Chess and increasing mental performance

A typical chess set and tournament clock.

Chess presents interesting intellectual challenges. It is said that: "Chess has an advantage over most school subjects: it combines both theory and practice. Ideas are honed and tested in the crucible of competitive play. Poor formulation or poor execution of ideas loses games. Careless, faulty thinking is ruthlessly refuted on the chessboard."

According to Healthline.com: "Playing chess can improve cognitive skills like memory, planning, and problem-solving. It may also help reduce symptoms of certain brain conditions." "Cognitive stimulating activities seem to be protective factors against dementia", observed one study.

Some countries, particularly nations like Uzbekistan from the former Soviet Union, promote chess as a fundamental aspect of learning and mental development.

Chess grandmaster Bobby Fischer and increasing mental performance

See also: Bobby Fischer

Robert James Fischer (1943-2008), popularly known as Bobby Fischer, was the only American to become the official world chess champion when he defeated Soviet grandmaster Boris Spassky in a 1972 match in Iceland. Fischer's championship was the culmination of a record-setting 20 consecutive victories in qualifying tournaments, which included two 6-0 records in the "Candidates Tournaments" in 1971. He was by far the highest rated player in the first official FIDE ratings, as published in July 1971, and Fischer is the only person to win the U.S. championship with a perfect score (11 wins in 11 games, at age 20 in 1963-64).

Bobby Fischer and Bible reading

Earlier in life he mentioned that "I can remember times coming home from a chess club at four in the morning when I was half asleep and half dead and forcing myself to pray an hour and study (the Bible) an hour. You know, I was half out of my head-stoned almost."

Bobby Fischer playing chess against Boris Spassky in 1974.

Bobby Fischer and exercise to increase mental performance

See also: Exercise and Academic performance and nutrition

Bobby Fischer in Amsterdam, Jan. 1, 1972

Valley News reported concerning Bobby Fischer and exercise to increase mental performance:

“

Bobby Fischer is revered for his mastery of chess. According to Garry Kasparov, he was a decade or so ahead of his time. But Fischer was body as well as mind. A teacher, at a summer camp the prodigy-to-be had attended as a child, told me that he had been the best underwater swimmer at a summer camp he attended. It is hard to think of a sport that Fischer did not try at one time or another. Tennis, baseball, weight-lifting, pingpong and walking (at a world-class level, as a trainer described it) come to mind, in addition to swimming. His physical efforts complemented his apparently natural high level of energy and stamina. At his best, a glow of health and physical strength seemed to encompass him — the aura probably intimidating many who would oppose him on the chessboard. Part of his legacy was a conscious and public embrace of the mind-body connection. Until Fischer, that awareness was honored more in the breach than in the actual world of chess at large. Magnus Carlsen, the current world champion, sounded very much like Fischer of half a century ago when he told Men’s Health magazine: “Training your brain is just as important as training your body. … It’s just like a muscle — if you’re not using it, you can lose it.”

”

According to the Columbus Dispatch:

“

When he wandered the streets of New York in his teens and 20s, he walked much faster than most other people. A Yugoslavian sportsman of exceptional endurance and ability confessed to me that he found it difficult to keep up with Fischer. "Bobby's legs seemed to be stretching out to the horizon with each step," he said. Fischer might have possessed more than a little athletic ability. A New York teacher remembered him as "the best underwater swimmer" at a summer camp. At the chessboard, "the kid from Brooklyn" was mercilessly competitive, exhausting his opponents by relentless and prolonged efforts to win. But his competitiveness could also have a boyish quality, as when he taunted Boris Spassky while they swam in a hotel pool during a 1966 tournament that took place in Santa Monica, Calif. "I swim faster than you," Fischer told his Soviet foe. Or when, during the same event, a construction worker overheard him declaring: "I'm going to crush Nadjorf and Larsen! Petrosian doesn't stand a chance. Just wait until I get to play Spassky."

”

Journal articles on chess and increasing mental performance

• The relationship between cognitive ability and chess skill: A comprehensive meta-analysis, Intelligence, Volume 59, November–December 2016, Pages 72-83
• "So are chess players smarter? Several research teams have tried to find out by administering various cognitive tests. Reviewing these studies in the journal Current Directions in Psychological Science in 2011, the psychologists Guillermo Campitelli and Fernand Gobet concluded that tournament chess players score higher on tests of intelligence than do comparable nonplayers." - Wall Street Journal, 2016
• A Study on the Correlation between Intelligence and Body Schema in Children Who Practice Chess at School, Children (Basel). 2022 Apr; 9(4): 477. Published online 2022 Mar 30. doi: 10.3390/children9040477
• Sex differences in chess performance: Analyzing participation rates, age, and practice in chess tournaments by Angel Blanch, Anton Aluja and Maria-Pau Cornadó, Personality and Individual Differences, Volume 86, November 2015, Pages 117-121
• Mathematical Problem-Solving Abilities and Chess: An Experimental Study on Young Pupils by Giovanni Sala, Alessandra Gorini, and Gabriella Pravettoni, SAGE Open 5(3), DOI:10.1177/2158244015596050
• Auditory memory function in expert chess players, Medical Journal of the Islamic Republic of Iran, 2015; 29: 275.

Journal articles on chess and mnemonics

See also: Mnemonic

A mnemonic device (memory device), is any learning technique that assists someone's memory.

• Mnemonic virtuosity: A study of chess players by Alfred Binet, [Trans. M. L. Simmel & S. B. Barron.]. Genetic Psychology Monographs, 74(1), 127–162. Abstract: "Originally published in 1893, Binet's analysis of the mental processes at work in the game of chess was based on questionnaires, interviews, and correspondence with the contemporary chess masters. The discussion centers around blindfold chess and the conduct of several games simultaneously."
• Templates in Chess Memory: A Mechanism for Recalling Several Boards by Fernand Gobet and Herbert A. Simon, Cognitive Psychology, Volume 31, Issue 1, August 1996, Pages 1-40
• Chess knowledge predicts chess memory even after controlling for chess experience: Evidence for the role of high-level processes by David M. Lane and Yu-Hsuan A. Chang, Memory and Cognition, 2018 Apr;46(3):337-348. doi: 10.3758/s13421-017-0768-2.
• Role of high-level knowledge in memory for chess positions by Cooke, N. J., Atlas, R. S., Lane, D. M., & Berger, R. C., The American Journal of Psychology, 106(3), 321–351. https://doi.org/10.2307/1423181
• Expert memory: a comparison of four theories by F. Gobet, Cognition. 1998 May;66(2):115-52. doi: 10.1016/s0010-0277(98)00020-1.

Books

• Chess and Individual Differences by Angel Blanch,‎ Cambridge University Press (December 17, 2020)

External links

• Does Chess Make You Smarter?, Wall Street Journal, 2016
• Does Chess Make You Smarter?
• Does chess make you smarter?, Studies that show that playing chess can improve your intelligence and memory.
• How Chess Can Actually Make You Smarter, Chess.com
• Can chess improve your intelligence?
• CHESS Make your IQ higher!, Chess forum
• 6 reasons to learn to play chess: How playing chess can boost your brain power
• Chess Is the Gymnasium of the Mind
• Benefits of Chess