Chess as a Life Advantage- the Real Story

Chess as a Life Advantage- the Real Story

Joe Fogarty

             As a 22 year old who has been playing chess competitively for almost a decade, I have a very unique perspective on the affect that playing chess can have on one’s life and the various advantages that it provides. I decided today that I should probably write these down.

            I would like to divide these advantages into two categories: external and internal.  The advantages I want to emphasize are the external ones; they are direct, they are observable, and they are plainly undeniable. The internal advantages are likely the more important ones; most notably the effects that chess has been shown to have on one’s mental capacities. These advantages will be discussed in another article.

            As a 4^th year accounting major at Case Western Reserve University (I withhold from using the word “senior” because I’m sticking around for a Master’s program), the primary focus of the past few months has been recruitment. Of course this area comes with a lot of anxiety for some; the job market is somewhat poor and the fact that we’re in Cleveland is not exactly helpful. What was the result for me? I wound up getting four job offers for accounting internships from companies that hire over 80% of their interns for full time positions. Why is chess relevant? Because chess is directly responsible for every single one of these offers.

            What are employers looking for when they are recruiting students? In addition to hard workers, their ideal candidates are analytical thinkers, leaders, and all-around nice guys. In my case, chess was a phenomenal tool across the board for displaying these.  Analytical thinking? I’m a two-time state champion chess player. Leadership? I’m the president and captain of the chess club at CWRU. Likability? Well, I spend my weekends teaching chess to children. Case closed.

            Of course, this is quite simplified and I have other things on my resume that are not relevant to chess. However, chess is the stronghold and clearly the thing that sets me apart from other candidates. When it comes to both college students applying for jobs and high school students applying to universities, extra-curricular activities play a significant role in the strength of a candidate. Chess has the potential to be the Harvard University of activities. However, it is often in the applicant’s hands in order to show this to the recruiters. My favorite interview spiel to give to recruiters is the all-encompassing nature of chess and how no other activities utilizes both the left brain’s calculative precision and the right brain’s creative and imaginative nature. Trust me, recruiters eat that stuff up (and rightfully so).

            In case this evidence is not direct enough for the readers, I have two even more clear examples for you.

            I was in an interview with a large regional accounting firm when the chess items came up. The recruiter thought for a few seconds and looked at me and asked “Do you know Dmitriy Berkovich?” Lights went off in my head. Yes, Dmitriy is one of the strongest chess players in Ohio (we’re talking over 2400) and I met him at a tournament a few years earlier. It turns out that he is also a tax manager with this accounting firm.  This firm invited me to their second round interviews, when they actually brought Dmitriy down to have a conversation with me.  Somewhat unsurprisingly, I got the job offer.  My second example is a pretty good one too, but not as good of a story.  I was in a 2^nd round interview at a big Fortune 200 corporation when my interviewer told me that he played chess and was rated around 1800, spurring some chess-related conversations.  Again, I got the offer. On a third occasion, I was being interviewed by a partner of a large accounting firm and chess came into the conversation. We were discussing chess as a tool to improve strategic thinking and whether or not this skill goes into other strategy games as well. This conversation led to the game of tic-tac-toe, possibly the simplest of all strategy games. I explained to my interviewer that I had entirely solved tic-tac-toe such that, if I move first, I can force a win after seven of my opponent’s eight legal moves. The result was us spending five minutes of interview time playing tic-tac-toe and my interviewer being very impressed with my solution. Again, I got the offer.

            So this is what I have for the readers. A lot of evidence that chess is a behemoth among extracurricular activities seems overly theoretical. To me, there is nothing at all theoretical because I have lived it. Chess has been a life-changing activity and it continues to serve me to this day.

How Chess Helped Me

  Hello, my name is Rebecca Lelko, and I was part of Vivacity while I was in middle school and high school.  I just want to share a few ways that chess has helped me.  First of all, I got a scholarship to Texas Tech University for chess.  This obviously has greatly helped both me and my parents, as college is extremely expenssive.  There are many colleges that offer scholarships for chess, so I encourage you all to look into this opportunity.
  Also, starting college is very intimidating.  You do not know many people there, and everything seems completely new.  Being part of the chess team helped me make friends immediately and also let me get to know some older students who could help me if I had any questions.  When you go to college, the most important thing is to get involved, and joining the chess club/team is a great way to do this.
  I have had a lot of fun continuing to play chess in college.  Our team travels together to a lot of tournaments, and we even took one trip to play blitz at the bottom of a cave!  I hope that reading about my experience will help motivate you all to continue playing chess after you graduate.

Introduction and transition from high school to college

Hello guys. Since this is my first blog post, I would like to introduce myself. My name is Jianmin Pei, but you can call me Jason. I attended Vivacity chess club from 2003 to 2007. I stopped taking chess lessons when I was a junior in high school because I wanted to focus on my education more. During my senior year in high school, I went back to Vivacity as a teacher assistant. I helped Mr. Kitsis organize the club and sometimes teach kids chess. During my senior year, I was also a chess instructor at the Chinese school at Solon on Saturdays only. Mostly, I just teach kids the fundamentals of chess. Now I’m in college and I just started my second year.

That leads to my topic for my very first blog, the transition from high school to college. There is a lot of difference and similarities between high school and college. Similarities are you still have to take classes and listen to a person speak while you learn a subject. The difference is that you are truly on your own by the time you are at college. High school is free but college is expensive. Therefore, the students have much more responsibility. In middle or high school, you can do minimum work and still get a decent grade. However, that is not true in college. You really need to be on top of all the materials because the course goes by really fast. Professors do not review any old materials and they just keep going for new materials. That is the reason you need to get ahead in the game and not fall behind because if you do, you really have your work cut out for you.

So here are some tips for transitioning to college that have worked for me:

1.       1. Have a routine schedule

2.      2. Read ahead in all your classes

3.       3. Never skip any classes.

4.       4. Never cram for exams

5.       5. Take good notes

6.       6. Join clubs and other activities when you have the time.

7.       7. Don’t be shy and talk to your neighbors in your dorms.

That is about yet and hopefully that will help you with your transition from high school to college.