CHECKMATING ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE – LEARNINGCHESS IN NURSING HOMES PROGRAM

Family Playing Chess - LearningChessVarious studies show that cognitive activities and brain trainings – such as learning and playing chess online – could, indeed, slow or stop dementia and Alzheimer’s, and could also help people with everyday tasks such as shopping and cooking.

Read more how we can help elderly people with our new ‘LearningChess in Nursing Homes’ program in 2016.

A study at Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, showed that older people may benefit cognitively from continued engagement in intellectually stimulating activities. The researchers followed more than 1,000 elderly people – all of whom were free of dementia at the start of the study- with annual cognitive evaluations for an average of 5 years. The scientists evaluated each participant’s cognitive performance and level of engagement in mentally stimulating activities, such as reading the newspaper, writing letters, visiting a library, or playing games like chess or checkers. Those who reported higher levels of cognitive activity in any given year also showed better cognitive performance in subsequent years.

Researchers at King’s College London found the mental exercises like playing online games kept minds sharp and helped people with everyday skills such as shopping and cooking.

Alzheimer's_disease_brain_comparisonComparison of a normal aged brain and one of a person with Alzheimer’s [Wiki]

Reading these and other studies about the effects of various cognitive pastimes – crossword puzzles, Sudoku, etc. – we started to think, do we know a chess player – including amateurs who continued playing regularly into their senior years – with Alzheimer’s?

The answer was no (!), so until the researchers establish their approach with longer tests, we started to think, how we can also help the fight against dementia and Alzheimer.

We decided to launch our ‘LearningChess in Nursing Homes’ Program from January 2016, where we grant free accesses to nursing home  animators and 90% discount to individual senior licences.

LearningChess in Nursing HomesWe hope that this program will be as successful as our ongoing ‘Education Program’ for schools is, and we can reach more and more senior users with chess. Absolute beginners are more than welcome!

Nursing home managers can contact us for the free accesses here.

Finally, we would like to share with you some feedback from our senior users and show you one of our interactive grandmaster lessons where the 75 years old Viktor Korchnoi won the senior world championship with a brilliant combination:

William, retired physics teacher, Scotland, UK: “I am impressed very much by your great chess lessons. It is just like having a great and kind teacher beside you. I can feel that I am making such good progress and loving chess even more.

Jay, retired electronic service manager, USA: “I do enjoy the lessons and think this method is one of the few superior methods for learning chess that I’ve found.

Grandmaster Lesson 35 - LearningChess.net

Start interactive grandmaster lesson now >>

Sources:

https://www.nia.nih.gov/alzheimers/publication/2012-2013-alzheimers-disease-progress-report/assessing-risk-factors-cognitive

http://www.bbc.com/news/health-34701907

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