Improve your cognitive skills by playing chess
I was 8 years old when I watched the very first game of chess. It was played between my father and my uncle. I learned the rules quite easily and wanted to play next — but couldn’t defeat either of them. It took me near about 100 games against my dad and 2–3 months of practice before I could claim my first victory.
Well, I haven’t become a Grandmaster yet and have no intention of becoming one! 🙃
I’m an okay chess player. By ‘okay’, I mean I’m not obsessed over it, doesn’t intend to make a career out of it, can beat average players most of the time and always welcome a friendly game should the occasion arise.
From here onwards, I ain’t talking about Queen’s Gambit or French Defense. Instead, this article focusses on the positive impact of playing chess on our brain and how it may help us learn things faster and solve problems quicker!
Firstly, let’s get some clichéd myths out of the way!
Popular Chess Myths 👻
- Only smart people play chess
- Chess isn’t for girls
- Playing chess is a waste of time
- …
- …
- … and probably dozens of other hoaxes and lies that you have come across for not giving it a try! You might have even heard that some of the greatest chess players like Paul Morphy, Bobby Fischer went cuckoo. No comment on that but in my opinion, too much of anything can be harmful. You work out too much — you hurt your muscles, you keep running straight for hours — you injure your legs, you play video games all night — you strain your eyes… you get the idea!
Let’s Begin☺️☺️☺️
The average human attention span has reduced from 12 seconds to 8 seconds during the last 19 years. 🤕
According to a study done by Microsoft, the rising popularity of smartphones and social media is the cause behind such falling attention rates. With the advent of the internet, the older generations expect us to make better choices. However, the exact opposite happens, this overabundance of information and choices leads many of us into a type of decision paralysis. The fear of missing out makes us want instant gratification from our current endeavor; which is why many of you are probably looking for an excuse to not read this article any further because you’re missing out on so much other stuff.
Now, unless you are playing a blitz game, chess requires patience! It develops your logical as well as creative thinking by nurturing both the hemispheres of your brain. Playing chess improves your concentration, memory, and one study shows that it can even raise your IQ.
The Benefits 🤘🏻
- Playing chess can stimulate and help to grow your dendrites thereby improving the quality of neural communication throughout your brain.
- Studies show that in order to play chess well, a player must utilize the brain’s both left and right hemispheres which deals with object and pattern recognition respectively.
- It helps to prevent Alzheimer’s disease. Most fascinatingly, at the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience in Bron, France, schizophrenic patients who were directed to play chess daily showed improvement in their condition as well.
- Research also shows that chess can improve children’s thinking and problem-solving skills. It also builds their self-confidence.
This is one game that I found interesting even after playing thousands of times. And if you’re thinking about getting bored, then its suffice to say — there are more possible games of chess than there are atoms in the observable universe! 👀
Look I don’t know about memory or IQ but personally speaking, I feel like playing chess helped me develop my patience, concentration and well, to some degree, acquiring a higher attention span than my peers.
Epilogue
So, I implore you all to consider giving this beautiful game a shot and hopefully you find it interesting enough to invest half an hour a day as I do. Still, the most important part is that you enjoy playing it and not become obliged to treat it like a task. Playing chess is one of many good things you can do to increase your brain activity but do so only when you’re having fun!
Now, if you’re having a problem finding opponents, you can always play online! I’m available as fave77 on Chess.com; you can also try other popular sites/apps like Lichess.org, Chess Tactics Pro, Play Magnus or you can purchase a wooden chessboard and practice playing with yourself.
Don’t do the last one though, it’s quite boring and you’ll surely get depressed as hell! 🙅🏻
I play chess ’cause its fun and health benefits come as a by-product. 🏁
“The game of chess is not merely an idle amusement. Several very valuable qualities of the mind, useful in the course of human life, are to be acquired or strengthened by it… Life is a kind of Chess, in which we have often points to gain, and competitors or adversaries to contend with.”
— Benjamin Franklin
