Will playing chess expand your brain or mind?
Chess is a thinking game. It will expand your mind but will not expand your brain. It only creates a bigger memory area in your mind.
Chess expands your mind but does not expand your brain. Does this statement sound contradictory to you? Think again. Brain and mind and two different ingredients of a single entity. Without one the other cannot function and vice versa. For example, when you say computer, you will immediately think of two things that go into the computer, the hardware and the software – is it not?
If the head that includes the skull is the computer, then brain is the hardware and the mind is the software. Hope this example will help you realize the subtle difference between the brain and the mind.
As scientists have found and established, the brain comes fully grown at the time of birth itself. The only part that never grows physically since birth is the brain. The brain contains billions of neurons or brain cells. These individual brain cells or neurons establish connections between themselves over the first six years of child. Then, these connections, if not used by the person, will fade out and start shedding from the age of 15. The old adage – “If you do not use it, you lose it” applies to the brain perfectly. If a person does not use his brain or in other words, does not make use of the connections created by the neurons, then these connections fade out after a period and will fall down. May be inadequate use of the brain and their innumerable connections between neurons effectively is the cause for diseases like dementia, Alzheimer and such other diseases at the old age.
The brain, as stated earlier, does not grow and as such there is no room for further expansion of the brain. However, the trillions of connections that the neurons create among themselves get activated when put to use by the activities. The connections activated by the brain reflect the memory area of the brain. As such, by playing chess, a person activates a higher number of connections and strengthens them. These connections occupy a bigger area of the memory created in the brain. In other words, the memory area of the brain gets expanded and not the brain that gets expanded.
Mind, we said, is equal to the software in a computer. In other words, mind refers to the application of the memory area of the brain. As the memory area of the brain gets expanded, the mind is also said to expand and incorporate new ideas and thinking skills. Thus the mind expands its horizon and includes important traits such as critical thinking, out of the box thinking, lateral thinking, decision-making, analyzing, visualizing and such other things associated with the game of chess.
Playing chess regularly also helps in keeping you alert at all times, have a sharp mind and improve intelligence. Intelligence is not knowledge. It is the intelligence that matters the most than the knowledge. That is why, we give more importance to the Intelligence Quotient or the IQ of a person and not the Knowledge Quotient or KQ. In fact, there is nothing like KQ but IQ is there and has a special value.
Intelligence refers to the instant reaction to events or problems not experienced in life earlier. Knowledge is nothing but a reproduction of what we have learnt and experienced in life.
In the game of chess, one applies serious thinking and also shows signs of creativity and imagination with out-of-the-box ideas and lateral thinking, as part of his objective to capture the opponent’s King and say checkmate.
Now, with the advent of technology, anybody having interest in the game and a little bit of understanding can play chess whenever he wants to play and learn the tricks of the game by playing chess online. All he needs is a personal computer and internet connection.
So, why wait for expanding your memory and improving your level of intelligence. Visit the online chess site and start playing the game.
Essential tips for improving chess skills
The game of chess is a challenge to the mind and an exercise to the brain. The only sport that not only provides you the much-needed relaxation, fun and excitement, but also exercises your brain and nurtures your character is the noble game of chess, rightly referred to as King of Games.
Chess is one of the most ancient games, said to have been first played in the 6th Century A.D. Even after 15 centuries, the game is still popular among the people, and with the advent of the computer and the Internet, the game started reaching the masses and more and more people are fascinated by this game and are becoming addicts to the new buzzword in chess world, Online Chess. Learning the simple game of chess and trying to practice the game by playing chess online is the easiest way to grow up the ladder of expertise in this game.
It is no doubt true that as you play more games, you are likely to gain expertise in the game. It is not the quantity or the number of games that determine your level of expertise, but the lessons you learned in the process of playing those games.
It is but impossible for any chess player, in his early days, to start winning the game. He is more likely to stumble at every point and will invariably commit mistakes. If you make a mistake, then you are bound to pay for the mistake with a loss. As such, it is but natural that you will end up hearing the golden word of “checkmate” from the opponent, and will not be getting enough opportunity to say that golden word to your opponent.
How to change the scenario and start saying the golden word? One obvious way is to play more games, not just to hear more times the golden word of “checkmate”, but to learn from the mistakes and try not to make the same mistake again and again. If you lose a game of chess, and fail to learn any new lesson from the loss, then it is as good as not playing the game at all in the first instance.
In other words, one should not feel ashamed or else feel afraid of losing games in his early days. But he should be ashamed of himself if he does not learn from the mistakes that he did during the game which ultimately led to the loss of the game.
The most important tip for improving the chess skills is to learn from the mistakes and avoid repeating the same mistake again and again.
Another tip worth considering for a player in his early days, is to try to select an expert player to play against. Losing against an experienced player will give you a solace and at the same time help you eliminate the mistakes quickly, as the experienced player can spot your mistakes quickly and take advantage of those mistakes. A mistake will be a mistake only if it is found out. If the opponent does not take advantage of your mistake, you will not be able to realize that you made a mistake in the first instance. So, if you play against an experienced player, the probability of your mistakes being highlighted is more and the chances for learning from such mistakes is immense.
