A mindless list of reasons you should play chess
Chess improves memory and concentration. Remembering opening variations and specific tactical and strategic patterns will help improve memory. Playing it will help you concentrate for long amounts of time.
It helps with creativity and imagination. Especially in the middlegame, you will need to come up with your own plans on exploiting certain weaknesses in your opponent's camp. It is interesting how the way we play it emulates the way we are in real life, e.g. if we're an aggressive person in life, we're likely to be aggressive in it, or if we are quiet and shy, we will likely take on more positional and strategic plans.
It develops problem solving. We will continually need to solve problems, e.g. with certain weaknesses in your camp or how to break through an opponent's seemingly indestructible pawn wall.
It teaches us that hard work is needed to become good at anything. Eventually, people will understand that the more practice you get, the better you will become.
It helps you with being independent. You are in full control of your game and everything depends on your judgment. You will learn to predict the consequences of particular moves or variations.
It helps us with verbal reasoning. In a certain situation, we could be saying to ourselves why certain moves can't work and must be eliminated from a list.
It can be played by basically anybody. It can be played by the old and the young, by male or female and it doesn't concern wherever you are from. And another thing, you never have to retire!
It is inexpensive. All you need is a computer to play for free or just turn up at a club paying an entry fee.
It encourages maturity. With all the hours of concentration and hard work, players will become more mature.
It instils in players a sense of self-worth and self-confidence. You will learn to trust your judgment. You're confidence will improve as you defeat better and weaker players and as you get over losses.
It encourages you to keep striving to become better. You are always steering to rise in your ranking.
It improves grades and school work. This has been proven in countless studies. It will improve your math skills, your reader level and it will give you a greater learning ability.
It develops organizational skills. You have to think up an opening repertoire and you have to select which openings to play in a certain game.
It develops logical thinking. Things such as knowing when the castle your king to a safe place or when to start a pawn storm will help with logical thinking. You will continually be challenged in it and mistakes are inevitable.
IT IS FUN! You will experience the joys of winning and the extreme downs of losing, but in the end you feel fine. The only thing that really counts is having some fun!
"The game possesses a literature which in contents probably exceeds that of all other games combined." H.J.R. Murray, a prominent chess historian, and the first to publish the theory that chess originated in India
"You may learn much more from a game you lose than from a game you win. You will have to lose hundreds of games before becoming a good player." José Raúl Capablanca, world chess champion 1921-1927
Bibliography
Frenklakh, Jennie, and Charles Gelman. "Why You Should Play Chess." ThinkQuest - Chess Dominion. 2007. 11 Dec. 2007 <http://library.thinkquest.org/>.
"Chess as mental training." Wikipedia. 2007. 11 Dec. 2007 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chess_as_mental_training>.