Chess

The game of chess is not just a game played for the sake of fun and excitement. It teaches a number of invaluable lessons and nurtures a person’s character such that he can lead a positively charged qualitative life, taking appropriate decisions driven by mind and not by heart. In other words, one can cultivate the novel trait of “think before you act” and not otherwise.

Keeping date with the game of chess at frequent intervals will help a person cultivate better habits and invaluable skills that help him in dealing with real-life situations. In this fast-paced world, it has become a luxury to find time for relaxation and fun for a prolonged period. In addition, one needs to look for a partner and considerable time at his disposal to play a game of chess, which is best alternative for relaxation and fun.

It is in this context, the technology and World Wide Web come to our help. Online chess is one thing that helps a person play the game as and when he wants and thus satiates his passion for the game. Playing chess online helps in not only finding a better way of relaxing and having fun, but also challenges your brain and takes it to a gym for mental exercise.

Chess teaches a number of invaluable skills to us and one of those invaluable traits is Confidence. Let us explore the role of chess in teaching this invaluable skill.

One of the important traits that every person should cultivate and master is the confidence, both in himself and in the activities he does. The level of confidence determines the quantum of success in any endeavor a person takes or embarks upon.

Belief in yourself, the strength of your knowledge and the awareness of the problem on hand are the things that help in improving your confidence to counter the problem.

Confidence is a double-edged sword and needs to be handled precariously. A little drop in confidence level will result in lack of confidence and will invite problems such as fear or doubt in the mind.

A little over-dosage of confidence will result in over-confidence and will lead to lapse of concentration or attention and this over-confidence will lead to mistakes or carelessness. In other words, if you are over-confident about yourself or about the problem on hand, then you are prone to make mistakes, which will ultimately decide your fate.

If one were to have an optimal level of confidence about himself and in the activities he does, then he should not give room for either lack of confidence or over-confidence. The more knowledge you gain about the problem and about yourself will help you overcome the menace of lack-of-confidence. The capability to maintain attention at all times and not allowing the attention to waver in the form of relaxation is necessary to avoid over-confidence.

How can one gain the optimal confidence and keep away from the menaces of lack-of-confidence or over-confidence? Concentration and attention are the two things that help us maintain the optimum level of confidence.
Chess is one game that comes to the mind instantly. Chess is a thinking game and requires loads of concentration and attention. If a player makes a mistake, then he will lose the game. Lack of confidence and fear about loss of game leads to mistakes. By playing chess online regularly, one gains the knowledge and expertise in the game. The more the level of knowledge, the more will be the level of confidence and less the chances for fear. In other words, concentration eliminates the chance for lack of confidence.

Attention to the details is one thing that arrests the possibility of over-confidence. A small mistake due to over-confidence or inattention ruins the prospect of victory. Playing chess online helps a person overcome the habit of over-confidence.

Chess teaches the real meaning of the game, “the hardest thing of all is to win a won game.” By more practice through online chess, one can improve his concentration and attention and do not fall prey to menaces of lack-of-confidence or over-confidence.

One of the best means of relaxation is a game of chess online. Why?

Let us explore it in detail to validate this proposition and then conclude for ourselves whether it is really the best means of relaxation in comparison to other means. Of course, there is one pre-condition. You should be aware of the game of chess. A basic understanding of the game and the rules will be an added advantage.

Now, coming back to the question of relaxation, one will feel its need the most when faced with stress, strain and tension. After a strenuous workout sitting in front of a computer for a relatively long time working on an assignment, it is quite natural that one would like to relax for a while before continuing with the routine work.

There are a number of ways in which a person can find relaxation. He can lie down for a while and have a nap, watch television, go to a movie, hangout with the friends in the pub or coffee shop or else walk down the road in a serene and calm atmosphere.

Any one of the above means for relaxation would be ideal for a person not aware of the game of chess. But, if he is aware of the game and had played it before, then online chess would be first choice for relaxation.

Why Chess? Chess is by far the best of the boardgames and is also the only game that trains and stimulates the mind, which no other game can claim to do. It is for this reason, the game of Chess is often fondly referred to as the King of Games or as the Game of the Kings.

It would not be wrong to say that Chess is to mind as physical exercise is to body. Just as exercises like pull-ups, push-ups, jogging, running and yoga tones your muscles and keeps this fit, a game of chess reinvigorates the mind, stimulates it and trains it. Chess is a mental exercise or an exercise to the mind.

