Brain Exercises to Improve Chess Play

Sudoku

• Sudoku is a Japanese puzzle game that has been challenging players for years. The Sub Board website quotes a study that shows that puzzle games like Sudoku help keep the mind working longer, sometimes up to 14 years, and may help stave off mental problems and Alzheimer's disease. Sudoku can even be compared to chess, as it requires a great deal of careful positioning, strategy and foresight to play. Players are presented with nine squares in a three-by-three grid. Each square has its own smaller three-by-three grid. Players must place the numbers one through nine in each small square. However, the position of each number cannot correspond with the position of the same number in the larger square, either horizontally or vertically. Sudoku puzzles are available in book form as well as on many gaming websites.

Bed Time Remembrance

• Using this exercise can boost your mental skills as well as help you focus your thoughts. Lie in bed at the end of the night in a comfortable position. Turn off any distractions, such as the TV or radio. Close your eyes and focus on the events of the day. Consider what you did when you woke up in the morning and try to follow your trail of events throughout the day until you fell asleep. You will have forgotten many of these events but try as hard as you can to remember them. However, instead of thinking of them in abstract terms, try to visualize each event as it occurs. For example, try to remember the visual of placing toast in the toaster, watching it pop up and then layering it with peanut butter. Practicing this daily will help you better visualize future chess moves in your head.

Visualization

• One mental exercise that can greatly improve your chess playing is visualization. Sit down in front of a chess board, with all of the chess pieces in their starting position. Start playing a game, but don't move the chess pieces. Instead, visualize where the chess pieces will move. If you don't feel you can handle this at first, move the chess pieces to help you practice visualizing moves. Don't make a move until you have visualized how your opponent will respond three moves in advance. Naturally, you are playing yourself so you can use this opportunity to practice both offensive and defensive moves. Playing all the moves entirely in your head will help improve your chess foresight, increasing your chances of winning and of planning for an opponent's moves. Try visualization once a day about three times a week.