How Playing Chess Helps with Mental Health

Playing chess is amazing! Check! Checkmate! It's amazing! But why must we play chess? 

Playing chess can improve cognitive skills like memory, planning, and problem-solving. It may also help reduce symptoms of certain brain conditions.

The game of chess is loved all over the world. From Amsterdam to Zhengzhou, people gather in living rooms, pubs, plazas, and libraries to match wits over the cherished checkered board. Even we have chess tournaments in school. I have come 4rth amongst 50, but it hasn't really made me happy. I wanted 3rd, 2nd or 1ST! But, It

has helped me in mathematics and Science.

Why?

In chess, you have to think how your strategy is going to work. View this video I made.

This isn't the exact opening, I made a change giving me a queen and I have done this in many games.

OR

Get a free queen!

and in mathematics, it helps you to concentrate. How?

If 5 girls own 70 dollars each, how much do they have together?

70 x 5 = 350!

How mach do 2 have?

No, not 350/2,

but 70 x 2!

And  science contains mathematics that also helps.

Here are 9 benefits of playing chess:

Develops perspective
Improves memory
Deepens focus
Elevates creativity
Boosts planning skills
Increases self-awareness
Protects against dementia
Helps ADHD
Reduces panic attack symptoms
Benefits for kids
Potential downsides
Takeaway

Why is it that people are willing to devote such time to the game? It’s undoubtedly the fact that chess involves an intense intellectual challenge that’s very good for the health of your mind.

Skilled chess players learn to anticipate an opponent’s next moves. To predict what another person will do next, a player must develop the ability to adopt another person’s perspective and infer what action they are likely to take.

Behavioral scientists call this this ability to see from another viewpoint the “theory of mind.” It’s an ability that is essential to exercising empathy and building healthy social relationships. A 2019 study found that chess develops this perspective-taking ability in children who practice the gamete

This is what I was telling you earlier.

Credit Image: kali9/Getty Image

Here is an easier way to understand how chess helps us.

Chess improves memory 
It might not be surprising to learn that expert chess players have strong memory skills. After all, the game involves memorizing numerous combinations of moves and their potential outcomes.

It’s also interesting to note that experienced chess players show higher performance related to a particular kind of recollection: auditory memory. This is the ability to remember what you’ve learned through hearing.

In one experiment, researchers  compared the recall ability of expert chess players to that of people with no chess-playing experience. They found that the chess players were significantly better at recalling lists of words they’d heard than people who had never played chess.

Skilled chess players also have a better than average ability to remember and quickly recognize visual patterns, which researchers think comes from memorizing complex chess positions.

 
Chess enables you to enter a flow state 
Flow is a deeply rewarding sense of total involvement, in which you’re operating at a peak performance level in a challenging task. Athletes, artists, and performers often describe entering a kind of time warp, where they are so wholly focused on the task at hand that their awareness of anything beyond the performance seems to disappear.

Researchers who study brain activity noted that theta waves are heightened in electroencephalograms (EEGs) taken when people are in a state of flow. Studies have shown the same high levels of theta waves in brain scans of experienced chess players during increasingly difficult chess matches.

Chess elevates your creativity
Researchers at a school in India tested the creative thinking skills of two groups of students. One group was trained in chess playing, and the other was not.

The tests asked students to come up with alternate uses for common items and to interpret patterns and meaning in abstract forms. Students who played chess scored higher on tests. Researchers concluded that chess increased the students’ ability to exercise divergent and creative thinking.
Chess leads to better planning skills
Chess games are known for long periods of silent contemplation, during which players consider each move. Players spend time anticipating their opponents’ responses and attempting to predict every eventuality.

That habit of mind — careful contemplation and planning — is one of the cognitive health benefits of playing chess.

Behavioral scientists gave two groups of people the Tower of London test — a cognitive functioning test involving pegs and beads — and measured their planning skills. The group that regularly played chess demonstrated significantly better planning skills than the group that did not play chess. Also, people in the chess group spent a lot more time making decisions during the test.
Chess can make therapy more effective
Some counselors and therapists play chess with clients as a means of increasing self-awareness and building more effective therapeutic relationships.

Considered a creative therapy strategy, chess allows you to see your reactions to stress and to challenges as they arise in the course of a match. Your therapist is present to help you evaluate your responses and learn more about why you respond to problems the way you do.

Chess may offer protection against the development of dementia 
In a 2019 research review, scientists found that the complex mental flexibility chess demands could help protect older people from dementia.

Researchers found evidence that the game, which challenges memory, calculation, visual-spatial skills, and critical thinking abilities, may help reduce cognitive decline and postpone the effects of dementia as you age.
Chess can improve the symptoms of ADHD 
In a 2016 study involving 100 school-age children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, researchers included regular chess playing in a multi-faceted treatment approach.

Students who participated in this treatment method experienced a 41 percent decrease in both inattentiveness and over-activity following the course of treatment.
Electronic chess may help stave off a panic attack 
There haven’t been any large-scale studies to support the use of chess apps to help reduce panic attack symptoms. In one 2017 case study, an individual who experienced panic attacks was able to use a chess app on a phone to increase the sense of calm and keep a panic attack from progressing.

The key to success was in finding just the right level of challenge to occupy his attention and distract from unpleasant feelings. For this user, difficulty levels 2 to 4 provided just the right amount of engagement.
Does chess have special benefits for kids?
Studies show that chess enhances the development of these abilities in children:

problem-solving skills
social and relationship-building skills
thinking skills

Well, if this is so, then why don't you start? View some tutorials, where pieces can move like in my earlier post, opening moves, and checkmates!

Thank You, 

Have a Great Day!