The King of The Games And Self Improvement

The king of all games, some call it that way. It is old as ancient kingdoms so maybe its a proper expression to define this game. I will talk about the one of the most complex games that ever created by humanity which is Chess.

When we use the term "game" in today's world, most of us quicly imagine the 'video games'. Of course there are many complex video games but the term 'complex' when we talk about video games are mostly refer to the technical side or the construction side of the game. In general a player do not use its mind power much to accomplish the game process. Sounds, visual effects are so entertaining that even with small effort of our minds, we have some pretty good times while playing. When we use the term 'complex' for the games like chess, we mean the role of the player specifically. There arent much games to compare with chess which can force the human mind to its limits. I want to talk briefly 3 stages of playing chess and how it is related with child education and human mind.

First stage of the game is learning the rules. To learn how every piece moves and the other regulatory rules can be hard and requires concentration and memory. In the second stage a player goes into the essence of chess Like games. Visual thinking or in another way to describe it we can say 'abstract thinking'. In this stage, the player who knows the rules of the game should start to play the game in his mind not on the board physically. In chess Like games (by the way for an example of chess equivalent gaMe in the East 'Go' (Baduk) can be given) you have to move the pieces in your head first and after seeing some variations in your head you choose the best one for you and just after that you can move physically the pieces on the board. If we make an analogy at this point, visualizing the possible scenarios in the head is like having a future sight. You start to see things before they happen so that you choose the one which fits the Best for you.

Visualizing is so important that this cognitive ability is one of the esssence of humanity cause its one of the prior process that allows us to survive in nature. Thats why a tool like chess is so important to practice and develope. This is a gift of our kind. A child or an adult individual in the stage two of chess game also benefits from this level of thinking in other aspects of life. Decisions and behaviours we made in life filtered by the ability of visualization or abstract thinking, would be much more convenient and consistent in many ways. So what is the third stage of chess playing?

Forethought is crucial but its not everything. Guessing the future doesnt mean you create the future. So our third stage in chess game is creating the future. Only elite players in the world can play in this level. They dont only foresee the moves on the board but by the help of abstract thinking and visualization, they create their own ideas to happen on the board. So any child or individual come to that level would be pretty self-confident and at the same time creative in the name of playing the game or living the life. This last ability teaches the individual to create its own path in life which gives the pure feelings of freedom and satisfaction.

Many people who learned chess or alike games dont come to the third stage in general. Being one step further from the opponent mostly satisfies them. The result or winning the game masks the pleasure and the treasure of the process. Unfortunately this kind of approach prevents progress of the individual and potential we can get from playing a chess like game.

Lets teach children chess and similar mind bending games, let them enjoy the progress and the feeling of being good at something. Not only children but adults also get benefit from learning chess. Formulation is simple, 'change your mind so change your life'.

If you get good at in the game,

you get good at in life

in the end

"Life is a Game."

Isnt it?