Were you ever asked to take up Chess as a kid? Do you still continue it? If yes, you must already know the various ways Chess might’ve helped you in developing various life skills.
Chess for kids is a part of their growing up. If you ask anyone if they play Chess, their common answer will be, ‘I used to play in my childhood, but slowly lost touch’. In many schools, Chess is a part of the extra-curricular skills for students, and parents insist their kids take the sport up.
But why the preferential treatment for Chess in kids? Because more than anyone, kids have a lot to gain and imbibe by regularly playing and training for Chess. Here are a few benefits of the game that stand out.
Benefits Of Playing Chess For Kids
Best Online Chess Coaching for Kids
1.Improves Memory And Concentration Power
Chess for kids is a game that requires the player to memorize and learn moves. Constant training and memorizing the moves helps kids concentrate better. Their memory power improves, and they are able to learn things quicker and more efficiently.
It is also known to help against Alzheimer’s and Dementia as your brain is constantly being challenged and trained when you are learning and playing Chess. With time, kids get better at recognizing patterns and improving their spatial memory as well.
And when kids learn Chess while at school, there is a clear impact on their studies as their improved memory and concentration come to play while studying their other subjects.
2.Better Planning and Organization Skills: (Foresight)
In order to win at Chess, you always have to think one step ahead of your opponent. This involves thinking and planning on what your opponent’s move might be and planning your moves accordingly.
The process helps kids understand the importance of planning and organizing their moves and pieces in the most efficient way possible. The better you plan your pieces, the better coordinated they are, the better you are on the board.
Kids with this skill are good at planning their study cycle, their day and organizing every aspect of their life a little better. They balance their play-study cycle well and ensure their all-round development.
3.Increased Self-Confidence
Chess is a solo game, where the players are all by themselves. They have to take all the right decisions by themselves, and they are solely responsible for the outcome. They lose, their fault. They win, their amazing play.
This gives the kids a sense of responsibility for the outcome of the game, making them self-confident at an early stage. At a young age, they realize how one wrong move can mess the chances that they created by playing 100 right moves. It makes them cautious and ensures they take calculative steps at every stage of their life.
4.Mental and Psychological Improvement
A study has proven that while playing Chess for kids, both the sides of the brain were equally active and working at the same time. It is a great exercise for both the right and the left hemispheres of the brain.
The brain works better, and it helps battle anxiety in kids. It also helps boost a lot of other brain functions that are very useful in day-to-day life. It teaches them patience; it teaches them to battle stress when you lose something; it teaches them to mentally prepare themselves before a crucial event, and so much more!
5.Improves Problem Solving Skills
Be it math, or puzzles or any other strategy games, Chess helps improve problem-solving skills that come in handy in many ways and at many places. When it comes down to it, Chess is a puzzle that needs to be solved in order to win a position. And thinking of the right combination of moves requires a lot of practice and calculating all the possibilities.
These sharpen your brain to solve any other problem that comes its way and help you improve the brain to work faster and sharper.
6.Increases IQ Level
Chess is a great combination of everything that improves your IQ. Logical reasoning, puzzle-solving abilities, calculations, memorizing, and many other things. And it is proven time and again that Chess players have a high IQ level compared to others.
A Venezuelan study tested and concluded that kids who played Chess as a part of their test ended up having higher IQs than kids who did not play Chess. One of the main reasoning they gave was that both Chess and IQ testing are similar, decoding patterns, cognitive and logical thinking and analyzing situations present to them.
7.Sportsmanship
Chess players have to play a lot of games in order to get better at the sport. And they will have to lose hundreds of games to be able to win thousands. Constantly losing game after game and realizing the importance of one wrong move shapes them into better sportsmen. They can handle losses and deal with them in a better way.
One other thing every Chess player does after a game, irrespective of its outcome, is the analyzing part of it. They analyze the game, their moves, their opponent’s moves and see the mistakes they have made for them to improve in the future. This imbibes a great sportsman quality of looking back and learning from the mistakes and not to avoid the same in the future.
8.Helps In Creative Thinking
Creative thinking is a major aspect of Chess for kids. A player must go out of the box to surprise his opponents and win games. Tactics, strategies, and move combinations are all part of creative thinking on the board. This helps kids in thinking different.
While playing on the board, players constantly think, ‘What will happen if I do this. This is originality at its finest as Chess is a game with billions of possibilities, and every game is unique in itself. And to create a unique and winning position, players have to bring their creative best on the board.
9.Getting Them Away From Phones
One of the major worries of parents is that their kids are consuming random content on the Internet, which is causing a major distraction and decreasing their concentration. Chess for kids helps them get away from the screen and shift their focus to something that is both fun and beneficial.
They interact with parents and friends more and are able to prioritize better.
So all in all, Chess is packed with a lot of goodies and playing Chess for kids is one of the best things they can indulge in at their age. So get them going at an early age and enrol them in quality training that improves Chess for kids and makes them ready for the real world.
So How Do You Encourage Your Child To Play Chess?
At Kaabil Kids, the trainers do not just focus on quality Chess coaching for the kids but also work on their holistic development to improve their other life skills. Kaabil Kids has the best of both the worlds:
- Chess module designed by Grandmaster Tejas Bakre, who is also the chief mentor of Kaabil Kids, and training led by some of the most experienced and highly skilled Chess masters.
- In-house child-psychologist to help them developmentally.
Take a sneak-peak into our learning approach with a free webinar, and enrol your child in India’s best Live Chess training platform!
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