Chess Is A Game To Help Improve Our Cognitive Abilities
July 5, 2021 at 7:04 p.m.
By Max [email protected]
It happened almost 80 years ago while I was playing a match with a neighbor on his front porch in Pittsburgh, Pa. I was just 10 years old at the time. While we were playing someone shouted out that the Japanese had just bombed Pearl Harbor and that our country would soon be at war. Perhaps subconsciously, memories of that day stayed with me although I rarely play chess.
One reason may be that I lack the intelligence to really be good at it and there is evidence that most professional and avid chess players are quite smart. They also have a good memory, pattern recognition, excellent calculation abilities and are strategic thinkers. This system of thinking is what makes chess players smarter than the average person.
Despite my mental handicap, there were two recent incidents I can cite that sparked a renewed interest in chess. The first is Netflix’s recent series “The Queen’s Gambit,” one of the best chess movies ever made. It is one of the most popular titles currently streaming.
The second is evidence that learning chess can increase one’s cognitive skills. This is a subject sure to interest most of us, particularly parents of young or teenage children. The reason is that there are studies indicating that the younger generation is losing the ability to think and communicate, likely due to the reliance on or absolute dependence on social media as a substitute for analytical thinking. An international team of researchers has found the internet can produce both acute and sustained alterations in specific areas of cognition, which may reflect changes in the brain, affecting our attentional capacities, memory processes, and social interactions.
Benefits
According to the literature, chess instruction can affect mathematical abilities directly as well as indirectly through affective states. Based on existing empirical evidence, chess instruction leads to improved mathematical abilities and reasoning, especially in problem solving and pattern recognition tasks. Learning chess helps to develop thinking skills, enhances mental prowess and directly contributes to academic performance and makes people smarter in a variety of ways. It dramatically improves the ability to think rationally and playing chess helps to develop patience and thoughtfulness.
Chess has been shown to raise student's overall IQ scores. A Venezuelan study involving 4,000 second grade students found a significant increase in their IQ scores after only 4.5 months of systematically studying chess.
The reality of chess is different – it actually is an incredibly beneficial pastime, because playing chess results in better brain function, improved memory and cognitive abilities, strategic thinking and attention improvement. Scientists also claim that playing chess can improve mental age by up to 14 years.
Internet
Many educators believe that the internet is partly responsible for the detrimental effects it has on cognitive ability and communication skills. In a recent paper published in World Psychiatry, the longterm effects of the internet are still to be determined, even though it has been publically available for more than 30 years. On the negative side, the internet’s digital distractions and the capacity for cognitive offloading appear to create a non-ideal environment for the refinement of higher cognitive functions in critical periods of children’s and adolescent’s brain development. Multitasking appears to one of the reasons and may result in decreased verbal development along with impeded maturation of both grey and white matter regions of the brain.
On the other hand, the opposite may be true in older adults experiencing cognitive decline for whom the online environment may provide a new source of positive cognitive stimulation.
Experimental studies have found that computer games online and through smart phones can be used to reduce aging-related cognitive decline. Thus the internet may present a novel and accessible platform for adults to maintain cognitive function throughout old age. Perhaps a combination of chess and internet usage is warranted for seniors of all ages.
Final Thoughts
While the effects of the internet on intelligence are still being studied there is little doubt that learning chess enhances cognitive abilities (attention, perception, information processing, memory and problem solving) and non-cognitive skills (patience, discipline, self-control and social skills).
Strengthening these skill sets through chess will surely prove beneficial for children to improve their academic performance. Educators may wish to keep this in mind when designing the curriculum for their students. Parents may wish to include chess to the list of games played at home for amusement.
In addition, I was a fan of the late Charles Krauthammer, columnist, political commentator, author and philosopher. I knew that he was an avid player and found chess to be just like alcohol and addicting. Even though he is no longer with us, it would be hard to find a better spokesperson for the game.
Max Sherman is a medical writer and pharmacist retired from the medical device industry. His new book “Science Snippets” is available from Amazon and other book sellers. It contains a number of previously published columns. He can be reached by email at [email protected].
