Building maths skills can be complemented quite nicely with building puzzle solving skills. I strongly encourage maths students to play games such as Chess to increase the ability to look at problems in different ways, to think a few steps ahead and to persist through a difficult challenge to the end.

The charity Chess in Schools and Communities takes the view that Chess skills build all-round academic skills, and is doing great work to support the learning of chess at primary school.

Chess Kids is another website which offers chess puzzles and teaches how to play the game. There are also some amazing apps for the iPad. My favourite is Chess Academy For Kids.

From Aladdin to X-Men: chess in the movies | The Verge.