David Koetsier is an international professional chess coach based in Adelaide, Australia. At the World Youth Chess Championships in 2016, he had plenty of practice keeping some of Australia’s most promising young players in the optimal brain state for sports performance.
In this blog edition he gives Chesslife blog readers tips on keeping their minds fresh, active and in the perfect ‘frame of mind’ for creative thinking on, and off, the chess board.
- Tune in to Music
Listening to music has been shown to provide drastic benefits to the brain. From 
alleviating depression and lowering cortisol, the body’s stress hormone, to enhancing long term memory.
Years of research have found that listening to Mozart in particular boosts brain function. Called ‘the Mozart effect’, scientists from Stanford University have found that there is a molecular reason for why listening to Mozart boosts performance on learning and memory tests. That sounds like a good enough reason to turn on Spotify!
Of course playing music is even better to activate multiple regions of the brain!
- Play video games!
While video games have been shown to reduce stress and improve decision making skills, it doesn’t develop the brain as well as chess does. So if you like to play video games, make sure you pick some with an educational aspect.
- Read! Even if it’s just a comic book.
There is a myriad of benefits when it comes to reading. From the basics: expanding your knowledge base, relaxation, expanding your vocabulary and strengthening your memory. There are also more surprising benefits: reading engages your brain in active function and studies have shown that spending your spare time reading could improve your chances of not developing Alzheimer’s by 2.5 times. Reading before bed regularly is also an important part of sleep health. A good book will tell your body it’s time to rest (but remember to be careful of the blue light from e-readers if you have trouble sleeping).
To receive the benefits of reading, you don’t have to be reading Lord of the Rings but choose something you enjoy: from Young Adult fiction to comic books, there is plenty of variety on a library shelf!
- Play chess (of course!)
This wouldn’t be a Chesslife blog post without mentioning chess! We often talk about the many benefits of chess, both social and educational. We see improvement in our students’ among other things in their memory and creativity as well as their decision making skills. Perhaps most rewarding, we see our students’ confidence grow as they make their own decisions and share their games with peers. Our autism friendly classes have been particularly special as we have seen some students grow in truly wonderful ways.
There are lots of little things we can all be doing to keep our brain active.
For David, he loves to sit down with a comic book after a long day of playing chess and teaching young people to get their brains activated – and keep them that way!