5 Reasons Why Chess is the Best Game for Your Brain

5 Reasons Why Chess is the Best Game for Your Brain

Chess is a board game that has been around for generations and it’s the best pastime to adopt if you want something that is fun, stimulating, and will benefit your brain. Just as the body needs food to function and grow, the brain needs cleverly designed problems to grow and advance. Chess is a hive of devious problems that both the players put into play and both have to overcome to win. Since chess requires us to think, think, and think, it automatically benefits our brain so it’s the best game for the brain.

Chess will help improve your brain, thinking, and memory and these are only some of the reasons why chess is beneficial for our brains. By playing chess and competing with other chess players, you will develop the skills needed for becoming a chess master.

Total Brain Exercise

The brain is divided into two parts, the left side which helps with things related to logic and mathematics, etc. while the right part is imbued with creativity. Chess is a competitive game where you need both logic and logical thinking and creativity. When you play chess, you are using all the parts of your brain to think of your next move, your opponent’s next move, a creative and unexpected way to block them and etc. Chess also tests your sight and hearing since you make a decision after seeing and understanding the move your opponent makes.

Helps to Develop Concentration

Concentration to key to success in chess just as Robert James Fischer (Bobby Fischer), a chess grandmaster from America, quoted “Chess demands total concentration.” To win and outmaneuver your opponent, you need to stay focused and quickly and swiftly make judgments based on what is happening on the board. If you lose focus for even a minute, your opponent can outsmart you and emerge victoriously. Chess players can make a dozen moves like a seasoned chess master if he/she stays in total concentration but if the focus wavers for even an instant, he/she will probably lose due to a small blunder or mistake.

This depth of concentration can also help you in other sectors of life like schoolwork, lectures, and deadlines for projects. By totally focusing on the tasks at hand, you will be able to do it to the best of your capabilities and it will turn out error-free and good.

The Best Game for Your Brain Leads to Memory Improvement

Chess makes you use your brain and also memory since you need to remember the chess rules (the dos and don’ts), techniques, and your opponent’s playing style if you have played with him/her before. You also need to imprint the techniques that have allowed you to win before or helped you to get out of a tricky situation. Slowly and gradually as you continue to play and gain experience, your reaction time to an attack decreases and you can make instant decisions on how to counterattack.

A strong memory will not only help you in chess but also in other fields in life such as in work, you will always remember the deadlines and in your personal life, you won’t easily forget a promise or a commitment. If you’re a student, you will be able to memorize text quickly and your grades will go up by playing chess or fun. In the long run, it will also reduce the chances of you developing Alzheimer’s disease in your old age since it is related to memory loss.

Analytical and Strategic Thinking

Chess requires its players to have foresight, planning skills, and strategic thinking and the skill that backs up all of these other skills is analytical thinking. To first make a move or solve a problem, you need to observe the move your opponent makes or understand what the problem is. Only after you have looked at the problem from all parameters – no problem has only one angle -, you will be able to come up with a solution to outsmart the enemy.

Analytical thinking is the first part of the equation and making a strategy to counterattack is the second part. Trying to make a strategy and facing hurdles helps to develop and strengthen strategic thinking. Chess is a game where only one plan of action is sure to get you slaughtered so you need backup plans – the more the better. When playing chess, you need to quickly analyze and come up with various plans to counter the steps your opponent has just taken. You will automatically attain foresight after you have tried, achieved with a strategy, or failed but it depends heavily on your memory too.

Improves Creativity

As said before, chess is a game that uses both sides of the brain and so a chess player is forced to think creatively in order to bypass hurdles and outmaneuver his opponent. Usually, people think that chess only involves the logical part of our brain but they are wrong since a player needs to think outside the box when faced if an unorthodox attack from the enemy. Chess is basically a game where the players’ personality and creativity can be seen and derived from the tactics, attacks, and countermeasures they do. By using a tactic and failing in a chess game, a player finds more creative ways to deal with the same situation in order to emerge victoriously.

Best Game for Your Brain

Chess has many advantages of playing it and almost all of them relate to the brain in some way or the other. Moreover, chess helps to develop skills needed in life like observational skills and planning ahead that will also aid you in other departments in life. Chess is the best game to play if you want to gain confidence and learn how to remain calm and level-headed in nerve-wracking situations. Being calm is really important when you’re in a tricky situation or under a deadline for a project and it makes problem-solving easier.

For inspiring resources for Chess – the best game for your brain stay here on BecomingAChessmaster.com!