The Top 10 Benefits of Learning and Playing Chess
…And why you should pick up the game of chess
I don’t recall exactly when and how I picked up the game of chess. But I know it was between the completion of high school and before I went to university.
I recall frequently visiting a family friend almost every week. And one of the favorite things I did was to play chess with the kids. At the time, I did not have a chess set of my own so it was always exciting to visit this family as it gave me the opportunity to teach the kids and play with them.
When I started University, I did not realize they had a chess club. One evening, as I was heading to the cafe for dinner, I saw a group of students around a few tables playing and watching chess. I was so excited. I felt like I had suddenly found a precious possession! I got hooked and would spend hours playing and studying chess. The passion for the game was so strong that all I did and thought was chess. It got so strong that it distracted me from my studies and as a result, I failed one of the first-year courses and did poorly in some of the other courses.
This was a wake-up call that taught me how to balance my hobbies with my academics. After my university days, I stopped playing competitive chess for many years until I recently moved to Oakville, Ontario in…
