Source: correodelorinoco.gov.ve
Many people who follow my publications know that I am a chess player. Five years ago I began to practice this sport and since then I have actively participated in competitions at the state, national and even international level. In my entire chess career I have met a lot of people, from doctors to a large number of people in computer science or systems engineering (curiously, many chess players study technology-related careers)
I also really like computers and everything that has to do with technology in general. My curiosity about technology began when I was 12 years old, but that's another matter.
But, the detail here is this: Is that a coincidence?
Is it a coincidence that a large number of chess players are involved in careers related to mathematics or technology, or does chess increase their skills in these areas? These are questions that I have asked myself throughout my career since I am very curious, so I have read articles on the Internet that talk about different topics about chess, but, there is a more general question and many people have asked: Does chess make people smarter? I found this very interesting and I want to share my opinion in this community created by @jaki01
Source: es.wikipedia.com
First of all, what do I mean by smart? The definition of intelligence has been the subject of much debate over time, and I even read a theory about multiple intelligences by Howard Gardner some time ago. It's a really interesting theory, but it doesn't apply in this definition, why? For me, intelligence is something general, the ability of a person to perform any activity that occurs in his or her daily life. And this is where chess predominates
Chess is a science-sport that requires a lot of research and practice, chess is based very much on theory, that is, the information stored in the player's brain, the more information the player has the better his performance in the game. This is true in most cases, mastering openings, basic tactics and the huge amount of chess endgames makes the player exceptional. Be clear, the more information, the better.
There are also cases where natural talent makes a chess player incredible, this is where intuition comes in, but personally, I haven't met anyone who performs phenomenally in chess without having studied theory, I think these are very specific cases, but I don't deny the existence of them.
This is where chess begins to relate to the definition of intelligence I mentioned earlier, the ability to perform any activity that life presents us. Research is something that anyone knows, I mean, even in school you have to research to do a task. Chess players are forced to research any kind of information if they want to improve their game, learn new endgames, study new variations of some opening, things that simply improve their game on a theoretical level, expanding the amount of information further and discovering new things they didn't know before.
Source: telesurtv.net
This helps their research skills to improve a lot and no, I am not the only person who says this, a study conducted by some students at Michigan State University shows that the level of the chess player is related to cognitive ability.
Also, much of the chess community claims that chess can develop intelligence through concentration and the way the brain works to win a game. But, unfortunately I did not find studies that could support this, on the contrary, I found an article that talks about this, there are no studies that can demonstrate that chess is an activity that develops intelligence due to the concentration and stress that the brain undergoes to get the best moves in certain positions.
Source: tekcrispy.com
Chess is really a fun and very interesting sport, personally, chess has made me improve a lot as a person, I learned to think and reflect better before making decisions in my daily life and it has also allowed me to meet people who have helped me throughout my life. It really is a sport that gives you many opportunities and benefits if you practice it daily. You should be encouraged to play chess some day :)
You make some interesting points especially the first about tech enthusiasts seeming to also be into chess.
I was thinking this just the other day, I've recently started a chess channel on Youtube, and a Twitter account. I noticed that as I was looking for people to follow, a lot of the chess people also had tech related interests and jobs.
Personally, I find it increases my focus, which is an (in my opinion) underated part of intelligence, it can be said that genius is simply the ability to focus on one thing for extended periods of time.
Obviously it's a bit more complex than that, however focus is an integral part of learning. As is functional memory, the ability to hold patterns in the mind, and to recall them and put them to use in relation to the game you're playing.
I find it interesting that you couldn't find any studies on whether chess increases general intelligence. Perhaps it's because such a study would span many years, possibly decades ... maybe a study is happening right now!
Anyway, great article, I really want to follow you, however it seems the follow function is not available at the moment. I will do so whenever I can, and please check out my chess channel, I'd love your comments and insights.
Cg
EDIT: I have since followed you by going straight through Steemit, I hope they fix this bug soon!
@tipu curate
Upvoted 👌 (Mana: 0/10 - need recharge?)
Thank you :)
I think smart people play chess & from the sounds of it, chess makes them even smarter :)
A lot of people say this, in the future there will probably be studies that can confirm that it is true!
I would not be surprised :)
#posh <3
Yeah, chess make people smarter for sure. I'm addicted to it and always try to play in high levels. It's hard to win of course, but I win sometimes. I play it almost everyday.
It's really an interesting sport, even as a recreational activity it's fun too. You could play on chess.com, it's a very good site to play
I play on lichess.org and they have an application I'm installing on phone. But, I played in a lot of websites before and tried many apps. I like that they don't have the same tactics and sometimes it's useful to play in more than one place. I will check chess.com as well.
I also have a lichess account, my username is jean1301, when you want we can play some games :)
I play on lichess as well @clixmoney, what's your favourite type of game there? Mine is 5:3.
Cg
I play the standard game and choose 3 minutes.
Cool, we must play some time :-)
Cg