by Marc Phillippe Babineau

Created on: August 29, 2009   Last Updated: March 25, 2012

Playing chess can make a person much wiser, and the wisdom learned can translate into a more productive and happy life. The chess player can expect to have their memory improved considerably, hone better and quicker decision making abilities, increase their memory and concentration skills, and instill the rules of patience and logic into decision making. Chess is a game of confidence, psychology, mathematics and logic. Each of these elements are improved by playing chess competitively. Not just playing chess, but playing chess to win. The desire to get better, be better and learn more must be there to start with. If the chess player only sees chess as a game, and plays for fun only, then wisdom tells us that they will not excel at chess, or possibly neither at life.

The element of war strategies must also be instilled to improve a person's chess game, and therefore their tenacity and willingness to sacrifice for the greater good must be learned and accepted. Learning at a young age that some people are simply to be used as pawns, for other people's gains, is a trait that will help in almost every aspect of life. From business to sports, there will always be people that are better, the ones who always get the football thrown to them, the puck passed to them, or the business proposal given to them. It may be done on the hard work of other people, but the gain is theirs, as is the financial bonus.

Successful chess players were not born with silver spoons, they put their noses to the grindstone and worked hard, learning every aspect of the moves and rules of the game of chess. Taking this into every-day life, the chess player understands the sacrifices required to excel in business, sport or combat. For example, the martial artist learns from chess that patience is more than wisdom, it is a virtue, and one that can be used against an opponent. They use their patience to make their opponent make a foolish, aggressive move, and then capitalize upon it.

Psychiatrists have done many tests on subjects with the goal of understanding the role that chess playing has in personal development. Most of the studies imply that children who play chess competitively perform much better in mathematics. Playing chess, the player has to play over a large number of possible moves in their head, not using a calculator or a major league, dedicated computer system (think Big Blue). They have to figure out how their opponent would react to those moves, and how that reaction would help or

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