Best Chess Sets: Why Give One as a Gift to Your Kids?

In this day and age of digital media, social networking sites and endless mobile games, the newer generation might feel like board games are a thing from the past. They might not know how to play them anymore. Worse, they’re not even interested, they’d rather have their eyes glued on their smartphones. Well, it’s one of the sad effects of technology happening right now.

If kids nowadays would indeed try board games like chess, they’re also readily available on Google Play or Apple store—they can easily download them anytime. Yet, it’s still digital stuff though a convenient choice when you’re traveling.

Apparently, parents who wish to give their kids some digital detox can encourage them to turn to other interactive, brain-boosting hobbies like chess. And by that we meant the literal boardgame and not just something you can download online. Take a look at these beautiful chess sets for example: https://www.worldchesspieces.com/best-chess-sets-and-boards/

Playing Chess Can Make Your Kid Smarter

Encouraging your children to learn how to play chess is more than just giving them a digital detox without them noticing. There are serious benefits that come with it. Perhaps, you’ve seen children playing it in their tender age and you just can’t help but feel amazed at their ability that beats yours as an adult. So, every time you see kids engaged in this game, you secretly tell yourself, “They must be so nerdy, focused and intelligent.”

While some may regard this as a stereotype, there’s a measure of truthfulness in this common impression.There have been a couple of researches conducted in the previous years about the correlation of knowing how to play chess and practicing it every time to children’s intellectual abilities.

These studies lead to a common conclusion—that people who are well-versed in this are actually pretty brainy.It’s awesome how it can enhance a child’s cognitive abilities including their focus and attention span, math skills, critical-thinking and problem-solving techniques, creativity, visual memory and spatial-reasoning ability. What’s more, chess players have scored higher in several psychology tests than those who are non-chess players.

That’s not all. They also typically pass, even score high grades in reading and writing exams at school. Is it just mere coincidence? Well, I don’t think so. While they need to study hard for those exams, the cognitive skills that playing chess enhances definitely helped them prepare well and excel in those tests. Want to learn it together as parent-kid bonding? Read this article.

The Best Time to Learn the Game is Now

If you have kids who are seven or eight years of age, now is the perfect time to introduce them this interesting boardgame. Kids of this age range are typically fast-learners and highly imaginative which means developing their focus, problem-solving ability and creative thinking skills would be beneficial at this point. Of course, no matter your age, you’re always welcome to try and discover it.

This also teaches them important traits like discipline. To be successful, they need to focus on the game, not just on their own moves but their opponent’s as well. They need to think and act quick especially in timed matches as well as when the touch-move rule is implemented.

There’s a word of caution though: Parents shouldn’t be too hard on their kids pushing them to always win and qualify for big tournaments. This can be draining for kids. The skills that learning and playing the game aims to develop may not be achieved if children felt too pressured. The goal is to make it as fun as possible. After all, kids should enjoy what they do.

Understand too, that while it is a recommended hobby, children have varying interests. Some may be more interested in outdoor sports while some are well-versed in arts and crafts. Some might be musically inclined. Really, there are many choices that will keep them off their smartphones. Try these tips, too: https://www.webmd.com/parenting/guide/kids-screen-time#1

The point is, it’s ideal to help them discover worthwhile activities they would truly love doing in their leisure. If that’s chess, then, play with them. If not, don’t force them. They would only get cranky rather than achieve the benefits of the game. It doesn’t hurt to have one set at home though!