Chess helps academic performance? Is there a study that tries to show that chess helps academic performance? How does chess help our academic performance? If any? Does playing chess make us smarter at school?
Start here: http://psmcd.net/otherfiles/BenefitsOfChessInEdScreen2.pdf

There are a number of reasons. Probably the most prosaic is that the brain is like every other muscle in your body, the more you use it the stronger it gets. Add to that the fact that chess gives you practice at breaking down a large goal into achievable steps (going from "Checkmate my opponent" to "First I need to get my pieces in position to attack, then I ...") and spatial reasoning ("A Bishop there will prevent his knight from attacking me here"). Add in teaching just a bit of empathy ("what move would I make if I were in my opponent's position") and it's a solid win all the way around.

The evidence shows that chess definitely improves performance in school. And recent research in Neuroplasticity indicates that learning chess can help an old brain stay limber longer, so there's even proven benefits for us Old Pharts(tm).