Is Chess Worth It?

Hello, and welcome back to another blog of mine! I am sure that almost everyone has gotten mad at chess and wants to quit. Actually, I feel like that right now, so I thought that I should make a blog about it and do my own studies about this topic.

Today I will be going through different factors that go into chess. And all of the factors will be random, so some are good and some are bad!

First up is:

Time

If you want to master the game of chess, you are going to have to put in a lot of time. It depends on the person, but I would say that to raise your rating by a few hundred, you will have to study for a long time, maybe even a year. And the better you get, the harder it is to get your rating up. But also, if you have a lot of extra time, why not play chess? Actually, most people say that chess is worth the time. Below is a graph of a survey I conducted:

There were 13 responses, and 100% (or everyone) said that chess is worth the time. Here are the explanations:

As we can see, a lot of people say that it helps your problem-solving skills and it is fun. I completely agree with these responses, in my opinion, I think chess does help me solve problems (I will expand on this more later in the blog). However, I also think that studying chess is a waste of time if you want to study it. I mean, teens and kids, chess is fun, but you should be focusing on school instead of chess. School is way more important than a board game! If anything, do everything you are supposed to do for school, then play chess.

Also, if you want to make it in chess, you have to be really good, and a lot of times those people who are good are also just naturally gifted at chess. But chess is also fun, just like any other board games.

Socializing

In chess, you can meet many people and make friends. Now with online chess, you can meet people from all over the world and still become friends while playing chess! Chess is played almost all around the globe, so you have chances to meet a lot of people, even in countries you didn't know existed! Even over the board, you can make friends with your opponents, even if they are from another state. Because of phones, you can text them or add them as a friend on chess.com. In my opinion, this is one of the best things about chess - making friends while doing something both of yall enjoy!

Emotions

To some people, this factor might be a joke, but I assure you it isn't. When you play chess, you will find yourself having different emotions. Happiness when you win or madness when you lose (a good example of this is the thumbnail). For some people, it can go more extreme, which is not good at all. When playing chess, you have to accept the fact that you win some and you lose some. I am still learning this, and almost everyone else is, too. You should never be too cocky. I mean if you win you are happy but if you get cocky, well if you lose you are getting a taste of your own medicine.

But never put yourself down; I do this and it is not good for you. If you keep on putting yourself down, that could lead to depression and other things related to depression. If you are wondering how bad it can get, well, it got really bad. Sadly, Craig Wools lost a lot of games and committed suicide. May he rest in peace. This is just showing how much chess can effect your emotions, this is why it is not a joke. In my survey, I asked if you often got mad at chess, and here are the responses:

As we see, there are different answers. This depends on your personality. So just keep in mind that chess is just a game!

Daily Life

Chess can impact you in many different ways in your every-day life, in good and bad ways. Some good things that chess helps you with in your daily life are improving memory and problem solving skills. Believe it or not, chess does in fact help memory. If you play chess, you have to remember openings, tactics, techniques, ect. All of this exercises your brain and helps you remember things more easily.  Chess requires you to think outside the box and be creative. In chess you might be planning checkmate or even a sacrifice. All of this helps you be more creative in solving problems. I asked if people thought if chess helps them in their daily lives, and these were the responses:

As we see, people do say that it does help you in your daily life. But no one said anything about it being bad. An example would be getting made fun of. In a lot of places in the world, chess is very popular, so I do not know what it feels like. But I live in the U.S, in a state where everything is about college sports and not about chess. This means that if you play chess, you might be called a "nerd" or something similar. Or you are disregarded and don't have as many chances of doing other things as others can. So there are downsides in playing chess too!

Conclusion

Back to the big question, is chess worth it? Looking at the things I covered, I would say yes, chess is worth it! Chess helps you with your daily life, making friends, solving problems, and so much more! Even though there are downsides, think about this, everything has downsides. Chess is better for people with the time and want to do something that benefits their brain. I know that I didn't cover many reasons why, but I think these are the most important! Should I do more reasons, let me know in the comments!