Is Chess Really Good for Your Brain?

For James: oy vey, kvetcher

But, that's OK. I'll come visit you for Napolean Cognac and Cuban Maduro Churchills, then.

If you want to improve your brain you need to exercise. And playing chess helps.

according to me, yes it is good for the brain. it developes the analytical skill of the brain.

according to me, yes it is good for the brain. it developes the analytical skill of the brain.

We are beginning a productive discussion!!

I'm a neurologist who specializes in dementia.  Several studies have shown that board or card games that require planning and strategy (and more recently physical exercise) do help to delay the cognitive decline associated with aging.

I gave read the immortal game! Great stuff.

Chess is detrimental for the brain as any kind of rational activity. However, humanity have persistently believed they have had to use their brains - only because they have had such.

Doubt is the beginning, not the end, of wisdom.

 Paragraph #1 is baloney.  I agree with paragraph #2 and in that spirit, what evidence do you have for your assertion in paragraph #1?

Doubt is about putting adopted beliefs in question. Hence in the latter is correct, the first needn't be wrong.

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I thinkit teaches you "anticipation" of what your opponent may do next, which can be very useful in real life,  and that is a good part of the fun in this game.

It is quite beneficial to the mind, if you don't go overboard. I beleive as long as you aren't obsessed with it, it does improve your thinking.

Chess is a burden for the brain. Quit Chess and search for Freedom

We are beginning a productive discussion!!

Hey, James, did I mention that I finally played fezzik? Yes. Just after Christmas.

He drove up from the Springs in his fancy-shmancy Fiat pop hatchback (show off!). On my front porch, I had the Napolean cognac and Cuban maduro Churchills, along with my over-sized, tournament-grade genuine vinyl, roll-up chess mat with green and white squares and four-inch king set made of environmental-friendly authentic polyethylene.

He spoke not a word. His facial expression was gnarly...surly and gnarly, actually. He walked around my chess-set on an inspection tour (you'd think he was the U.N. Inspector General at a nuclear test-site in Iran or something), poured a drop of my cognac on his stubby pinky and stuck his tongue out to taste it. Then he picked up one of my Churchill cigars and ran it back and forth under his shnoz...sniffing at it.

Finally, he nodded approvingly and said: "Pick your poison, fish!"

What a snotty thing to say to a gracious host, I thought. But, as you may have noticed, I am good at keeping my thoughts to myself.

So, I smiled sardonically and said: "Fischer random bullet chess."

He swallowed, hard. I thought he was going to choke from apoplexy. His face turned ashen-gray. "OK, then. Let's do her...damn you to hell!"

(to be cont'd due to lack of  brevity...some things just can't be explained in a one-liner)

I would have cut the end of the cigar, dipped it in a glass of cognac, and then pulled out my zippo. Let the cigar serve as the clock for game one.

Don't believe chess is good. That's a vicious deception thoroughly implanted by the Unofficial South Asian Chess Clock Manufacturers' Association.

Even if an examination of people who play chess and the like may show the first ones have better-than-average functioning brain, it will be hard to say that it is the effect of their chess play. It could as well be the reason. Let alone the fact that 68,9% of the would-be statistical data is made up. If you are brainy and like to play chess - beware, you are being mercilessly exploited.

Chess addiction may be a part of a syndrome though. Here are the patients' complaints right from the source:

Garry Kasparov said "Chess is mental torture". But it didn't become clear whether he will get rid of that habit. More likely not.

"No chess grandmaster is normal; they only differ in the extent of their madness", concluded Viktor Korchnoi, shaking his head.

"Fischer is an American Chess tragedy on par with Morphy and Pillsbury", said Mig Greengard.

"I had a toothache during the first game. In the second game I had a headache. In the third game it was an attack of rheumatism. In the fourth game, I wasn't feeling well. And in the fifth game? Well, must one have to win every game?", Siegbert Tarrasch complained.

Albert Einstein claimed that "Chess holds its master in its own bonds, shackling the mind and brain so that the inner freedom of the very strongest must suffer." Whether he was able to prove that will remain a mystery though, but it seems to be plausible enough for chess which is the most inaccurate of sciences.

George Bernard Shaw finally summed it up and found out that "Chess is a foolish expedient for making idle people believe they are doing something very clever when they are only wasting their time."

One should better quit playing chess early and leave it to the stubborn ones. After all, it is laziness that will save the world, not chess.

I'm 11, I play chess, and I'm way ahead in most subjects.

Yes, chess will improve you brain, especially if you play on a board large enough that you have to walk about a quarter mile from each move to the next.

Any exercise for your brain is good. But like any exercise, you need to keep the routine slightly varied to develop the whole.

Chess will help, but we need other sources of mental stimulation.