When you engage in a game of chess, two things stand out broadly; patience and will power. This is a board game like no other and has been played all over the world from as early as 1475, when the rules that govern the game were put in place. So why is such a brainy game so popular? Well, this has to do with the benefits it offers to the human brain. Below are some of them that might actually make you want to learn how to play:
· Communication
Besides the two virtues mentioned above, communication is another added advantage you will gain from playing chess. People usually think that the word communication is synonymous to speaking; quite to the contrary. When playing the game, you learn how to silently read your opponents body language and one learns to be a very good listener and observer. There are a million ways you can think of using these traits. Simply putting it, it helps raise your IQ to a level where you perceive things differently and in the business world, you can use this to negotiate deals by using the same strategy as the game.
· Brain health
Chess is a game with multiple numerical combinations that are then turned into a strategy. You use your thinking capacity to calculate the possibilities to find a solution. That in its own way is exercising your brain, which works like a muscle. Like any other muscle in the body, the brain requires to be exercised regularly. Good example that this actually works is that it can be used to calm aggressive children by indulging them into concentrating on the game and finding solutions. Another research published in The New England Journal of Medicine shows that people aged above 75 years who engage in the game stand lower chances of developing dementia compared to their counterparts who do not play the game.
Another health advantage is that it improves your memory greatly. You are subjected to situation where you have to remember your opponent’s moves and yours that have in the past allowed you to win. This stretches your brain in a good way and you find yourself applying the same to your day-to-day life. By using this benefit, it can be applied for recreational therapy reasons. For people who have suffered injury that affected their motor skills, playing chess usually helps develop fine motor skills by watching and remembering how the pawns are moved from left to right and even diagonal.
· Creativity
It is a known fact that the right hemisphere of your brain stimulates creativity. Playing chess helps you exercise both parts of the brain therefore, it goes without saying that by doing so, and your creativity is also positively affected. Even better, chess is known to increase originality. By playing the game, tend to think of things in a different way using the same strategy and creative thinking you use on the game to apply the same in real life.
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