Alzheimer's Avoids Chess Players like the Plague

PET scan showing a) distinguishing pieces and b) evaluating a capture

     A report filed in 2003, in the New England Journal of Medicine and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science showed that chess and other brain activities, like crosswords and reading, delays the onset of Alzheimer's Disease, dementia, and other mental illnesses (ABC).
     Alzheimer's Disease is a debilitating disease that affects the elderly and the families that need to care for them.  Pre-senility actually begins in the 40s and 50s and progresses to dementia and total senility, or helplessness (Princeton). 
    Alzheimer's Disease is the leading mental illness in elderly and the number of cases is expected to rise sharply in the near future as baby-boomers approach retirement age between 60 - 70 years old. The need to prevent and treat the disease is a priority for medical scientists that will be caring for these people.  Currently, there are 5.3 million people with Alzheimer's Disease in the U.S. and 26 million worldwide.  By 2050, the number will quadruple and nearly 1 in 85 people will be affected (MSnbc).

Neuron affected by Alzheimer's

     Symptoms include memory loss that disrupts daily life, planning and problem solving challenges, time and place confusion, difficulty completing common or routine tasks, speech difficulties, misplacing items, social withdrawl, poor judgement and emotion/mood changes (Alzheimer's Association).  Brains of Alzheimer's patients have plaques and tangles, or a protein build-up between nerve cells and protein build-up inside nerve cells, respectivly (About.com).  Plaques and tangles tend to develop as people age, however, patients with Alzheimer's have many more than average.  


Scientists are at a loss as to what the actual cause is.  About.com reports that age, family history, diet, and lifestyle factors increase the risk.  Recently, Dr. Robert Friedlander, lead scientist of this report suggested television is also a risk factor among other passive brain activities!  Without a specific cause, therapy can only address the symptoms and also delay the onset.
      Chess seems like a treatment that works.  In fact, people over the age of 75 that partake in leisure activities that stimulate the brain were less likely to develop signs of dementia (Healthy Living).  Research shows that chess affects specific areas of the brain and the stimulation will shift with the problems that a chess player faces during the game.  And the game lends itself to a variety of complexities from various patterns to complex calculations that stimulate players' brains.  Dr. Friedlander says that people who don't exercise their gray matter stand a chance of losing brain power when they age.

Interview with Shenk on Chess and Alzheimer's (click to go to video)

     A five year study with 488 participants showed that involvement in at least 11 mind exercising activities per week versus a control group that engaged in 4 or less activities per week, delayed by 1.3 years (Dr. Charles B. Hall, PhD, author of the study and Saul R. Korep Department of Neurology professor at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine).  A further analysis demonstrated those that played only games reduced their risk by 75% and those that played musical instruments reduced theirs by 64%.   Crossword puzzle enthusiasts get a 38% lowered risk.  
     Scientists are still at a loss to determine the actual cause of Alzheimer's Disease but with nearly 100 million future Alzheimer's victims in development, we best start writing prescriptions for chess sets for Christmas.


Of course, you can support the WRHS Chess Club by purchasing one of ours and help us get to a national tournament.


From the June 19, 2003 New England Journal of Medicine:

Use It or Lose It — Do Effortful Mental Activities Protect against
Dementia?
Joseph T. Coyle, M.D.

Anatoly Karpov

Question: Why should children play chess?
 
Anatoly Karpov: Chess can develop very important characteristics, individual characteristics.  First of all, chess develops logic, memory, and then with chess you can easily understand the necessity of plan.  then you can learn how to make strategy, which is important for normal life, for any profession and that’s why chess is entering school programs in many countries because teachers realize that with help of chess you can give this knowledge much easier than with the help of other subjects.

Question: Why do you want to lead the World Chess Federation?
 
Anatoly Karpov: So this is a unique opportunity now to change the, change the situation. And chess is in danger as profession and so federation which is lacking now in leadership and so they made many mistakes and so now we have feeling that professional chess players have difficulties in financing and such prizes going down and then it’s difficult to keep this profession.  And, internationally, we have a very good situation now because we have grandmaster, Magus Carson from Norway who is one of the best chess players and most probably he will be next world champion, and then we have, we have American player, Hikaru Nakamura, who is also on the top, and then we have Sergey Karjakin in Russia, and then we have good players in China, in Holland, in India, and so it... and then Indian grandmaster, Vishy Anand, he just defended his title in match in Sofia against Bulgarian player, Topalov, and so he’s world champion for many years already and then this is very international view.  And chess, from a time it was just privilege of mostly Soviet players, and later Russian players, but now it became very international so it gives a lot of opportunities.  And these opportunities could be used with new team and I will have top professional team representing, of course different parts of the world.

