There’s no doubt chess has health benefits, as well as being a valuable educational tool. While it challenges your mind in many ways, here's a list of five lesser-known reasons you should play chess!
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Chess can be used to help rehabilitate patients recovering from stroke or a physically debilitating accident. Chess can also help prevent Alzheimer’s and promote brain growth.
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It can improve your reading skills. As explained in our previous article about the link between chess and academic and cognitive skills, chess has been proven to have a positive influence on a person’s reading skills.
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You can make new friends. You don’t have to be playing at Grand Master level to make friends through chess. There are several cafes and public places where people meet and play chess - just for fun.
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It can improve your concentration. Chess requires A LOT of concentration. With practice, you’ll be able to transfer this ability to other activities and everyday tasks.
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You can challenge the World Champion himself. Every year at our Play Live Challenge, a handful of lucky players are selected to play Magnus from the Play Magnus app.
Four years, two cities and 36 challengers later - and I still haven’t been beaten. Think you’ll be the one to finally defeat me at the #PlayLiveChallenge this year? Start racking up your points in the @PlayMagnus app and you might just get the chance!
— Magnus Carlsen (@MagnusCarlsen) July 2, 2018
https://t.co/7QUcfYQInz pic.twitter.com/xM3qV2FJBy
(Play Live Challenge 2017, YouTube video)
You can download the Play Magnus app at https://playmagnus.app.link/.
Research:
https://gardinerchess.com.au/educational-benefits-of-chess/