How About a Master's Degree in Chess?

We're not quite ready to be giving out degrees in chess study, but kudos to the Boylston Chess Club weblog for pointing out an interesting story. A report by Matthew Bowers of the Virginian-Pilot notes that the MBA program at Virginia's Hampton University incorporates chess as a major component. According to the article:

"Chess is more than fun to first-year students in Hampton's five-year MBA program. It's part of the curriculum. A third of the course Critical Analysis and Strategy is devoted to learning and playing it...'Think and Move' is the slogan for the program's 230 students."

"[Chess] is somewhat brutal," says the schools's dean, "but so is corporate America."