Recorded on May 17, 2010
Interviewed by Paul Hoffman
from "Big Think" website

Educator's guide to the Benefits of Chess

I re-aquinted myself with a website link to the benefits of playing chess.  This was one of the first sites I came across that reports some of the chess literature.  It even offers a nice summary of each of the studies they are reporting.  My top ten favorite reasons to play chess include:

1. Chess develops a scientific way of thinking.
2. Chess teaches independence.
3. Chess promotes imagination and creativity.
4. Chess enables you to meet very interesting people.
5. Chess is a game for all ages (and is not a factor for opponents).
6. Chess improves memory.
7. Chess improves concentration and focus.
8. Chess promotes sportsmanship.
9. Chess provides global awareness.
10. Chess is fun!

The number of kids playing tournament chess is going down in Idaho!

Report to ICA for the Idaho Scholastic State Championship

March 27, 2010

            During the open board meeting at the Idaho Closed, concerns about the low scholastic numbers were raised by numerous individuals.  The following graphs indicate trends for the years 2006 – 2010 for the Idaho Scholastic State Chess Championship. 

Figure 1.  Total numbers of kids for each section.  This graph shows that the majority of the kids attending the tournament are in the elementary years, primarily in grades 2-5.

Figure 2.  This graph shows the percentage of kids in elementary, middle, and high school years attending the tournament.  The most stable group appears to be the high school sections.  There is variability in the elementary and middle school percentages.  Between 70% and 80% of the tournament is comprised of elementary kids.  The fewest number of kids is in the high school sections (less than 10%).

Figure 3.  This graph shows the total number of kids attending the tournament.  It also shows a trend-line that was a linear correlation.  The trend-line indicates that overall scholastic numbers are declining.

Figure 4.  This graph shows the total number of elementary kids. This group shows greater variability in total numbers and a marked decrease in participation from 2006 to 2010 compared to middle or high school groupings.  The low R-square value indicates the variability and the high slope of the regression is greatest for elementary section. 

Figure 5.  This graph shows the total number of middle school kids.  This group is declining from 2006 to 2010.

Figure 6.  This graph shows the total number of kids in the High School Section.  This group is declining from 2006 to 2010.

Figure 7.  This graph shows the total number of kids in the Championship Section.  This group is declining from 2006 to 2010.

Figure 8.  This graph shows the average gain (above the x-axis) or loss (below the x-axis) for each grade transition.  The tournament in grows between K and 1^st grade, 1^st and 2^nd grade, and 2^nd to 3^rdgrade.  From 3^rd to 4^th grade on to graduation, the tournament declines each year.  In fact, each grade transition loses 25%.  The largest loss to the tournament occurred in the 3^rd to 4^th grade year (+16 +(-3) = -19).  In actuality, there are only 5 students less in the 6^th to 7^th grade transition (-16 + (-11) = -5).

Conclusion: 

            As illustrated in the above figures, the Idaho State Scholastic Chess Championship is not growing, but declining in the number of players from 2006 to 2010.  Despite this, the middle school and high school sections are the most stable in terms of numbers in the tournament.  The elementary, middle school, and high school sections are all declining, however, at different rates.  The middle school and high school sections are declining the least fastest (you have to think about what “declining least fastest!” means).  Each year the tournament loses 25% of the previous players on average, beginning in 3^rd grade.  Though the bulk of the tournament (>70 %) are from the elementary sections, the greatest rate of decline is in the elementary sections, specifically in the 3^rd to 4^th grade transition. 

            Further discussion is needed to decide what may be the causes of these declines, however discussion should be focused on retention of players in each section with emphasis on 2^nd, 3^rd, and 4^th grades.

Chess on Applications

I came across an little quote from an article about UC Berkeley enrollments. For the seniors that are filling out scholarship and college applications, chess does have an important place on your applications!

"The admitted class for fall 2008 also excels beyond academics. It includes a world champion in youth division sailing, a student who wrote a symphony during high school, a back-up dancer for a pop star on a U.S. concert tour, a national chess tournament champion, an international Irish dance competition winner, several Olympic and Junior Olympic medalists and a set of quadruplets."

- from http://berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2008/04/14_admissions08.shtml

Remember freshman, stay broad and diverse in your interests during high school.  Your future applications need to distinguish you amongst a large group of kids that want a similar but limited thing.  Chess may help colleges find that uniqueness you possess.  (Check out College Board)

Chess Player Characteristics

"If you're a thrill seeker with a paranoid streak, chess may be the game for you. After all, a 2002  study concluded that "unconventional thinking and paranoia" characterize competitive chess players, two attributes the study also noted as characteristic of thrill-seekers like daredevils and skydivers."

I think my principal just described me with those very terms the other day!

