My background in chess:
I have been playing chess since I was a little child. My professional career started early in life in Grade 2. A very special person in my life, whom I will not mention for their privacy, saw the talent and me and agreed to coach me. All my titles and accomplishments I have are solely due to their efforts and the coaches that came after. I even represented South Africa at the 2019 World Youth Under 16 Chess Olympiad. I peaked at a South African rating of 1966, it is currently 1893, with more than a decade of professional experience.
A small history:
No one is quite sure how chess came into being, but most historians speculate that chess slowly evolved from a game called Chaturanga that was played in India during the 6th century. From there the game slowly spread across Asia, eventually making its way to the Silk Road from which it inevitably spread to the rest of Europe. As the game spread, different variations started to appear as each region would take the game and adjust it more according to their liking. Roughly around the 16th century chess was roughly in the form that we now know as modern chess. The rules of the game were widely disputed and underwent minor adjustments until the game rules were standardized in the late 19th century.
(Stapczynski, 2023)
(MasterClass, 2022)
Benefits of playing chess:
Memory:
Chess is a challenging game with many complex piece movements and rules to remember. To add more to your plate, there are hundreds of different openings that you can play, and each opening has dozens of different variations, many of which may have a few more sub-variations. Thus, it comes to no surprise that chess helps you to improve your memory.
Consequences:
Chess is a game of consequences. Once you make a move, you can’t undo it. This is most true with pawns since they can only move forward and may never move backwards. Therefore, chess teaches its players that they must carefully consider each move, because a wrong move can have dire consequences in any given position. This aspect of chess teaches a player about consequences and in turn about accountability.
Creativity
Chess is a dynamic game where your strategies may be subject to change at any moment. In a lot of positions, it can be quite unclear how you should proceed. Thus, it teaches you to think outside the box, and find creative approaches to solve problems. It also helps you to see patterns as chess is quite literally a game of reoccurring patterns.
Health
Studies have shown that chess can be used to protect the elderly against dementia and similar diseases. This is because chess keeps those parts of the brain active that these diseases prey upon. It has also been shown that chess can help children with ADHD and similar disorders to lessen the negative symptoms that they experience.
(Stanborough, 2023)
(Chess.com, 2022)
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