Chess continues to hold its allure

Empowerment key to game’s endurance
Saturday, July 25, 2009 3:11 AM
By SHELBY LYMAN

Humans love play in virtually any form.

In these difficult times for newspapers, the comics and puzzles remain core features.

Apple reports that it offers 10,000 different video games at its App store for iPods and iPhones.

And yet chess — among the most ancient of games — has continued to hold its allure.

Clearly, chess appeals to something in the core of the human psyche — probably the game’s focus on the interaction of time, space and material in a form that mirrors issues of human survival.

To put it simply and crudely, chess reflects our enduring need to get there “firstest with the mostest” in an elegant and quintessential manner.

Chess and other games are a form of empowerment. We discover that we can learn to solve problems and experience a sense of control and mastery.

Here is the full article.