Chess Moves into Popularity

Checkmate! With the rising popularity of chess in recent weeks, many students have been saying or seeing that word. Chess has captivated the lives of many students in every grade and looks to have no sign of slowing down. While other trends recently may have possible negative effects on you, chess is nothing but positive for your body and mind. 

Chess is usually treated as a more non-trendy activity, so for so many to be playing this unpopular game is quite unusual. However, that does not mean that this trend has to be negative. Junior Drew Sabatino stated “I think that chess is a good thing to have to go around the school, if I was a teacher, I would rather have my students playing chess on their phone vs being on social media. Chess takes a lot of focus and can raise IQ, prevent Alzheimer’s, and improve your concentration.” Along with raising IQ, preventing Alzheimer’s, and improving concentration, chess is also able to help students learn viable planning skills, increase creativity, and improve symptoms of illnesses like ADHD and dementia. 

The reason some people may just now be finding the game of chess may be due to its popularity on social media. Junior Orson Harrop, when asked about how often he sees chess in his life, stated “All the time, on my phone & computer.” This rising popularity has only benefited the activity and grown attention towards it. However, there are still some potential downsides to playing chess. Chess has been shown to increase stress levels and has been shown to have minimal results in increasing test performance. However, these downsides shouldn’t ward people off from playing a game that has been so positive to people around the world. While the journey may be long to get better at chess, the payoff for the work will be plentiful in a variety of ways.