Teaching and playing the game of
chess has often been advocated as a form of mental training.
Benjamin Franklin, in his article The Morals of Chess (1750),
advocated such a view:
"The Game of Chess is not merely an idle amusement; several very valuable
qualities of the mind, useful in the course of human life, are to be acquired
and strengthened by it, so as to become habits ready on all occasions; for
life is a kind of Chess, in which we have often points to gain, and
competitors or adversaries to contend with, and in which there is a vast
variety of good and ill events, that are, in some degree, the effect of
prudence, or the want of it. By playing at Chess then, we may learn: 1st,
Foresight, which looks a little into futurity, and considers the consequences
that may attend an action ... 2nd, Circumspection, which surveys the whole
Chess-board, or scene of action: - the relation of the several Pieces, and
their situations; ... 3rd, Caution, not to make our moves too hastily...."
The U.S. Chess Center in Washington, D.C., teaches chess to children,
especially those in the inner city, "as a means of improving their academic and
social skills."
There are a number of experiments that suggest that learning and playing
chess does, indeed, aid the mind in certain ways. The U.S. Chess Federation (USCF)
chess research bibliography contains a collection of many such experimental
results.