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Will playing chess help you grow the mind?

It is a universal fact that the game of Chess is a thinking game that stimulates the mind and exercises a person’s brain.

This unique characteristic or feature of the game is primarily responsible for its popularity and its acceptance all around the world, and will continue to be there as long as the humankind derives benefit from the game.

Every person is born with a brain that comes fully developed at the time of birth itself. In other words, the only part in the body that does not grow even as the child grows is the brain. According to scientists, the brain has as many as 100 billion cells or neurons in it, and by the age of six, these individual neuron cells make interconnections among themselves and as much as 1000 trillion such connections are created in the brain. How effectively you use these interconnections and apply it is what we refer to as the mind. Though often used synonymously, brain and mind are two different things and both are essential for the effective functioning.

Let us try to understand this by an example. We all know about the computer. When you say computer, you are referring to two aspects - the hardware and the software. Similarly, when you say brain – we refer to the hardware and the word “mind” is similar to the software. Without hardware, there is no work for the software, and software cannot be used without the required hardware.

Chess is a game that requires serious thinking on the part of the players. It is quite easy to learn the game of chess in a very short time. All you need to know about the game is the structure of the board, the pieces involved in the board, how to arrange the pieces, and how the pieces are moved in the board. You need to know the characteristics of the pieces and their capabilities. Then some basic rules related to castling, enpassant and such other things is all that you need to know. Any person can understand these simple things in less than a day and can start playing the game.

However, the challenge lies in playing the game and mastering the game. This is the challenge. The challenge gets more challenging when you have to decide the fate of your own game. In other words, there is no room for luck or gain. If you make a wrong move, then you have to face the consequences.

In other words, you need to think about each move before finally taking a decision to move the piece. You need to identify the strengths of your pieces and the opportunities that the board presents at any point of time, also safeguard your own pieces from threat and such related things.

All these activities of thinking, looking at the different squares, assessing the strengths, visualizing the moves and calculating the possible counter moves of the opponent – activates the connections of the neurons in the mind and put them to work. It is these connections of the neurons in the brain that make you think and act. Putting those interconnections to work every time you think results in exercising the neurons and their interconnections – is it not?

As such, when you put your interconnections in the brain to work and make them exercise, then it is obvious that these neurons or the interconnections get stronger. While the physical part of the brain does not grow any more, the mind – which refers to the interconnections between the neurons in the brain – gets exercised and strengthened. They indeed grow depending upon the amount of exercise you give to these interconnections.

A person’s mind definitely grows when put to work and exercise. Chess does that exactly and your neurons are put to work. But the interesting aspect is that in the game of chess, you do not know that you are actually exercising your mind or the brain. What you know is that you are having fun, excitement and relaxation while playing chess.

One more benefit of playing chess is that this constant and rigorous exercise to the brain and the mind makes you mentally stronger and you can totally avoid diseases such as Alzheimer or dementia.

You find sportsmen looking in great shape even after they have stopped playing their favorite game long ago. That is possible because of the strength of their physical body and the exercises they put in during their prime years. Similarly, a chess player, having put his brain and mind to rigorous exercises, can have a very strong mental capability and sharpness even in his old age.

This concludes that the game of chess definitely grows the mind, nurtures it and exercises it regularly.