It happened almost 80 years ago while I was playing a match with a neighbor on his front porch in Pittsburgh, Pa. I was just 10 years old at the time. While we were playing someone shouted out that the Japanese had just bombed Pearl Harbor and that our country would soon be at war. Perhaps subconsciously, memories of that day stayed with me although I rarely play chess.
One reason may be that I lack the intelligence to really be good at it and there is evidence that most professional and avid chess players are quite smart. They also have a good memory, pattern recognition, excellent calculation abilities and are strategic thinkers. This system of thinking is what makes chess players smarter than the average person.
Despite my mental handicap, there were two recent incidents I can cite that sparked a renewed interest in chess. The first is Netflix’s recent series “The Queen’s Gambit,” one of the best chess movies ever made. It is one of the most popular titles currently streaming.
The second is evidence that learning chess can increase one’s cognitive skills. This is a subject sure to interest most of us, particularly parents of young or teenage children. The reason is that there are studies indicating that the younger generation is losing the ability to think and communicate, likely due to the reliance on or absolute dependence on social media as a substitute for analytical thinking. An international team of researchers has found the internet can produce both acute and sustained alterations in specific areas of cognition, which may reflect changes in the brain, affecting our attentional capacities, memory processes, and social interactions.
Benefits
According to the literature, chess instruction can affect mathematical abilities directly as well as indirectly through affective states. Based on existing empirical evidence, chess instruction leads to improved mathematical abilities and reasoning, especially in problem solving and pattern recognition tasks. Learning chess helps to develop thinking skills, enhances mental prowess and directly contributes to academic performance and makes people smarter in a variety of ways. It dramatically improves the ability to think rationally and playing chess helps to develop patience and thoughtfulness.
Chess has been shown to raise student's overall IQ scores. A Venezuelan study involving 4,000 second grade students found a significant increase in their IQ scores after only 4.5 months of systematically studying chess.
The reality of chess is different – it actually is an incredibly beneficial pastime, because playing chess results in better brain function, improved memory and cognitive abilities, strategic thinking and attention improvement. Scientists also claim that playing chess can improve mental age by up to 14 years.
Internet
Many educators believe that the internet is partly responsible for the detrimental effects it has on cognitive ability and communication skills. In a recent paper published in World Psychiatry, the longterm effects of the internet are still to be determined, even though it has been publically available for more than 30 years. On the negative side, the internet’s digital distractions and the capacity for cognitive offloading appear to create a non-ideal environment for the refinement of higher cognitive functions in critical periods of children’s and adolescent’s brain development. Multitasking appears to one of the reasons and may result in decreased verbal development along with impeded maturation of both grey and white matter regions of the brain.
On the other hand, the opposite may be true in older adults experiencing cognitive decline for whom the online environment may provide a new source of positive cognitive stimulation.
Experimental studies have found that computer games online and through smart phones can be used to reduce aging-related cognitive decline. Thus the internet may present a novel and accessible platform for adults to maintain cognitive function throughout old age. Perhaps a combination of chess and internet usage is warranted for seniors of all ages.
Final Thoughts
While the effects of the internet on intelligence are still being studied there is little doubt that learning chess enhances cognitive abilities (attention, perception, information processing, memory and problem solving) and non-cognitive skills (patience, discipline, self-control and social skills).
Strengthening these skill sets through chess will surely prove beneficial for children to improve their academic performance. Educators may wish to keep this in mind when designing the curriculum for their students. Parents may wish to include chess to the list of games played at home for amusement.
In addition, I was a fan of the late Charles Krauthammer, columnist, political commentator, author and philosopher. I knew that he was an avid player and found chess to be just like alcohol and addicting. Even though he is no longer with us, it would be hard to find a better spokesperson for the game.
Max Sherman is a medical writer and pharmacist retired from the medical device industry. His new book “Science Snippets” is available from Amazon and other book sellers. It contains a number of previously published columns. He can be reached by email at [email protected].
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