Why Blitz Chess is addictive – Dopamine effect of Chess Blitz
Have you ever wondered Why Blitz Chess is addictive ? Especially online Blitz and Bullet time controls? Maybe Neuroscience has an answer and can explain why Blitz Chess is addictive as any online player will testify.
Our brain records all pleasure experiences, whether they are coming from a soothing music, a good book, a mind stimulant drug, a cash reward, a tasty meal, or playing blitz or bullet chess. Blitz chess is that form of chess wherein each player has to complete the game in a time control of maximum 30 minutes or minimum 5 minutes. Bullet Chess is even faster and has a time control of lesser than 5 minutes.
Technically speaking, in the brain, pleasure has a distinct place called Nucleus Accumbens. Pleasure sensations cause the brain to release the neurotransmitter Dopamine in the Nucleus Accumbens, a group of nerve cells lying beneath the cerebral cortex . This is where the Dopamine release happens whenever we have a pleasurable experience.
Hence neuroscientists refer to the region as the brain’s pleasure center.
Most of the intoxicants such as the famous nicotine to the infamous heroin, and blitz chess (surprise surprise!) cause a particularly powerful release of dopamine in the nucleus accumbens.
Addictive drugs and Blitz Chess therefore provide a direct link to the brain’s reward system by providing the nucleus Accumbens with dopamine.
The Hippocampus creates memories of this rapid satisfaction dose, and the Amygdala creates a conditioned response to certain stimuli akin to the Pavlovian response.
So don’t be surprised when your mind craves for a blitz or two. It’s just asking for a good cup of coffee!
The effect increases manifold, the more you play – so Bullet chess is worse than Blitz because you get a dopamine dose every couple of minutes whereas a Blitz game usually lasts 10 or 20 minutes.
Suggestion: Play Blitz but don’t overdo it.
And don’t play Bullet too often either. Lest you may lose its educative aspect and get a high instead. Remember that too much of Bullet Chess or Blitz Chess may cause Adrenaline peaks that may not be good for everyone (may cause headaches for some).
Bullet doesn’t help much in understanding the strategic nuances of the game. But it helps building a pattern recognition base leading to better intuition, and to get a light feel of the opening. So all is not bad in the case of the Blitz Chess addiction.
After reading this article you will hopefully understand Why Blitz Chess is addictive and how to use it in moderation to help in your chess training.
The author Dr. C. P Jain is a psychologist and a chess aficionado. She lives in Jaipur and likes to play online occasionally when she finds time amidst 2 kids and family.
Willpower is the ability to resist short-term temptations to meet long-term goals.
Willpower allows us to ignore unwanted thoughts, feelings, or desires.
1. Commit to a goal at the outset.
Tightrope yourself with a shoestring so you cannot have a freeway with your temptations. Make sure that you are plugging all those temptation-pulls so that you are riding with your brakes released.
In other words, temptations and diversions are like a brake applied constantly while driving your car. Get the picture?
It won’t stop you completely, but it will make it increasingly difficult, to move away from your goals.
For example, buy a book instead of downloading it online. That way your conscience will not allow you to give it a pass. You will sit down to read it since you paid for it with your hard-earned cash.
Or carry only a fixed amount of cash when you’re on a tight rope budget, and leave your credit cards at home, preventing you from making ‘that impulsive purchase’.
in my experience, for example, a relative of mine felt she was going to the movies too frequently. To counter that, I told her to calculate all the money spent on the tickets and popcorn.
And when she saw that they amounted to a lot she stopped going to the movies that frequently.
By showing the total picture she saw the absurdity of her habits and now she is spending the saved money on useful books that are much needed to increase her expertise.
2. Meditate every day.
Preferably in the morning. It is one of the most difficult-to-start regimens, but once started it will help you so much that you begin to wonder – ‘what was I doing all these years without this essential habit’?
I know that it may seem like a waste of time which could have been spent reading the newspaper or going to sleep an extra 15 minutes but that is just your mind trying to avoid anything that tames it.
Read this tip from Headspace – a U.S. study found that people who meditated daily experienced improved willpower and focus. The researchers found that “those who practiced meditation on a daily basis persisted on tasks longer and made fewer task pullouts, as well as reducing negative feedback after task completion.”
So instead of reaching for your mobile phone or tablet, first thing in the morning and checking all your chats or messages, try spending 15 minutes meditating and reap the benefits of willpower training.
