Can playing games be an “exercise” for your brain? What does chess or checkers have to do with keeping your brain in shape?
The simple answer is “yes” and “everything”!
Games like chess challenge you to think and plan—activities that create new neural pathways in the brain and work to keep the brain in shape.

Like physical exercise, mental exercise makes sure you function at a high level, and keeps you healthy.
Some studies have shown that challenging your brain in activities like games, crossword puzzles, reading or doing “brain teasers” can actually raise your IQ.
Exercising and stimulating the brain helps create what one scientist, Dr Yaacov Stern, calls “cognitive reserve”, the ability to have a backup system for meeting intellectually challenging tasks and demands.
But simply “exercising” won’t do the whole job. It is also important to vary your brain routine by doing novel tasks, using variety and changing approaches. In this way, exercising the brain is similar to physical exercise, where you want to develop all your muscle groups, and not just one particular set of muscles.