Search results
No evidence
- A 2017 trial of more than 4,000 children in England found no evidence that chess instruction had any effect on children's mathematics, reading or science test scores. We wanted to test if there was, in fact, a positive correlation between learning to play chess and learners' verbal, numerical and abstract (visual) reasoning skills.
phys.org/news/2019-07-people-chess-smarter-evidence-isnt.htmlMost people think playing chess makes you 'smarter', but the ...
People also ask
Does playing chess improve test scores?
Does chess help a child think better?
Does replacing math with chess improve math test scores?
Does chess improve math skills?
Does playing chess affect end-year math scores?
Are chess tournaments good for kids?
May 11, 2017 · We find that, on average, replacing one (in four) weekly math lecture with instruction based on chess learning material, during almost three quarters of a school year in grades 1–3 in primary school, leads to an improvement in subsequent math test scores of around 0.10–0.18 standard deviations.
- Michael Rosholm, Mai Bjørnskov Mikkelsen, Kamilla Gumede
- 10.1371/journal.pone.0177257
- 2017
- PLoS One. 2017; 12(5): e0177257.
Aug 31, 2019 · The Math gains once again show that learning chess increases MAP test scores; the kids who come to chess club only benefited a modest increase (+0.78) and the majority of kids who play in tournaments obtained a very significant increase (+2.57), whereas the kids who make great strides in chess-playing ability (i.e., learn more chess) see a ...
- David I. Poston, Kathryn K. Vandenkieboom
- 2019
- Overview
- Chess develops the ability to see from someone else’s perspective
- Chess improves memory
- Chess enables you to enter a flow state
- Chess elevates your creativity
- Chess leads to better planning skills
- Chess can make therapy more effective
- Chess may offer protection against the development of dementia
- Chess can improve the symptoms of ADHD
- Electronic chess may help stave off a panic attack
Playing chess can improve cognitive skills like memory, planning, and problem-solving. It may also help reduce symptoms of certain brain conditions.
The game of chess is loved all over the world. From Amsterdam to Zhengzhou, people gather in living rooms, pubs, plazas, and libraries to match wits over the cherished checkered board.
Why is it that people are willing to devote such time to the game? It’s undoubtedly the fact that chess involves an intense intellectual challenge that’s very good for the health of your mind.
Keep reading to learn what we know about the benefits of playing chess.
Skilled chess players learn to anticipate an opponent’s next moves. To predict what another person will do next, a player must develop the ability to adopt another person’s perspective and infer what action they are likely to take.
Behavioral scientists call this this ability to see from another viewpoint the “theory of mind.” It’s an ability that is essential to exercising empathy and building healthy social relationships. A 2019 study found that chess develops this perspective-taking ability in children who practice the game.
It might not be surprising to learn that expert chess players have strong memory skills. After all, the game involves memorizing numerous combinations of moves and their potential outcomes.
It’s also interesting to note that experienced chess players show higher performance related to a particular kind of recollection: auditory memory. This is the ability to remember what you’ve learned through hearing.
In one experiment, researchers compared the recall ability of expert chess players to that of people with no chess-playing experience. They found that the chess players were significantly better at recalling lists of words they’d heard than people who had never played chess.
Skilled chess players also have a better than average ability to remember and quickly recognize visual patterns, which researchers think comes from memorizing complex chess positions.
Flow is a deeply rewarding sense of total involvement, in which you’re operating at a peak performance level in a challenging task. Athletes, artists, and performers often describe entering a kind of time warp, where they are so wholly focused on the task at hand that their awareness of anything beyond the performance seems to disappear.
Researchers who study brain activity noted that theta waves are heightened in electroencephalograms (EEGs) taken when people are in a state of flow. Studies have shown the same high levels of theta waves in brain scans of experienced chess players during increasingly difficult chess matches.
Researchers at a school in India tested the creative thinking skills of two groups of students. One group was trained in chess playing, and the other was not.
The tests asked students to come up with alternate uses for common items and to interpret patterns and meaning in abstract forms. Students who played chess scored higher on tests. Researchers concluded that chess increased the students’ ability to exercise divergent and creative thinking.
Chess games are known for long periods of silent contemplation, during which players consider each move. Players spend time anticipating their opponents’ responses and attempting to predict every eventuality.
That habit of mind — careful contemplation and planning — is one of the cognitive health benefits of playing chess.
Some counselors and therapists play chess with clients as a means of increasing self-awareness and building more effective therapeutic relationships.
Considered a creative therapy strategy, chess allows you to see your reactions to stress and to challenges as they arise in the course of a match. Your therapist is present to help you evaluate your responses and learn more about why you respond to problems the way you do.
In a 2019 research review, scientists found that the complex mental flexibility chess demands could help protect older people from dementia.
Researchers found evidence that the game, which challenges memory, calculation, visual-spatial skills, and critical thinking abilities, may help reduce cognitive decline and postpone the effects of dementia as you age.
In a 2016 study involving 100 school-age children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, researchers included regular chess playing in a multi-faceted treatment approach.
Students who participated in this treatment method experienced a 41 percent decrease in both inattentiveness and over-activity following the course of treatment.
There haven’t been any large-scale studies to support the use of chess apps to help reduce panic attack symptoms. In one 2017 case study, an individual who experienced panic attacks was able to use a chess app on a phone to increase the sense of calm and keep a panic attack from progressing.
The key to success was in finding just the right level of challenge to occupy his attention and distract from unpleasant feelings. For this user, difficulty levels 2 to 4 provided just the right amount of engagement.
Jul 10, 2019 · Previous studies that explored whether chess improves children’s cognitive abilities have had mixed results. We found playing chess wasn’t linked to better standardised test scores.
Liptrap (1998) in his study on “Chess and Standard Test Scores” shows that chess improve both math and reading scores for elementary students as it is also suggested by the Marguiles (1998) study “The Effect of Chess on Reading Scores".
- 539KB
- 20
Jul 11, 2019 · But children in our study who played chess did not show significant improvements in standardized test scores compared to children who didn't play. Most people think chess...
Jan 16, 2017 · This longitudinal study in Alabama concluded that chess improved test scores and excitement about coming to school, more so in the lower grades. Even teachers who taught chess reported being more excited about their jobs.
