Chess

Chess is one of the fascinating board games that requires thinking on the part of the players and calls for nothing less than logical thinking and application of skills to claim victory over the opponent or not end up losing the game at the hands of the opponent.

One needs to concentrate on the game, plan his moves, analyze the board, assess the position and also foresee the opponent’s response to a move before taking a decision to move a piece. This might sound a difficult proposition, but this is the process that actually takes place, either knowingly or unknowingly, among the chess players while they make their moves. Any flaw in this process or an error in judgment is sufficient for the opponent to launch an attack that might lead to saying checkmate to your king.

It goes without saying that one needs to concentrate on the game and take appropriate decisions driven by logical thinking and careful planning.

Concentration, decision making, logical thinking, planning and execution – all these are virtues that help a lot in one’s life and character. The earlier one learns these virtues and moulds his life accordingly, the more successful he will emerge in his life.

This is one important reason that children should be encouraged to learn the game of chess and start playing the game right from the early stages of life. It would be a real fun for the children to learn the different capabilities of the knights, the rooks and the bishops.

Children will be first taught the important virtue of abiding by the rules and regulations of the game. Then comes the aspect of concentration in the game, which helps in understanding the game in a better manner.

Children will then be exposed to the quality of analyzing the board, the weak squares that can be attacked, the squares that need to be protected, the squares that need to be controlled and such other things.

Children will then be trained to plan their chess strategies and tactics. Strategy is a long-term goal while tactics involves a series of small steps leading to the success of a strategy. Then comes the role of decision-making. Having assessed the position, one needs to take a decision to make the appropriate move. All tactics and plans might not yield the desired results, because the opponent also sees the position in front of him and may come up with good defensive tactics. Reacting to the response and chalking out alternate plans or tactics also becomes a part of the game.

Children, who are capable of learning things at a relatively faster pace, can get trained with all these important traits right from their early age as they cultivate the habit of playing chess regularly.

The children need not be forced to take up and learn these traits by force or coercion. As they start playing the game, begin understanding the game, develop a sense of affinity, and love for the game, it is but natural that these qualities get into them without any external push or assistance.

These qualities help them outshine other children, gain more self-confidence and achieve success in their life.

One of the many good qualities that differentiates a child from the other children is his or her IQ or the intelligence quotient. What is this IQ and why is it important? IQ or the intelligence quotient refers to the best possible response from a child in a given situation. It has nothing in particular to do with the knowledge. However knowledgeable a student be, lack of intelligence might not lead to better results at times. Hence the importance for the IQ universally and not something like a Knowledge Quotient or a Brilliance Quotient.

How chess can help a child develop this trait of Intelligence and score a higher IQ than others?

Chess is a fair game in all aspects and as such there is no room for outside influence in the game. As a player, he should ensure that he does not commit any mistakes allowing the opponent to gain an upper hand. If one were not supposed to make any mistakes, then it becomes important that he should clearly understand the game in its entirety, assess the situation properly, and make the correct moves at the correct time.

One more thing that the game of chess demands from a player is timeliness. A player cannot be allowed to take inordinate time in taking decisions about a move. As such, the player is required not only to make the correct move, but also at a relatively lesser time so that he does not get involved in a time–trouble issue.

In that way, the game of chess demands that a player display analytical skills, planning and execution of the moves within a stipulated time so that he achieves the goal of saying checkmate to the opponent.

Encouraging children to learn Chess right from the early stages and making them learn the nuances of the game helps in learning the most important trait of analytical thinking, planning and careful execution of the same within a given period of time.

A child not only learns to think analytically and logically, when he is trained to play chess right from his childhood. He also learns yet another important virtue that will help in meeting the challenges of life – the virtue of Patience.

The game of chess requires that each player makes a move and wait for the other person to make the move before he can make his next move. That means, one has to wait for the response of the other person and then make his move taking into account the impact of the opponent’s move.

One needs to be patient and wait for the opportunities or mistake on the part of the opponent to take advantage. Children will be trained to develop this virtue of patience through the game of chess.

A child is trained to learn the virtues of patience, analytical thinking and decision making through the game of chess. These virtues will help him perform better in the examinations and outshine other children. Not only will he perform better in the studies, but also the self-confidence of the child gets a boost with success. This self-confidence is the most important virtue that is required to meet the challenges in life. So, teaching chess and encouraging children to take up chess as part of his schooling helps in making their life a very fruitful one.