Chess can help enhance:
Critical thinking
Logical thinking
Reasoning skills
Communication
Decision making
Problem solving
Intellect
Observation
Cognitive skills
Memorization
Self esteem
Self confidence
Responsibility
Imagination
Creativity
Concentration
Discipline
Determination
Diligence
Patience
Commitment
Courage
Planning
Pattern recognition
Sportsmanship
Ability to set goals
Ability to learn from mistakes
Ability to strategize
Ability to handle adversity
Math, science and reading skills, etc.
Can you add more benefits to the list? 
Chess Daily News from Susan Polgar
Hi Susan,
Just a quick question:
Do you think that chess develops ‘pattern recognition’ ability for anything other than chess positions? For example, I’m a biblical academic, and spotting patterns in the Greek texts, across various letters etc. is a quite unrelated pattern recognition. Or in training pattern recognition of chess positions, is there an innate ability that is somehow trained and strengthened? What do you think?
I would perhaps add ‘self-loathing’ to your list, especially if loosing tends to be the rule rather than the exception, as it is for many of us!
Chess strengthens parental bonds if the child and parent(s) share the learning and playing of the “game”
Hi,
I know there are many people that doesn’t trust expressions like “Chess improves math!”, so I like to give you some sources from scientific studies to back it up:
http://kasparovchessfoundation.org/Studies/
http://www.chessintheschools.org/research.html
http://www.chesshouse.com/articles.asp?id=108
http://chessbc.ca/marcel2.html
http://www.schoolhousechess.org/articles/Value%20of%20Chess.htm
http://www.chessforchildren.com/edu4.htm
Makes it stronger, don’t you think?
Thank you for the sources.
Best wishes,
Susan Polgar
http://www.PolgarChess.com
http://www.SusanPolgar.com
I would like to add resilience to the list. I have seen it in the students I work with and I know that whenever I don’t play quite as well as I would have liked, I can’t wait to give it another shot. Great list Susan! You can bet I will use it at Sci-Tech 🙂
Herr Tilling,
Samuel Reshevsky is purported to have been at approximately Expert strength when he left for a 5-year hiatus to study the Talmud. When he came back, as legend has it, he was suddenly playing at grandmaster strength. So, if this is true, I’m sure studying biblical texts like you are doing ARE improving your pattern recognition skills and can be applied to the game of chess.
Adding to the list, very importantly, joy, happiness and fulfillment!
Mr Death of Celts,
Thank you for that word of encouragement! Let’s just hope that the legend is true as my chess could most definetly be doing with all the help it can get.
good smoozin with the chess babes???Big G