Does Chess Make You Dumber?

worst of all is that chess makes you look dumber.

If chess is not making me dumber then something else is.

Some people plays chess while drinking alcohols, eating junkfood, watch tv, listen to junk music, etc. But mistaken chess as the cause of their getting dumber.

Some people play chess while reading the forums. And then accuse chess of making them dumber.

but say you step on a banana skin and do a cartwheel, it's not the banana skin that caused you to cartwheel, it's that you were dumb enough to stand on it, so there is a cause for a person to eat junkfood, drink alcohols, watch the ads on tv, troll Internet forums and go down a bad road and we are discovering that chess is one of the reasons people become dumb enough to take the road frequently travelled.

whoa...that's deep

no tactic is impossible to solve, man. youre talking strategy.

Yes, I am quite sure the most you learn chess, the most dumber you are.

 

Viktor Kortchnoi, considered as one of the best GM of history, lost for the young and beautiful Sofia Polgar in a blitz game.

 

See what the jerk told her at the end.

 

Yes, chess makes you dumber.

 

https://youtu.be/TxeiGipoFSE

I am starting to agree chess makes one dumber. Especially if one bangs his head on the wall evrerytime he lost. Or try to do a back flip (banging his head on the floor) everytime he won.

yep, the scientific evidence is really mounting.

I actually do think that chess can have negative psychological effects and perhaps in some people a detrimental effect on the functions of the mind.

Chess is a game that obviously requires the players to think according to the unchanging rules and a limited field of scope. It is an abstraction of a contest which doesn't even represent the real world well. It lacks chance, it is a full information deterministic game. Life in the real world is pretty much opposite of opposite of chess. I disagree with the claim some make alleging that chess represents life.

However, because chess requires certain patterns of thought that are required to win at chess it wouldn't be surprising if players who played since childhood, when their minds were forming, can get into the habit of viewing the world and analyzing it same way they play chess. This kind of development has to be detrimental if not balanced by more natural activities.

Perhaps a person who has been playing chess regularly since childhood will be perceiving the world incorrectly as a zero-sum game where there are necessarily have to be winners and losers. Maybe they'll tend to believe they have to constantly compete with others. I know from personal anecdotal experience and observations of my own character that chess players are unnecessarily confrontational in life. Maybe these people will unrealistically expect everyone to play by some set of rules. When someone deviates from some norms or rules the chess player may be less able to deal with that.

Of course it cannot be the case with every person who plays chess. But from what I've seen it is common for sure.

excellent post, Drawgood! very scientific.

Smart people says chess is a great game or hobby. Dumb people say Chess is Life.

brilliant bong!

Chess is what I do here when there is nothing going on in the threads.

There's always something going on in the threads. Why play chess?

Thanks for the great input, Drawgood!

 

I'd disagree on chess being a zero-sum game, as you could also have draws produced by positions with various material on the board. Sometimes a draw is even considered a preferable outcome. Additionally, losses are virtually guaranteed in chess over an increasing number of games. In theory, this should also teach about sportsmanship and appropriate response to various outcomes (notice I said in theory). However, the rest makes sense.

 

Of course, this entire post assumes that a person's entire life experience is rooted, in isolation, in chess only. We must obviously consider chess in context of other life experiences that are considered normal to the everyday person (that's also variable dependent on many other factors, but it's not worth getting into that now).

 

So the question becomes, does chess make one dumber in context of other life experiences? And, do we consider the brilliant chess.com forums as a part of chess? (I must do so; otherwise I dare say my time spent on this website has mostly been a waste!)

Know, chess does not make you dumber.

all those questions were answered in Drawgoods original post Stairway, you need more training in the scientific method.

Well I do like chess, I have been playing it since I was four with my dad but after 8 years and 4500 OTB games here the forums are a good distraction.

You know sometimes what sneaky sh#t that goes on in the forums is like playing a chess game. You have to out think the opponet.