Top 5 Qualities Shown by Children Who Play Chess
5 September 2023
As a parent, you want to expose your child to activities that will teach them valuable life skills. As early as you can, your children should be exposed to different tasks and challenges that will slowly shape them to be someone who is ready to take on challenges. One of the best activities your child could ever learn life skills from is chess. Many might think of chess as a game for super smart kids and that playing chess only trains the mind. But the truth is, training your child to play chess gives them so much more than just making them smarter. Here are the top 5 qualities shown by children who play chess.
Good Social Skills
Children who play chess are more likely to have better social skills since they engage with so many other people by playing chess. This constant interaction with chess opponents - whether it be online or in real life - means that kids are used to speaking and having small talk with strangers. You might be wondering if chess players just play the same opponent - but this couldn’t be further from the truth. Chess players must play against different opponents to be exposed to different game plans and strategies. Playing against the same players gets stale quickly and doesn’t happen in the chess world.
Logical and Critical
When children play chess, they are challenged to think about if-then, or if-this-then scenarios as the game progresses. This might not seem too significant, but it’s crucial as you’re exposing your child to the realities of life. They realise that every action has a consequence and become more logical as a result. This can translate to other areas of their lives where kids can be more calculated their actions, knowing that there will be a relative reaction.
No Sore Losers
In chess, children will quickly realise that they cannot win all of the time. There will be times when the opponent is just a bit better, a bit smarter, and has just a bit more experience. This aspect of chess teaches your child that they won’t be able to get everything they want in life all the time. There will be times where they win, and times where they lose. Kids who play chess are rarely sore losers as they realise losing is just part of the process.
Confidence
While it may not seem immediately obvious, chess is an excellent confidence booster for children. When playing chess, kids learn to be bold in the moves and strategies that they make, and trust themselves a lot more. Without confidence, a player will always be second guessing their moves and this would certainly get in the way of getting the win. As they play more chess, kids will trust their intuition a lot more and therefore be more and more confident.
Calm Under Pressure
One thing that chess players are really good at is their ability to remain composed despite the pressure. In order to make good decisions, kids that play chess have to stay focused and calm regardless of how the game is going. That means kids develop their composure and become a lot calmer as a result.