How chess helped to overcome mental stress
Whenever you land up in a new situation and you are unable to cope with the change, it creates stress! When the pandemic struck in 2020, it was a moment of change for everyone across the world. No wonder it created a lot of stress, tension and pressure all around. In this article, a young student living in Hyderabad and studying marketing decided to narrate his story of 2020. The year began with a lot of stress because of having to stay at home due to the Covid-19 situation. It seemed like the boy was drowning. Just when things looked very bleak, is when chess came to the rescue!
Why we need chess in schools?
By Ilyan Nathani
The year 2020 came with a lot of surprises, the entire world was locked into their homes and did all the work staying at home. Whether you are an adult, teenager, or still younger, you must have faced some or the other difficulty staying at home. Schools, colleges, and universities were active remotely through online learning methods which has not only made learning less effective, but has increased loads of stress to students. My university classes were also shifted to remote learning methods and that severely affected my mental health. The pressure was unbearable to an extent that I didn’t even care about what grades I got and just left studying for the term hoping to just pass somehow.
While the stress was unbearable, there were few people who managed to change my mood and help me overcome my difficulties. These few people are ‘Samay Raina’, ‘Vidit Gujrathi’, and ‘ChessBase India’. Samay Raina had introduced me back to the game of ‘chess’ which I used to play as a child. Through his streams, he made me nostalgic about chess, and also made the streams very interesting by calling various other people. Samay’s streams made me feel relaxed and engaged in chess. At theat point I only saw chess as a way to distract myself from the university pressure and didn’t really change my mentality towards studying and education. Later on, Vidit Gujrathi’s streams gave me a totally different perspective about chess. The way he approached the game, his grandmasterly approach, gave me a curiosity to understand and think during games.
I started to follow ChessBase India channel, watched chess tournaments, the analysis of various games, understood openings, traps, and so much more knowledge was gained through the videos published on the channel. Through which I understood that chess is not just about moving pieces but it is so much more than that. Learning the beauty of chess helped me distract from all the university stress. Coupled with the streams, I would constantly play games with my friends online on chess. com.
Thinking about my attraction towards knowing and understanding chess, I feel chess not only helped me overcome the stress but taught me so much more in life. Playing chess gave me an unbelievable power of focus, which helped me so much during my university classes where I couldn’t even focus for 10 minutes. But after getting into chess, my ability to concentrate increased by leaps and bounds. Chess teaches you to observe things, understand patterns and recognize situations where action is needed. Chess also teaches you to constantly question your decisions, think on what to do next, and also about how to do those things. All of these abilities makes you think logically and creatively, which makes your brain sharper.
If chess becomes a compulsory subject in schools, or even an activity given to students with choice, it can revolutionize the learning of students. Students will effortlessly think, question and understand things which school can never teach by theoretical methods. The student will get the ‘power of focus’ which is very necessary to understand the concepts in class. According to National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), in 2014 alone, 8032 student suicides were reported. 30% of the cases were due to failure in exams, however in rest of the cases, the reason for committing suicide was linked to mental pressure. In one of the suicides notes a girl said “I cannot face you if I am not selected”, she just assumed that she will not score well.
A very inspiring story is that of Neelakantha Bhanu Prakash. When he was just five years old, he was hit by a truck and fractured his skull. Multiple surgeries had to be done to save him. To get back into shape, Bhanu had to keep his brain active. He started solving math puzzles, and playing chess. Chess kept his mind active and developed a sense of concertation and calm which helped him to overcome anxiety. Today he is known as the Human Calculator and is one of the best mathematicians in the country! That's the power of chess!
About the author:
I am Ilyan Nathani, born in Gujarat, currently studying Marketing at Concordia University through online methods, and living in Hyderabad. I am a subscriber to 'ChessBase India', 'Samay Raina', 'Vidit Gujrathi', and nearly all Indian Chess GM streamers now. I passed my 12th from Aga Khan Academy, Hyderabad, which is one of the top international schools, and I feel really proud about it. I am 18 years old and planning to try Youtube as a career for living with also a desire to promote chess.