Enhances problem-solving skills. Studies show that expert chess grandmasters have a brain different from the average person’s. It was shown that as they play, there is more activity going on in their frontal and parietal cortices, the region of the brains that are responsible for recognition and problem-solving. This means that because of their expertise, grandmasters merely revive their previous memories of problems and a thousand moves.
They use the previously used strategies in their games, as compared to amateurs who use the medial temporal lobe of their brain to deal with unknown and new moves. The medial temporal lobe is the part that deals with new long-term memories.[18]
Increases IQ. Another group of children who learned chess for 18 weeks were found to have an increased IQ afterwards.
Enables your brain to think like a computer. Interestingly, an article[19] published by Matthew Berland in ETC Press at Carnegie Melon University states that “players of board games are engaged in computational thinking without ever touching a computer.”
This means that the type of thinking that game designers and players use as they write rules or enact the game is also the same thinking that strategic tabletop game players employ.
Provides academic value. Wendi Fischer, the scholastic directory of America’s Foundation for Chess, published an article[20] discussing the educational benefits of playing and its potential role as a great learning tool in developing a higher level of thinking skills, math and reading skills and in building self-confidence.
According to her, a study[21] shows how students who attended chess classes fared well and have garnered higher scores in their academics most especially in math, spatial analysis and non-verbal reasoning ability. Thus, playing chess at a young age can be an advantage for achieving academic success.
Playing chess allows you to use both sides of the brain. The right hemisphere of the brain is associated with visual imagery and perception, face recognition, music and spatial abilities, while the left brain is mostly in charge with language and speaking, with logic, analysis and mathematical reasoning. Chess grandmasters are advanced thinkers because their game requires them to recognize patterns with their right brain and analyze their next moves by using the left side of their brain.