Students playing chess are always considered smartpants. It has been embedded in our heart and mind for a long time that people who are playing chess are more intelligent than the average. True or not, we all have to admit that the chess players always bag the nerdy badge!
Hence, pushy parents are more likely to send their kids to chess classes as early as possible. According to a survey [2016], more than 30 million children in America play chess. But, does that number improve the number of intelligent students? The answer may not satisfy you, so better we drop the controversy here.
Turn the clock back to 2023 and you will find that the number of students playing chess has surged surprisingly! Why? This is because COVID forced people to be condemned in their home for a long time [a year almost] that also forced students to start homeschooling and involve themselves in more indoor games and activities.
Meanwhile, students started taking more interest in playing online games, especially brainstorming ones like chess. Playing Chess Android has become so common that every 8 among 10 students you can find have Chess App installed in their mobile devices. Now, whether playing online chess made them smarter or not is a bigger question, but we have to admit that it definitely helped them to grow more concentration and creativity.
Can Playing Chess Make Students Smarter?
Many studies have been conducted and many papers have been published to prove that playing chess does not make a difference in intelligence. However, if you already inherit intelligence in general, then you have a good chance to make good progress in chess, and can even become a professional chess player.
Hence, it is safe to say that playing chess is not synonymous with being smart! For instance, if you are Sheldon, playing chess or not, you are smart and intelligent!
Jokes apart, we have to acknowledge that playing chess may not convert a student into Einstein, but it can definitely grow planning, creativity, memory, concentration and logical thinking among the students.
How Playing Online Chess Help Students?
As we were discussing, playing chess may not necessarily increase intelligence or make a student smarter than he already is but it certainly does help in shaping a student’s mind and character. Here is how playing online chess can help students:
- Planning
Planning and making strategies are the core strength of a chess player. If a student can master how to create perfect plans and execute them, then these characteristics are definitely going to help a student to make a better academic career. Simply put, students who are playing online chess are better at planning and executing tasks that boost their career.
- Creativity
Children are always full of creativity. When some monotonous activity suppresses the creativity of a student, it is found that indoor games like chess and checker board influence them to be more creative. A chess player always thinks five moves ahead and considers all the possibilities to win a match. It definitely boosts creativity and encourages students to be more creative in their career too!
- Memory
Observing opponents and assuming their next move based on the previous matches takes a lot of grey cells to work! So, it is easy to depict that chess players have a sharper memory than non-chess players. Students with better memory are always keen to make more academic achievements, which push more parents to influence their children playing online chess.
- Concentration
Most of the chess matches go long, while players keep staring at the board for hours. It may make other common people dizzy, but for the chess players, concentration is equal to their mental power. When they are staring at the chessboard for hours, we can only watch their intense gazes but what we can’t see is that all of their grey cells are fighting to hold the concentration of the match. Losing concentration from the board can cost the match. When student chase players also use this same concentration in studies, it is expected that they will do better than the most. Also, students suffering from ADHD can play chess as a cure to the disease.
- Logical Thinking
Critical and logical thinking are two major characteristics of a good chess player. Being a student, when you are playing chess, you are also stimulating the logical thinking part of your brain! This is why we find that most of the chess playing students are also good in math and statistics.
How To Play Online Chess
Playing online chess is super easy to start. If you are a student and looking forward to playing chess online then just download Chess Android or Chess iOS depending on your device. Here is a quick guideline for you:
Step 1: Open Play Store [Android] or App Store [iOS] on your device.
Step 2: Search for Chess and you will find hundreds of online Chess apps for free!
Step 3: Download and install any of the online Chess apps.
Step 4: Log in to the game and choose a computer or any of your online friends to play with.
Step 5: Play online chess anytime and anywhere using installed Chess app.
Conclusion
Playing Chess is cool whether you are a student or not. However, when it comes to building characteristics, it is better to start as early as possible. Parents should always encourage their children to join a Chess club and take training for 30 hours in a week along with their study. It is found from the studies that students between 9 to 12 years who join the chess classes are more likely to excel in academics. So, making students smarter or not, but playing chess definitely helps to boost their career. Also, if you think joining a chess club is too hasty, you can start with online chess apps that are available for both Android and iOS devices. It’s better to be late than never.