Playing Chess Shown to Greatly Improve Attention Span
A study done on Nigerian students in 2023, by the Nnamdi Azikiwe University, has demonstrated that playing chess improves various cognitive skills.1 Huge gains in scores on attention tests were observed after the students had been playing chess regularly. The results demonstrated that the ability of people to be attentive to difficult tasks greatly improves with regular chess-playing. To get an improved attention span, which can improve productivity in a wide range of ways, regular chess playing is recommended. These same researchers soon did the same study to explore effects of chess playing on reflective thinking skill, and also found a significant increase in reflective thinking abilities.2
As the researchers explain in their report, “Some iconic chess researchers (Gao, Feng, Chen and Ping, 2021; Golombek, 1974; Murray, 2021) contend that chess playing is more than a recreation because while observing the players play the chess game, they tend to exhibit some traits of cognitive and metacognitive skills like planning, monitoring, concentration, attention, reflection, calculation…” The conclusions of these researchers indicate that playing chess exercises and strengthens many important cognitive skills. As the parts of the brain associated with these cognitive skills are used more while chess is being played regularly, lasting improvements in these cognitive skills can result. This takes place via neuroplasticity–the process by which parts of the brain that get more use, structurally develop and become more effective.
Chess is not just a game, it is a complex task that requires use of key aspects of your intelligence. If you seek to increase your brain power, dedicated daily time to playing chess can be greatly beneficial. One great website for correspondence chess, gameknot.com, is free to use. It allows use of an analysis board to help you plan out future moves, allowing more in-depth thinking about chess moves that may not be so easy in a live chess match. To increase your intelligence, making chess-playing a part of your daily routine is a proven strategy.
- CHESS PLAYING AND GENDER EFFECT ON ATTENTION SKILL OF THE ADOLESCENT STUDENTS IN ANAMBRA STATE OF NIGERIA. (n.d.). https://www.ajemates.org/index.php/ajemates/article/view/267/237
- EFFECTS OF CHESS PLAYING ON THE REFLECTIVE THINKING SKILL OF THE ADOLESCENT STUDENTS IN ANAMBRA STATE SECONDARY SCHOOLS. (n.d.). https://www.unijerps.org/index.php/unijerps/article/view/474/423