Chess Mind

Here is a quick anecdote to share.  On the flight back from the National Tournament, the children were missing the activities and engagement at the tournament.  I noticed that Desmond was putting his airplane table back up and the latch wasn't quite straight.  He reached over to straighten it and said quietly, "I adjust".  The kids and I still are reflecting on that amazing experience.  Dylan is still focused on the event and is currently is "bend-a-rooing" chess pieces as we speak.  Chess brains are creative brains!

Cancelled Speaker - Let's Play Chess!

Students were given the option to go to a study hall or to stay in my room and learn how to play chess after the cancellation of a speaker for the cohort english classes.  After shooting 2 L bottle rockets hundreds of feet into the air, students needed to "chill".  Many of these students played chess for the first time!  What an American tragedy!

Passen Sie Auf!

Staying focused and paying attention during your chess game is paramount in a serious chess game. While this may sound simple, many players often do lose focus during a game and lose, including me.   So the moral of the story is to stay focused on your game so that you do not make elementary mistakes. During tournaments, one should not have discussions with other players, think about or worry about other players, or to engage in other activites while playing.  This seems to be my one of my major weaknesses (that and lack of experience!).  While these sound like, and are excuses for losing, I will endeavor to play more seriously in the future.  Garrett's 5 move draw against Larry Parsons was a valuable lesson, in that they both recognized the competitiveness of the tournament and perceived their near future lack of focus, and agreed to a draw.  What a clear example of why they are champions and win more than lose chess games.

Here are two games that I failed to win (when I was winning) during a tournament I was TDing: 
http://www.idahochessassociation.org/woodriverweekendswiss2009games.asp

Me vs. Erwin Kett (see move 27 - I began entering results in the computer for the tournament!)
Tyler Jaramillo vs. Me (see move 10 - I was cleaning up the tables, came back and moved without looking at board!  Move 31 - I lost interest in the game and began taking tables down and entering results, I also just had a conversation with Garrett about his 5 move draw and was worried that he was not enjoying himself!  Move 37 - I began cleaning again, returned, moved without looking at board and thought I had an en prise move!)

Every bad move was preceeded by a lack of attention and focus.  I could clearly identify what I was doing when I made these horrbile moves.  When I was attentive and thinking only about the game, I was in control of the game, and thoroughly unbeatable!

Chess and Reading

http://www.chessforstudents.com/research/

To sum up,"While most students in District 9 performed below the national average in reading skills, most chessplayers performed above the national average." and,"At the end of the year, [non-chessplayers] showed no gain in percentile ranking—while the chessplayers gained 5.7 percentiles!" Again, Why? The teachers "proclaimed" that chess enhanced confidence and ego, and that students that feel good about themselves read better. Then one should argue that any activity that enhances self-confidence should benefit the student. The study dd not compare other activities of children with chess-playing children. Maybe next time. The article continues, chess organizers believe "playing chess develops general intelligence, self-control, analytic skill, and increased ability to concentrate. Because of this, enhanced reading skills naturally follow." Again, a rather large leap without any other activities that foster the same skills, taken into account. Since the study did not distinguish between non-chess playing kids, the fact that chess had such gains is even more astounding, as the non-chess playing group probably had some kids active in other activities (i.e., music, athletics, art, etc.). This should wash out some of the differences. Whatever the reason, the observation that chess improves reading is clear. My own daughter was of reading concern by her teachers, with low IRI reading scores, however, after a year of chess, tournaments, and weekly chess games, she was rated as "advanced" for the state-mandated ISAT reading test scores. When I asked her why? She said that she was able to focus and was even the last one out of the test room. "I didn't feel like I was in a hurry".

Chess Helps People Learn

Reading chess research is very informative, however, their is plenty of room to study this in more detail. Why does chess improve reading? Math seems easier to explain, but reading? http://www.quadcitychess.com/benefits_of_chess.html#17

Why should you play more chess?

The research is conclusive. In fact, there is a lot of room for more research. Support chess! Please see this link to The Chess Nut Website and find PDF file at bottom of tutoring page (blogger doesn't upload files-only links). http://www.wix.com/aporth/chessnut

PET Scan of the Chess Brain

PET scans allow scientists to identify specific brain areas that are activated by different tasks. Here researchers have used PET scans to identify the brain areas stimulated in the complex mental activities during a chess game (Nichelli and others, 1994). In scan (a), areas at the back of the brain, where visual information is processed, are most active when a player distinguishes between black and white chess pieces. In (b), the lower middle region of the brain is more active when a player is determining if a particular chess piece can capture another piece.*________________________________________
*Don Hockenbury and Sandra Hockenbury, Psychology, New York: Worth Publishers, 1997, p.68.