1. Playing chess at a young age can help develop advanced math and critical thinking skills.

Studies show that playing chess as a kid has a high positive correlation with academic achievement. In one study, researchers found that students who were taught how to play chess were more academically advanced overall, especially in math, spatial analysis and nonverbal reasoning ability.

2. Chess can shrink your brain — which is actually a good thing.

In a study where researchers scanned the brains of elite chess players, they found that these players actually had smaller brains than the non-elite players — and that’s not a bad thing. As Christian Jarrett writes in Wired, their research suggests that areas of brain shrinkage “can be a sign of neural efficiency and a reflection of behavioral expertise” as opposed to a negative result. Bigger is not always better.

READ ON HERE by Ellie Kaufman: How Chess Players’ Brains Are Different From Everybody Else’s    

PLAYING STRATEGIC BOARD GAMES LIKE CHESS GENERATES COMPUTATIONAL THINKING 

CHESS WILL SHRINK YOUR BRAIN NO KIDDING 

What a great experience. But that last game …..

That last game round 6 I was two moves away from checkmate then spent a few minutes telling myself  ‘yes, it’s a checkmate’, then suddenly I looked up and I was out of time. Really after battling it out over a 3 hr game and taking it to a winning position then I ran out of time. I know well the lessons in time control and can’t believe I let it happen. The compensation is that I had a winning game, with a player rated 1975 which would have left me with 5 wins of 6 games. This result was not what I was expecting in such a high level tournament.

I’m really satisfied. Congratulations to my friend Thalia for winning first place! Great job. Thalia has been studying with Susan and the SPICE Chess coaches for the past year and loves chess!

Good luck to everyone! I hope to play in the SPF Girls Invitational again one day.

I’ll post a game analysis soon, maybe the game from the final round.

Results and Standings here:

Chess Daily News Results and Standings

Report coming soon!

My Black and White CHESS GIRL look!

Tonight was a fun evening getting to know the players before tomorrows tournament begins. The energy was fun and all the girls enjoying time together.

I  have been very fortunate to be invited by SPICE to play in this tournament. Thank you GM Susan Polgar for this opportunity. It is my first All Girls Chess tournament and I look forward to sharing this experience with you.

The Annual SPF Girls’ Invitational is in its 12th year, and is the most prestigious All-Girls event in the United States. It is also the first All-Girls event approved and sanctioned by the USCF in 2003. It is an invitational event held at Webster University (St. Louis, Missouri).

Each US state and country in the American Continent (South, Central, and North America) is allowed to nominate one representative. In addition, automatic qualifying spots will be awarded to the reigning winners in each section of the annual Susan Polgar Foundation National Open for Girls and the Susan Polgar Foundation World Open for Girls.

Webster SPICE Website

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Chess Daily News