Stockfish Chess Engine Software Application to Enhance Opening Playing Skills for Physical Education Students

The purpose of this study is to evaluate physical education students' current status of chess opening practice skills, thereby selecting solutions to contribute to improving students' chess playing skills in various opening forms. In this study, a pre-, mid-, and post-test design for two experimental and control groups was used. The experimental subjects were 60 students studying chess at the Faculty of Physical Education and Sports Sciences, Hanoi National University of Education 2 (Vietnam) divided into 2 groups (control group and experimental group with na=nb=30). In which the control group learned chess according to the old program (currently consisting of 60 lessons), while the experimental group was instructed and used the Stockfish Chess Engine software for a period of time equivalent to 60 lessons. The parallel comparison method was performed with a paired sample t-test that was used on 3 specialized tests (including Determining opening strategies; Handling opening advantages; Playing 30-minute active chess games). The results showed that the identified opening skills of the control group and the experimental group had a significant difference with a clear advantage belonging to the experimental group (P<0.05). Therefore, it can be concluded that the Stockfish Chess Engine software has shown to be more effective in practicing opening skills than the old training program currently applied. Chess instructors and coaches are encouraged to deploy and use the Stockfish Chess Engine software as a step towards developing physical education students' opening chess playing ability.