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While I obviously liked the mechanics of the game, it was above all its benefits for my brain and my cognitive reflexes that confirmed my love for it. Explanations. Stimulate your brain through chess, I’m not going to insult you by explaining what chess is. A chessboard, a timer, two erudite opponents immersed in a frenetic game, sometimes cultivating the imagination of an elitist practice.
Many share this stereotypical image, but if we go beyond the archetype of a socially discriminatory intellectual game, this game actually turns out to be a real asset for stimulating the brain . First of all, when it comes to learning to master the rules of a game that is several thousand years old, the first game took place in the 10th century. Names of the pieces, specific moves, special rules, game scoring system, tactics for winning. A whole lore is associated with chess, which implies absolute rigor when you want to start a game according to the rules of the art.
This also highlights a crucial notion: chess is a board game of the “war game” type. In this sense, it simulates a conflict between one player and another, with each move of the opponent forcing us to act in “reaction”, with little anticipation. Obviously, seasoned chess players can predict certain attacks and train religiously to leave no room for improvisation, but at my humble level, I perceive chess more as a game of immediacy. In fact, the brain is also put to full use throughout the game, with each move of the opponent generating a thousand possible strategies to gauge in order to choose the best move. Spanish opening, white queen on g7, bishop on b3, “kiss of death” A game of chess then becomes a breathtaking epic, as well as a real gymnastics for the brain.
Chess, an intoxicating tactical game
You don’t have to go far to find chess enthusiasts around you. As a big sports fan, I quickly discovered that many athletes, for example, included chess games in their training. Damian Penaud, Tony Parker. All emphasize the beneficial effects of the game on their acuity, the speed of their reflexes or their tactical sense, as the champion Novak Jokovic recalled in an interview for People magazine: “It helps me to be mentally faster, to observe the movements, to see the movement you want to make, the strategy. To concentrate constantly.”
Even though I am a novice, I myself have been able to demonstrate these cognitive virtues. If my first games were laborious, my repeated efforts to integrate the rules and the right vocabulary now allow me to deploy strategies, place ingenious moves, and even sometimes achieve checkmate. And believe me, there is nothing more enjoyable than developing a tactic, putting it to the test, adjusting it because of a thwarted move, and feeling the pride of a game won after many scares. This constant questioning of our certainties surely explains the cognitive magic of this game: on the alert, the brain questions each move, adapts and remains alert until the outcome. A mental ping-pong that even the greatest athletes can no longer do without.
With a little resilience, chess therefore opens the doors to its precious health benefits… And demonstrated by science! Indeed, I wanted to check for myself if the virtues that I had intuitively observed were not just a mirage. The experts are formal: chess is excellent for working on memory and cultivating a healthy brain in the long term. A study published in July 2023 by the Journal of the American Medical Association cites, for example, chess among “the many “active mental activities” likely to reduce the risk of developing dementia later in life by 10%. ”Better still, several Chinese researchers demonstrated in 2012 that “compared to non-chess players, chess players showed increased activity in several regions of the brain, these regions being involved in decision-making, attention, visuospatial processing and working memory. Expert chess players also have greater connectivity between the different regions of the brain than novice players.” Practice is therefore the source of beneficial stimulation of the brain, which becomes better and better the more frequently you play. There is still time to order a chessboard for the holidays, the health benefits of chess being scientifically proven!
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