Playing Chess Can Enhance Your Kid?s IQ

Posted by IchessU on January 10th, 2017

Chess is a game that is typically associated with highly intelligent individuals, but in fact, it’s a game that can be learned and enjoyed by just about anyone—even kids. This game has been proven to enhance concentration and IQ especially in children. Being a strategy game, chess requires critical thinking and effectively stimulates the brain. In fact, by playing chess, dendrites, which conduct signals in the brain, develop and grow. It has the same effect on the brain’s prefrontal cortex, too, which is responsible for our ability to judge, plan, and exercise self-control.

Numerous studies have been conducted on how playing chess can enhance an individual’s brain. Keep in mind that the brain is like a muscle, too, so it requires exercise and stimulation to be able to function well. Students who participated in an NYC chess program reportedly improved their reading scores more compared to students who did not play chess. In another study, 4,000 Venezuelan students demonstrated a rise in IQ scores after four months of chess instruction. It was also found that people over 75 may benefit from playing a brain stimulating game like chess to minimize their chances of developing dementia.

Chess will not only enhance your kid’s IQ. It may help your child become more creative, too, since it exercises both the right and left sides of the brain. Playing chess develops creativity by activating the right side of the brain. There was a four-year study involving grade seven to nine students playing chess, using computers, and doing other activities once a week over 32 weeks. It was designed to see which activity can boost creative thinking. Kids who played chess scored higher in all aspects of creativity. They were found to have gained more originality, too.

Playing chess can likewise improve your child’s memory, since being a good player requires the ability to recall moves. In 1985, a two-year study was conducted where young students were given the opportunity to play chess regularly. Their grades improved in all subjects, and the teachers noticed an improvement in the students’ organizational skills and memory. And because chess is like a puzzle that must be solved, it can help boost a child’s problem-solving skills.

About the Author:

Albert Fishman has been involved in teaching chess since 1996 and is part of the IchessU coaching staff. IchessU is the best online chess school and their coaches are titled masters and grandmasters. Their students enjoy private or group chess lessons in our online chess club.

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IchessU
Joined: September 8th, 2012
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