Many people agree that chess is one of the greatest games for kids and adults. But they also agree that it is a lost game – precious, but not approached by many people. With the release of the Netflix series The Queen’s Gambit, people are encouraged to learn and play it. So, should you and your child get on board with this?
The answer is yes. Chess is like Lego and STEM toys, they all contribute to developing your child’s skill development and teaching them important life skills.
The Queen’s Gambit
A mini series released in 2020, and got 8.6/10 on IMDB. It was adapted from Walter Tevis’s novel with the same name. The series was a hit all over the world and many people reconnected with chess after its release. The story follows Beth, a prodigious orphan, since the age of nine and how she learned and mastered chess.
It highlights how her troubled life affected her badly and how the game helped keep her stay sane and focused. Viewers agreed that watching the calm and quiet game scenes took their breath away.
9 life skills chess can teach your child
1| Creative Thinking
Chess helps your child explore his or her creativity and develop it. How? By urging the child to come up with creative ideas, game plans, and strategies. When children learn to play it, they are given an opening on how to start the game, along with basic rules. But then, they will need to rely on their creativity and knowledge of the game and its rules.
In fact, many players and world champions agree that the more your dive into the game the more you rely more on your own creative mindset and the less it becomes about game rules.
It all enforces your child to think and find creative ways to win the game, hence becoming more smarter.
2| Controlling impulses
Having an impulse is one thing, but acting on it is another – especially when it might cost losing. Players know when to listen to their impulses, and when to put them aside. Impulse is very important in playing chess and in real life, but the game itself helps teach kids to analyze their impulse. This also helps the player to remain calm under pressure and make rational decisions rationally – and avoid rushing them.
3| Focus and attention
In order to win a chess game, players need to keep up with every move they make and their opponent makes. To achieve this, the player must remain focused and keep up. That is how it teaches concentration – which is important in life and in school too.
When our children are paying good attention to their surroundings, they tend to make good decisions, learn how to weigh options, what to prioritize, and if any sacrifices need to be made.
4| Intellectual skills
To excel in life, we all need certain intellectual skills. Problem solving, anticipating, building a thought process, logical thinking, and time management are all so important and chess teaches them all.
During the game, the player is anticipating the opponent’s movements. If those movements might force you to resign the game, then you must start a thought process to solve the problem logically and get out of that tight corner.
Same thing with day to day situations and problems. Teaching such games to your child will give them the skills to deal with life in an intellectual and smart way.
5| Academic skills
There are many toys and games that help children improve their academic work, and chess is one of them. First of all, it requires the ability to memorize movements and pieces. School work also requires this skill. And that is how it improves a child’s academic performance, by providing practice on such important skills.
This also includes reading, analyzing, and looking at the bigger picture. Not only that, but many people believe that intellectual challenges such as STEM or chess help children decide what path to take academically; arts, science, or humanities.
6| Learning from mistakes
This is a skill that even adults struggle with. The best thing we do with past experiences and mistakes is to learn from them. Chess contributes to this by giving players a chance to record their movements for aftergame analysis.
If you watch the games, you’ll notice that players have a small piece of paper to keep recording their every move. This helps the players to review their game and learn ways to improve their play.
We all can agree that learning from our mistakes and from others is very important in daily life and situations.
7| Modesty and grace
Good manners are important. Chess teaches players to be modest when winning and gracious when losing. If a player senses that they are winning, they make the final move and wait for their opponent to resign. Winners do not rub it in the loser’s face, and losers do not through tantrums over losing.
Both modesty and grace are very important in shaping a good person, and we all want our children to be good people who treat others well.
8| Working hard
When you teach your children chess, they need to make an effort to learn and the game. This requires practice, patience and most importantly, hard work. With learning the game, children will understand by themselves that laziness will get them nowhere.
Even if they are talented. This talent will need nurturing by working hard, developing it, being positive and having the right attitude towards the whole thing.
9| Communication
If you noticed, chess games are pretty quiet. This is where communication skills come in. Your child will learn how to communicate both verbally and non verbally by playing chess. Not only that, but they will be able to read other’s verbal and non verbal communication and analyze it thoroughly.
How to teach your child to play?
This can be said in three main points, and the rest is practice, practice, practice!
- First, make sure your child wants to learn it. Forcing something takes the fun out of it.
- Let your child explore the game, the board and the pieces.
- Explain the rules of the game, or use an aid to do so (like a manual or an application)