After sitting at a place for a while engrossed in a work, something like tailoring, data entry at computer or some other similar work, we find the person getting up, loosening his muscles and stretching out his limbs and hands before regrouping and starting to continue the work.

Similarly, when faced with tension or stress, it is but natural that you will feel a bit tired or hit by fatigue as your mind loses the energy temporarily to think and in turn you feel exhausted mentally, and desperately feel the need for relaxation.

Basically the game of chess is a thinking game and calls for deep and serious thinking, concentration, analysis, visualization and planning. You cannot afford to make any mistakes or else you will end up losing the game. You should be always a step-ahead of the opponent in the game.

Now, when you turn up to a game of chess online with a player having similar skill set, using your personal computer, or laptop, as a means of relaxation, you will be forgetting about your worries or other things that caused you stress and tension, and in turn, channel your thinking to the game of chess. As you know, indirectly you are exercising your mind which has been affected mildly due to stress and strain. Just as a person stretches his arms and limbs after a hard and continuous physical workout, a person affected by mental stress and tension should be exercising his mind by playing the game of chess. Now with online chess, the need for searching the partner, the board or the time is eliminated and one can find a partner in the Internet to play the game. Even if you were unable to find one partner, you can still play with the Internet, which is as good as a grandmaster in the game. Remember the games between Garry Kasparov and the Super Computer.

Thus, a game of chess online, at any time when you want to play, will be an ideal and best way to relax and at the same time, exercise your mind.

The game of chess teaches the art of visualization, foresight and analysis that will help a person in many ways in his life. The game enables the horizon of thinking to spread its wings and provides innumerable ideas and solutions for a given situation. Is it true?

Well. It is true that the game of chess does help a person learn a lot of things or good virtues that will help him become a better and successful person. It has been proved beyond doubt that children trained to take up the game of chess and play regularly have outperformed their friends in their academic career.

The popularity of the game of chess has been growing every day since being played from the 6th Century AD , and the increasing number of websites talking about this game and offering online chess opportunities is a testimony for this popularity. Chess has been popularized to such an extent that the need for two players, a chessboard and ideal time in isolation have been totally done away with, and any person interested in the game can play chess online now with other players available in the Internet or with the computer.

What is it that attracts people towards this game? One possible reason for this is that the game of chess is a synonym for mental exercise. Yes. It is true that the game of chess trains and stimulates our mind to a great extent. The game not only relaxes and provides entertainment to the player, but at the same time, challenges the mind.

Chess is probably one game that does not get influenced by any outside factors such as chance, luck or some thing of that sort whatsoever. It is purely a thinking game and the players have to take responsibilities for all that they do or fail to do in a game.

In the game, each player has to think and think deeply before making any move. Each and every move in the game should be done after a detailed and careful analysis. A wrong calculation or a move made in haste without proper thought would lead to loss of advantage and eventually game. As such, before making a move, the player has to ensure that the move is the right one in the given circumstances.

He should have a thorough understanding of the board, the strengths and weaknesses in the board and also the consequences of his move on the part of the opponent. The number of squares in the chessboard is only sixty four and they can neither be increased nor be decreased at any cost. Whatever has to be done, it needs to be done only in 32 squares if we take out the 32 squares occupied by 16 pieces given to each of the two players.

As such, before making a move, a player should analyze the various options available on the board, weigh the options of each piece and each move, and also take into account the pieces of the opponent and his possible moves of the opponent. Then, he should imagine each of the options mentally or visualize the moves before and then finally having convinced, he should make the move. There is no guarantee that a player’s line of thinking or visualization will always result in success. The opponent, who is also looking at the same board and the same position, might have other ideas and his move might nullify the plans.

Not only should a player visualize and analyze any move well in advance before making a move, he should also be prepared to face failures or see his plans going haywire or nullified by the opponent. In order to ensure that he makes the correct move, his visualization capability needs to strengthened and analysis needs to be sharpened. The chess player strives to achieve perfection in this skill and will, by practice, learn to enrich his skills on visualization and analysis.

Once a player masters this invaluable technique, not only will his game of chess improve drastically, his mind will be tuned to look at things with foresight and analysis. The possibility of acting in haste or impatiently is totally eliminated from his life. This, in turn, will help him lead a confident and successful life.

Chess is not a mere sport or an idle amusement as it is believed to be. In addition to these attributes, the game of chess has much more to offer to a person, provided he has the interest on this game. This is the reason why the board game has been rightly proclaimed as the King of Games.

