, he connected with other intellectually minded kids and had a lot of fun. Chess helped him flourish.

Then something unexpected happened: I got hooked too. Harry and I played each other, took lessons together, and shared this journey side by side. As I dug into the game, I noticed something peculiar. We love dissecting how Warren Buffett became a great investor or how LeBron James built his phenomenal career. Yet nobody explains the genius of Bobby Fischer, Garry Kasparov, or Magnus Carlsen to the general public. At most, people shrug and say they were born with talent. Why don't we know more about the minds that excel at memory, calculation, and visualization?

Here's the thing: you don't need to be a genius to benefit. When your kids take cello lessons, you don't expect the next Yo-Yo Ma. You sign them up to develop discipline and a love of music. Chess works the same way. It builds memory, keen analysis, and focused practice, skills as valuable in life as anything learned on a field or a stage.

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For more advice on the value of chess for you and your child, you can find Decoding Genius on Amazon.

Dan Shapiro is a lifelong student committed to the pursuit of knowledge and new experiences. He has worked in the investment industry for nearly three decades. A volunteer and board member for many nonprofit organizations, Dan is a wine collector, home cook, musician, and vintage guitar collector. He is passionate about the game of chess, which he enjoys playing with his son, Harry. Dan lives in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, with his wife and two sons.