Chess is a game which has long history. The game started its earlier form in India. Chess is one of the rare games where age does not have a restriction. Any body of any age can play this sport.

The basis of chess started in india before 600 AD where it was called chaturanga. The game spread around with the coming centuries and came to be known as chess around 16th century.

How were the rules established?

In 1561, one of the masters of the game, a spanish priest named Ruy Lopez wrote a book where he discussed strategies of chess.

After that the chess theory was at its slowest pace till mid 18th century. New ideas were discussed by the French Master Francois - Andre Phillidor in his book. Philidor is famous for defense in rook and pawn endgames which are still used today. The famous statement “The pawns are the soul of chess” was introduced in the book.

Chess started gaining popularity by mid 19th century. This is also the time when standardization of the game started. Many chess sets were not uniform at all. In 1849, a manufacturer of games and times introduced a new style of pieces created by Nathaniel Cooke. These became important as they were endorsed by Haward Staunton a well known name and the strongest player at that time. This new style of pieces, came to be known as Staunton pattern. This pieces became highly popular and with little modifications and variations are still considered to be the standard for chess sets.

This was also the time when chess clocks were introduced to competitive play. Without this introduction chess had the possibility of lasting up to hours.

Does playing chess helps with boosting mental strength?

According to a research paper done there is a lot of discussion on how chess has the possibility of whether it can help increase mental strength.

Chess is known as a game that requires good idea of strategy and definitely a lot of pressure. It is becoming more and more important that chess players not only train themselves in their skills but also on their mental skills.

One of the demands that chess has is being able to handle ourselves emotionally. Chess tends to demand psychological pressure to be put on from both sides. Standing mentally strong in this case, make sure that there is additional pressure along with playing.

There have been some research and many talks through out the world about the possibilities of whether chess can help in increase of higher mental ability, more critical skills or in general make a person smart.

One of the eduational benefits of chess, done by various researches was that chess has shown significant increase in IQ scores. Many other researchers have tried to research on the same topic and have been able to corraborate on the same. Many studies and experiences focus on the intellectual domain of chess.

Many studies have talk about how chess players use their mental ability of processing information and analyzing techniques to solve a problem. They tend to use skills common to a investigator where they use analysis and investigate the situation, calculation, assessment, selection and decision to go further.

Further researches and studies have shown that Chess has helped with intellectual processes such as attention, memory, concentration, creativity, reasoning among others that occurs with a rigorous amount of discipline. When it comes to chess, discipline becomes a part of lifestyle as you have to maintain that consistency with everyday practice.

Chess does not give a drastic change in the mental strength but it does give the necessary push.

Because of the analytical nature of chess, it helps to develop the ability to see things from others perspective. It is found that chess players are very good in looking at different people’s perspective as they have to refer what kind of action other person is going to take.

Chess also has shown that players also have strong memory skills. According to few studies done, researchers were able to show that chess players have good auditory and visual memory. Auditory memory as they have to remember a lot of instruction and moves through what they have heard. Visual memory as they have to recognize a lot of visual patterns through complex chess positions.

Playing chess can be very stressful at times. It is not only a sport that has moves or strategies on the board, but it requires a good mental strength. Getting over the edge from your opponents, as a chess player you need to have psychological strategies available with you along with strategies for the game.

Even with all the research showing the possibilities does not necessary means there is a complete reliance on the game itself. Yes it does help but it is not the sole reason for increasing mental strength and ideas.