Now this game has virtually gone global thanks to the technological advancement. Yes – it is true that a single person, with the help of his desktop PC, can learn, play and enrich his life by playing chess online.

What is the connection between chess and grasping qualities – one might ask. The game of chess is a fair game in the sense that the result of the game is entirely dependent on the player only and cannot bank on other outside influence such as luck or chance. Only thing that is possible is mistake from the opponent.

As such, the game calls for concentration, attention, analytical capabilities, planning, visualizing, decision-making and ultimate execution of strategies of tactics aimed at cornering the opponent’s King. The interesting part is that a player’s moves and planning process is impacted by the response from the opponent. In other words, dynamic planning is what a player requires and not mere planning.

As a player, not only one needs to look ahead for at least two or three moves, but his planning needs to be dynamic in that he should be capable of altering the planning based on opponent’s moves. In other words, the player should be well aware of the position of the pieces, their positional influence and the impact of the opponent’s moves on the planning process. He should have apply his concentration and attention on the board, the moves of the opponent as well as his plans. The onus lies on him not only to attack the opponent’s King but also safeguard and defend his own pieces.

All these aspects call for deep understanding of the position in the game and quick reaction, which are the hall marks of grasping capabilities. Not only should a player display alertness in analyzing the situation but also counter them with precise moves so that the objective is achieved.

These qualities will not only help a player achieve success over his opponent in the game, but also help the person display these skills when faced with similar situations in life.

It is a well known fact that physical exercises keeps a person’s body fit and healthy. Similarly mental exercises keeps a person him agile, sharp and intelligent. If running, swimming, or other exercises help keep your body fit, chess helps you to be mentally alert and agile. In other words, chess is the best exercise which in addition to relaxation of mind and relieving of stress also stimulates your mind and keeps you healthy.

It has been proved that people suffering from diseases such as Multiple Sclerosis or Alzhmeier can take up playing chess to keep their mind active and postpone sudden loss of memory or deterioration in their mental conditions.

Chess is a challenging board game that requires a lot of thinking on the part of the players. The one predominant quality of the game of chess that helped this ancient game, played since the 6th Century, survive the travails of time and technology and still fascinate people across the world to take up this game is its fairness. In other words, there is no room for chance or a hand of god or luck to win in a chess game. The only possibility that can help you achieve success in the game is through an accident – an accident that results from the mistake of the opponent.

A mistake is possible in the game of chess due to inattentiveness, lack of understanding, lack of skill, lapse of concentration, pressure of time, and other emotional disturbances. This mistake on the part of a player is the passport for success to the opponent. This signifies the importance of not making mistakes in the game of chess to ensure that the word ‘checkmate” is not uttered to you by the opponent. Irrespective of your level in the game of chess, be it a novice, or a budding chess player, or a champion, or a grandmaster, attention is very essential for success in this game. The trait of giving importance to attention and not getting distracted with other aspects, which one should display while playing chess, helps him in his life to a greater extent.

What is attention? and how one can maintain high level of attention throughout the game?
Attention is defined as nothing but concentration of cerebral activity on a certain object. This concentration is essential in the game of chess. More so, to assess the position of the pieces in the board, the threats to one’s pieces and the opportunities to attack the opponent’s pieces, and such other things. This attention has twin benefits. Not only will it help have a better understanding of the game on hand, but also, in the process helps you to gain more knowledge about the game and recall this position at a later date in a different context and might help in taking the appropriate decisions.

If one were to improvise his skills on the game of chess and elevate himself to higher levels, he should not do any mistake in the game of chess and gain more in confidence and skills. In order not to make any mistakes, he need to concentrate on the game more and pay attention to the pieces on the board, assess the position and take steps not only to avoid making mistakes but also to latch on the mistakes made by the opponent.

It may not be out of context to point out that people with serious absent-mindedness have been suggested to take up the game of chess to help them get rid of this absent-mindedness. Research has shown that playing chess helped them overcome this problem of absent-mindedness.

The role of attention in the game of chess is best summarized by one of the grandmasters of Chess N. Grekov. In his words, “Chess demands…. a prolonged, a constant concentration of attention. It is quite clear that one can well achieve a winning chess position, but then …. as a result of relaxing the tension or failing to pay attention even for a second, turn a won game to a lost one. An essential pre-condition of perfecting one’s chess is to fight this failing.”