In his 1786 essay "The Morals of Chess", Benjamin Franklin, wrote,”The game of Chess is not merely an idle amusement. Several very valuable qualities of the mind, useful in the course of human life, are to be acquired or strengthened by it, so as to become habits, ready on all occasions.”
He went on to say that life is similar to a game of chess, where one has points to gain, and opponents to contend with; a game where good and ill events are abundant and require prudence to navigate through.
More than sharpening the cognitive capabilities of the brain, does chess offer the finishing touches to our personalities? The paper “The Effects of Chess Instruction on Academic and Non-cognitive Outcomes” co-authored by Professor Wang-Sheng Lee explores a lesser highlighted aspect of the sport and its multidimensional impact on character formation.
Chess & non-cognitive skill building for personality development
Though we are aware of chess being instrumental in chiseling multifaceted skills, not much research has been done into its influence on the above category. The paper, co-authored by Professor Lee, Asad Islam and Aaron Nicholas, is part of an attempt to raise consciousness on developing such soft skill-sets at a young age. The author believes that this will encourage citizenry and empower a new generation that will spur a better economic future.
Chess is prominently known to be a cognitive skill development booster with its influence on logical thinking and reasoning. But it is interesting that Lee’s study deals with the potential benefits of playing chess for non-cognitive results. The paper looks into the impact of chess in building “soft skills” like risk preference and aversion, time preference, patience and creativity.
Risk Preference
Out of the many soft skills that were assessed, risk aversion receives special mention. The ability for effective risk assessment and its after-effects helps one to make informed decisions and go for calculated risks – a quality ingrained by the sport.
It has been observed in several studies how novice chess players lean more on defending tactics rather than attacking. This “natural” tendency of risk aversion and safe play tends to change in expert players. To move further, one needs to attack – not on impulse but with calculated precision.
This is an attitude that one needs to nurture in life as well – to get things done in a highly competitive world, one needs to increase the aggressive quotient and be a go-getter. Try attending a job interview that you think you’re not qualified enough for, approach an investor for your seemingly crazy business concept. Get out of your comfort zone and start pushing further like an expert chess player who goes for the opponent’s king, rather than stays put defending one’s own.
Chess teaches us the reality of failures. That failing is inevitable and quite natural; and instead of bearing the “disgrace”, one needs to strive harder and learn from the mistakes. Chess teaches that blunders are the stepping stones to progress, and even after making one, you still can win.
Risk preference nurtured by playing chess leads to frustration-control, helping to overcome mental blocks and push ahead towards the goal.
Creativity
Of many popular sports, chess can trigger that creative cell in your brain. Activating both the left and the right brain, chess is found to nourish logical as well as creative thinking and originality.
When you’re pitted against experienced players and need better strategies and tactics to navigate through, you need to get creative. You need to get out of the box and invent newer game plans where better ones do not exist.
Robert Ferguson in his four-year study, engaged students ranging from an age group of grade 7 to 9 in various activities like playing chess, using computers, etc once a week for 32 weeks. It was recorded which of the activities fostered creative thinking the most. The group that engaged in chess scored higher in all levels of creativity, the stand-out quotient being originality.
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Patience
A “side-effect” of expertise in chess is patience. Not to go overboard with emotions and impulsive decisions, but to deal with adverse situations and circumstances with maturity and composure. Stanley Kubrick, the legendary American film director who was a huge fan of the sport, once talked about the ways in which chess had molded him in his career.
A quality that he attributed to chess was that of not being impulsive, how playing chess disciplined him in movie-making decisions. To quote Kubrick, “If chess has any relationship to filmmaking, that would be in the manner the game helps you develop patience and discipline.”
To sum-up, that would mean choosing your alternatives when there is a greater tendency to go for impulsive decisions.
Chess: the all-encompassing tool for better life management skills
Olympic medalist and Spanish women’s chess champion Sabrina Vega Gutierrez once in a recent interview reminisced on the remarkable impact chess has in her individual growth. Sabrina pointed out how chess helps to develop and structure the brain as “everything else stems out of that” – decision making, frustration-control and time management.
The way information is used to analyze and assess the situation and come to informed decisions within a time constraint is very unique to chess. One cannot rush but cannot linger way too much either, as every move matters, and every second counts.
Chess players learn early that every move and decision come with a consequence. This training transcends to real life circumstances as in life too one is bombarded with choices and information where one needs to sort out, process and evaluate.
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Conclusion
At MindMentorz, we passionately believe in training young minds to their full potential through a systematic and in-depth understanding of chess. Building cognitive as well as non-cognitive skill sets in young players, we emphasize on ingraining the right attitudes that are essential for the sport as well as in life’s varying situations. To know more on our philosophy of chess coaching for children and our training schedules, reach out to us at+91 9606847428.