Although it looks simple, sitting still in a yogic posture like Padmasana or Sukhasana, and watching your thoughts in motion is difficult. But the benefits of meditating extend beyond the 15 minutes of quiet every morning. Meditating keeps the mind calm and focused.
3. Exercise regularly.
Cesar Milan training with a dog
If you watched Ceaser Milan’s ‘Dog Whisperer‘ where he documents his dog-training techniques (if you haven’t watched yet shame on you 🙂 ) you must have seen that he first removes all the negative pent up energy in a ferocious dog by taking him/her to a brisk walk or a run.
I remember how he even used one particular dog as a skateboard puller) and the dogs seemed to like it every bit.
After that, the dogs became calm and obedient after the exercise.
Now what transpired in this effort was that that run tamed all the energy overflow and the dog became submissive and calm after that exercise.
It’s the same with the human mind. A study in the Netherlands has revealed that a ‘quick’ workout correlated with better self-control, among other important benefits.
Going to the gym, not only strengthens your body muscles but also your willpower.
4. Get a good night’s sleep.
I use a fitness tracker that comes cheap at Amazon. It is called Mi Fit (or Mi Band in some countries). What it does is to measure your sleep pattern and tell you how much of deep sleep and light sleep you have had every night. This helps in determining what you are missing.
A deep sleep of more than 1 hour is recommended and if you are falling short try improving it.
A good night’s sleep* provides you, with the much-needed mental and physical energy to make it through the upcoming day’s events. If you miss out on your regular dosage of sleep, you’ll feel lethargic and your willpower would become weak. In fact, a lack of sleep can result in impaired reflex action speed and an inability to think clearly.
One study found that this fatigue-impaired state is equivalent to being drunk. So imagine what it can do to your chess!
“Proper rest improves our self-control power and provides a good environment for the brain to function,”
Ryan Clements writes. “Rest reduces the body’s need for glucose, and it allows the body to make a better use, of what we have.”
If you’re struggling to fall asleep, I suggest moving away from laptop/PC/Mobile screens and reading a paperback book. I do something different – I listen to some heavy meta-physical lectures that make me go to sleep in no time 🙂 But before doing anything make sure you are in bed and almost ready to doze off!
The light from these screens disturbs our body’s circadian rhythm, making our subconscious think, that it’s daytime when in reality, it is time for sleep.
*A good night’s rest normally means getting seven to eight hours of shut-eye for an adult.
Low glucose levels = weaker willpower. A study revealed that participants who were not fed or did not eat well before starting a project gave it up halfway, much earlier than their fully-fed compatriots.
“To keep (your willpower) high, eat regular meals having full of protein and good carbohydrates, like a sandwich of lean meat and cheese packed between two slices of whole-wheat bread,” Stephanie Booth writes in Real Simple. “And never start a challenging task on an empty stomach.”
Starting each morning with a hearty meal gives your willpower a much-needed boost. Small ideas help like the consumption of dry fruit snacks such as almonds, walnuts cashews, and yogurt, to sustain high-energy levels. Have them either one hour before or after your meals.
7. Read books on the mind and its secrets – (especially for parents of chess-playing children)
One of the most influential books about children ever published, Nurture Shock offers a radical perspective on children that tosses a library’s worth of conventional wisdom. Why are kids – even those from the best of homes – still undisciplined and aggressive? The answer is found in a rethinking of parental conflict, discipline, television’s unexpected influence, and social dominance.
The authors of Nurture Shock – Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman‘s New York Magazine articles on the science of children won the magazine journalism award from the American Association for the Advancement of Science, as well as the Clarion Award from the Association for Women in Communications. Their articles for Time Magazine won the award for outstanding journalism from the Council on Contemporary Families. Bronson has authored five books, including the #1 New York Times bestseller What Should I Do With My Life?
With that we come to the end of what we started with – 7 Willpower tips to Maximize winning chances in chess – here is hoping we get better with these techniques.
The author Anshuman Jain is a chess coach at Golden Chess Centre, Nanganallur, Chennai. He is available for Chess training and is an expert in Digital Chess classrooms and training techniques. When he is not teaching Chess he likes to learn computer languages.
Things Chess players can learn from 2 year old baby
Amazing Things Chess Players Can Learn from a 2 year old baby!
