by Gail Burke

Created on: December 09, 2008

Cold and clean squares of alternating color, colder pieces of marble carved into intricate figures sitting atop them, the open space between the two arms vast and virgin. Hundreds of possible first moves fly through your head. What would my opponent do? What is his style? How will I ever be able to defeat him? Inhaling a steading breath, you reach out and gently make your move.

Could one consider the game of chess a waste of time and intelligence? Waste implies a total lack of use, or a miss use. To say that something is a waste of time one there must be nothing gained from the experience

In the game of chess there is more than meets the eye. To even start the game one must first make a decision about which piece to move and how far to move it. Then you have to plan ahead, be patient while you wait for your opponent to move their piece, take what they have done for their move and figure out how that could effect the move (s) you desired to do, what they are trying to do by having moved that piece. You then have to again plan ahead because there are so many possibilities of a piece to move next and each one has many more possibilities of moves that can be made later.

You have to have a strategy on getting across the board in order to achieve the goal- to win the game. When you thin about how to move, and where and so forth you are exercising your mind, making it think, challenging it to see more possibilities both for the immediate play and future play. You also have to be defensive and guard your pieces. Don't forget sacrifice as well. There usually comes a time when one must sacrifice a game piece in order to get to what you want.

All the skills you use in chess you must use in real life too. Is it a waste to try to improve your brain's thinking ability? That would be liking saying it is a waste of time to get up and move, to walk, to go dancing, because it is not earning you money. Yet such activities exercise your body and with the exercise comes so many more benefits than you immediately notice.

Other than the mental activity of chess there are many other, less noticed, benefits of the game of chess. Usually we play against friends or people we like when we are playing for leisure. Even when we are playing with someone we play against someone we don't like we are still socializing, interacting with other people. For some people playing chess is relaxing, it calms the mind and body and helps us to release stress. Relieving stress is a very important thing to do as too much stress can cause the body to malfunction and not work as well.

Could you consider chess a waste of intelligence? If a remarkably smart youth sat at a table and did nothing but play chess all day for years and years and years on end and did nothing else, yet showed great potential at being a great thinker, then I would consider this a waste of intellegience. Elderly people sitting and playing chess all day may be the only activity they really enjoy. It can also help keep their minds strong and sharp.

Is chess a waste of time and intelligence? No. Being wasteful of one's mind and time by challenging and exercising it? No. chess is not a waste.

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