Chess Can’t Be Learnt In A Day
Many think that people who play chess are gifted individuals. In a way, they are, because everyone doesn’t become a grandmaster.
But it is also true that, one can develop their chess playing abilities by practicing more, and in turn increase one’s mental ability. It is the reason that children in school are taught to play and dedicate at least 3 hours for playing chess. Not only this, there are many reasons to introduce and make chess playing a routine for students.
Chess clubs are formed in schools, where children are divided into teams and the game is played giving them chance according to their turn. These chess club students, also get to play against other school children and then participate in national and international events if successful.
‘Move in Silence, only speak when it’s time to say CHECKMATE’ -Anonymous
The quote signifies, how intense is the game!!
Tigran Petrosyan (also known famously as the David Beckham of chess) had been the world grandmaster for 6 years and Levon Aronian are two chess champions who have more in common than only chess, they both are Armenians, a country where all six-years-old children learn chess in schools. It is the first country to do so.
Proven Researches
A study was conducted in the early 90’s in Brunswick, Canada, using 437 fifth graders, who were split into three groups, experimenting with the addition of chess to the math curriculum, found increased ability in the math problem-solving proportionate to the amount of chess in the curriculum. Also in New Brunswick, chess was added to the curriculum in a program called Challenging Mathematics. This uses chess to teach logic and problem-solving from grades 2 to 7. Their average problem-solving ability increased from 62% to 81%.
# Intelligence and Thinking ability
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Every move in chess is determined after a lot of thinking and reasoning and this increases the intelligence and IQ level of a student.
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When the moves are taught to the students, they not only learn the moves but also have to remember the pattern in which they are created, which increases their memory power as well.
# Healing and Therapy
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Playing chess not only helps in making logical decisions but also helps in rehabilitation in case something happens. Due to the thinking and ability required, they are used in therapy to people in hospitals. This helps them, not only in their developmental and communication abilities, but also distracts them from the pain they are going through.
# It helps in building concentration, thinking logically, overcoming obstacles, spot patterns and in categorizing information.
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The game of chess lasts for a minimum of about 5 hours, and in those 5 hours, everything is silent around the players, but their minds are constantly thinking and finding out ways to know the next move and prepare accordingly.
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It helps them, not only to win the game, but also to find solutions to complex problems in the future, be it academic or non-academic.
# Decision making
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Decision making is the most critical part of the game, as only after the decision, the move is made, which can change the course of the game.
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Chess teaches the ability to choose the best decision out of the available options, and if the decision goes wrong, to face the consequences of it.
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This will reflect in school work, as well as, in all phases of life, where important decisions have to be taken like stream selection during high school and in graduation, job decision to select rationally from the available options etc. and to face the consequences if the decision is wrong.
# Sportsmanship
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In any game, there would be winners and losers. But it is important that we accept success and failure in the game, in the same way. It needs a lot of mental stability and positive attitude to let go and show the sportsmanship spirit.
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The winner should never be proud and brag about their success and neither should the loser become disappointed, as there is always a next chance, accepting is important.
# Planning and Foresight
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The moves in the game need to plan and seen beforehand, before actually doing it. The great players of chess already have the picture in mind before they make their move. Thus, it requires and lot of planning and foresight to take a minute step ahead.
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This way of thinking would definitely benefit the students as they would need to do planning and have a foresight of all the things they do in future ahead. This would help to face the circumstances and also get what they desire.
# Critical as well as creative thinking
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As chess includes a lot of reasoning to make a move, it also requires a certain amount of rational thinking to predict the contender’s moves and its possible outcome.
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It also needs the students to be creative so as to find out a way if stuck in between the game.
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One more aspect is the sequential and logical thinking, when one has to think of all possible outcomes to come out of the situation by considering various plans.
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For example, there are a number of ways to find solution to a problem in math and also multiple solutions to problems in life. Playing chess would help to increase the ability so that they can get solutions to problems and get out of it easily.
# Teamwork
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Though chess is a one-against-one activity, children who are taught in schools often play like a group, where they have clubs and teams and participate accordingly.
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While playing, the students need to keep in mind that, as they are playing from a team, they need to stay careful and also if needed, help their team members in understanding and predicting the moves.
Conclusion
Chess is a gratifying game (and I’m not talking about money) because it may help you in other aspects of your life. It’s a game that can be beneficial in the integral development of anybody’s mind. Chess does not sell as much as many other sports (aka soccer, basketball, football, etc.) Thus, many people get discouraged by this and decide to concentrate their time and effort in other activities. It is true though that making an income of chess might be hard, but the chess industry has been revitalizing with the technology boom.