Recently I came across a two-year-old child and after observing his daily activities, I was amazed at what we can learn from him.
Here is the list of practical tips, that I learned from the baby.
Chess playing is a habit that will not be easy to quit.
Because, apart from playing in tournaments, you can also play online with other players, not only from your country but the entire World.
Being a chess player is in itself a big achievement, because very few people in the world have the playing acumen and skill needed for Chess.
You can learn the tactics of Chess from your daily life activities like when watching TV or watching movies; all it needs, is just a keen sense of observation, that is!
6 Things Chess players can learn from 2 year old baby
1. Never complain.
Have you ever observed a two-year-old child going about his daily routines?
If anything, he’ll never complain. Wait… you’ll say, a baby could cry – but that is not complaining!
He is only expressing his emotions by either laughing or crying.
The same concept we can apply, in our chess growth process, – that is – we can take all our responsibilities for our losses (and wins) on our shoulders.
So that we never complain about any shortcomings or bad luck, for lack of success in Chess.
Friends, no one will spoon-feed you, even a good coach will not want to do this – he will and must, guide you.
The rest is your work.
2. Just One Target.
A two-year-old child has just one target – once he/she asks for anything, Then come what may – that ‘anything’ is the main desire for him.
When you started playing chess, what was your target and your dream?
Remember that, all the time.
There is an Indian mythological tale in the Mahabharata (revered lore in Indian tradition).
When the famous teacher Guru Dronacharaya asked his best disciple Arjuna, what he had seen when he ordered him to attack the target with his arrow.
Arjuna answered coolly – “The only thing I see is the sparrow’s eye”.
The same thing is also applicable to our chess pursuits – single-minded focus.
Have you ever wanted something desperately and after some time, not so much?
A child has a fixed time for getting up early in the morning, taking food at a fixed time, and then sleeping at a fixed time.
If you don’t have time for your chess training, then you won’t make any progress, which you were thinking at the start of learning chess.
This is all about doing the same thing daily – and – finally one day you become an expert in any field.
There is one good saying – “to become an expert in any field you need to put in just 10000 hours of intense practice”.
Do it daily and see the leap in your performance after 6 months.
5. One baby step at a time.
Have you noticed how a child is always living in the present moment? Babies demonstrate remarkable persistence when learning new skills.
Like crawling or walking. Likewise, chess players can learn to persevere through tough games, setbacks, and challenging positions, developing resilience along the way.
The child only takes one small baby step at a time and does not crave immediate success in whatever he wants.
If he observes a toy at the far end of the room, he does not run.
He takes whatever is possible in small steps towards that toy, and goes with a one-minded focus.
Babies learn by trial and error, repeatedly trying until they succeed. Chess players can adopt this mindset, especially in analyzing games, learning from losses, and refining strategies through experimentation.
That is how we must be in our chess preparation and training.
Small steps are needed daily.
Science has proved that anything done daily for 21 days in a row becomes a habit, and if you start small it is easier to create a habit.
A child doesn’t have anything to worry about. Like when to eat or how to eat, etc.
You should also not have any worries about whether you can achieve mastery or not.
At Golden Chess Centre, we ask parents and the students, not to look at the results.
Babies are fully present in whatever they’re doing. Similarly, chess players can benefit from focusing entirely on the current position on the board, without getting distracted by past mistakes or future possibilities.
The game quality, is what the coach looks into, not the match points.
Results will improve automatically if the quality of your game improves.
And looking at results will only add up to the pressure.
In Chess, results depend on just one last mistake and if the student keeps training persistently in a disciplined way, even that mistake will be removed by sheer dint of hard work.
Let not success excite you, or failure pull you down.
The Amazing Things Chess players can learn from 2 year old baby are worth keeping in your mind.
When the players see that they are not able to win a particular opponent then they go into a QUITTING mindset. Quitting is a very easy thing. But principle motto of life says – “WINNERS NEVER QUIT AND QUITTERS NEVER WIN.”
Golden Chess Centre conducts regular training sessions for dedicated and upcoming chess players in Nanganallur, Madipakkam, Adambakkam, Moovarasampet, Kilkattalai, Kovilambakkam, Puzhuthivakkam, Ullagaram and Pazhavanthangal – Chennai,
There are online sessions for serious chess players who live out of Chennai and if you need to join one, please click here.
And it has to do with a chemical called Dopamine.
