does chess affect the brain?

does chess really affect the brain outside of the chess world? does it help with our everyday lives. does it help us be more efficient or smarter? does it help us with problem solving? or is it just a fun and addicting game to play? just wondering other players thoughts.

No actually, chess does not effect the brain.  Rather, it has been scientifically proven to increase the forearm and calve strength of regular participants. 

well they say if u r good at maths then ur good at chess? but i dunno

                   2nd111xx ;o))

lol.... that was good

 Yes I think anything you do affects the brain... even the mundane like brushing your teeth. As for chess making you more efficient and smart, I can't say. What I do know is it can serve as a means to teach you beneficial behaviors like being patient, thinking before acting, and learning not to repeat your mistakes. On the other hand it could also teach you bad things like being aggressive and merciless, using people's weaknesses against them, and becoming paranoid that every gesture someone makes might contain a subtle trap if you don't spot it! I think the way chess affects anyone depends more on that person's temperment than the qualities of the game itself.

thinking helps improve your brain's functioning
not thinking makes it's functioning slowly fade

So if you play chess the way you should, with thinking. Yes it does. Just like everything that requires thinking

 Oh so you think I'm joking...

Typing/mousehandling/piecemoving all helps forearm strength...

me sitting here bouncing my legs up and down because I'm so jittery - calve strength :P

joking or not it's still funny.

 Well, in maths you have to calculate,just like in chess. Spending 2 minutes looking over moves. To anybody, try some basic facts in maths and believe it makes you better. Self confidence etc..

1) 6(-2-5)

2) 4(56-8X4)

3) 9(78-(9-8)X2

4) 5-7x(9-1)

5) 12(132-4X33)

 Hopefully, you could solve the above in less than 30 seconds.

I don't really think maths makes you better at chess though, but...

 Yes, it most certainly does.  I wrote an essay in high school on the impact of chess on scholastic achievement, critical thinking skills, etc, and found that they tend to increase when the person is involved in chess.  There are numerous studies out there that support the positive effect that chess has on our mind.  The brain is a muscle, so exercising it only makes it stronger

It works the other way too, "use it or lose it".  Ran into this unfortunate reality after my first year at college...

Of course does it improve certain skills but lately I found myself a bit slow to react on the basketball (I play in a basketball team) and I tend to think before racting even in basket.

mvh Fredrik 

chess drives you crazy.

either that, or

you have to be crazy to play chess.

In my case it is the second. 

There was an article in the nytimes about 3 months ago that suggested that doing logic games and playing chess make your deduction skills more robust.  They actually referenced a grand master (I happen to forget his name at the moment) who was able to self diagnose himself with Alzheimer’s because he realized he could no longer see 7 moves ahead, instead only 5... He continued to play chess and they found that his ability to communicate and remember was significantly higher than those in the same stage as Alzheimer’s... they accredited this to his continued challenging of his brain.

The greatest problem with these "numerous studies" (and this is me being generous enough to assume such studies have scientific merit) is that their conclusions are weak.  (e.g, 'co-relational', small/poor sampling, etc)

Chess improves mental abilities? -- that sounds great doesn't it!?. Problem is however, there is little reasearch that has been made to compare the benifits of chess, with the benifits of other activities. The academic benifits of chess may well be trivial, no better than farting, And if so, then playing chess for its benifits would be foolish.