Mark Samuelian, IE 85, learned to play chess when he was five years old. His parents pushed him towards the game—it’s a national pastime in Armenia, where they grew up—and by 16 he was ranked as a national chess master. When he was playing competitively, his coach encouraged him to keep away from games of speed chess, thinking the snap decisions required in the matches would wear down on his finely-honed patience and long-thinking strategy skills. But lately, Samuelian has come around—big time. In an essay recently published by The Atlantic, he writes of the benefits of speed-chess playing, which have shown themselves everywhere from the office to the poker table:
I believe that the challenge of having to make some 40 moves in a three-minute game of speed chess actually trains your brain to think on a higher level. I’m convinced that the 80,000 fine decisions I made during the 2,000 games I played before the poker tournament enabled me to better recognize patterns of play and helped me win. During a game of speed chess on a plane, a flight attendant told me she had never seen anyone so focused before and didn’t want to interrupt my game to offer me a drink.
The benefits of speed chess didn’t stop there. The game had improved my concentration so much that endeavors in other areas of my life that had once seemed difficult were suddenly easier. I shaved a minute off my mileage pace while training for my first 5K and held the “plank” push-up position for two minutes straight. I stopped letting myself get distracted by email and sailed through tedious work assignments. Not only had my success at blitz chess given me a confidence boost, it helped me develop mental and emotional endurance.
Read “Speed Chess Changed my Brain” at The Atlantic.
Above: Photo by Jason Brown, via Flickr
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