Covid-19 has forced many people inside and looking for something to do. You can only play so much xbox and eat so many hot pockets until those things stop feeling enjoyable. I was looking for something to do with all this time and I wanted something that is time consuming yet rewarding. I was stumped, but then my brother suggested that I try to learn chess. He had been playing for up to two years at that point and was quite good. With his experience and my lack thereof, I got whooped. It started as just sibling rivalry and me just wanting to beat my brother, but in the process I learned a lot of things on and off the board. If you want a new hobby, here are a few reasons you should perhaps take up chess.

A big turn off for people when it comes to the thought of learning chess, is that they do not have anybody to play with. In the age of the internet and online games, this is not an excuse. Within three clicks you could be playing a random person from anywhere in the entire world. When I got tired of playing my two brothers over and over again I went online and had access to millions of other players who all play their own styles and It was quite fun to see techniques and stratagies I did not know about before. So, if you are discouraged by the lack of people to play with, you shouldn’t be.

Another reason that learning chess can be so fun is how you get better after every game you play, but it still takes very long to improve. It seems like an oxymoron, but it is true. While learning the game you will pick up on a tactic that works for or against you and it stays locked in your head for your next few games. Once it happens enough times it becomes like second nature to see certain things and react a certain way. I have only been playing for about a month, but there are already a plethora of things I know not to do that I would have before and that is quite satisfying to know I am improving.

The way you judge a chess player is based on their rating. A new player would have a score of around 600, while a grand master would hover in the low 2000’s. When making an account and playing online you have your own score. After every win your score rises and after every loss it goes down. It might not seem like a big deal, but once you get into the game, it becomes addicting to watch your rating rise and rise.

A big problem many activities come across is that you can only get so good at something until it stops being fun and it is almost impossible to get better. This is not the case for chess. In just the first ten moves, there are over 100 billion different positions the board could be in and it is impossible to memorize them all. It is something that is impossible to master and there is always somebody better than you. It is important when choosing a hobby that you always have something to strive for and in chess, there is always a higher rating you can get, or a person you want to beat.

Chess can actually be quite good for your mental health. When playing chess, your brain will be challenged to exercise logic, develop pattern-recognition, make decisions both visually and analytically, and test your memory. Chess can be enjoyed by any age and as a result, these brain exercises can be part of the health of your brain for your entire life. An active brain is a healthy brain.

It also helps you practice staying cool under pressure. An intense game of chess where you have given everything, your time is running low, and you still have to make critical decisions to bring the point home teaches us to remain calm with big things on the line. You have been intensely focused, while at the same time remaining calm so that your brain can work to its maximum. We are all faced with deadlines, presentations, interviews, and tests throughout our life, just as in a chess game, we have to remain confident and calm to perform our best and chess teaches you that.

Whether it be to out do a sibling, kill time, or improve your brain; chess can be a very good hobby to pick up.