A wonderful piece by Tom Vanderbilt in Nautilus about learning chess with his four year old daughter:
“It wasn’t long before it struck me that chess seemed to be a game for the young. When my daughter began doing scholastic tournaments, I would chat up other parents and ask whether they played—usually the reply was an apologetic shrug and a smile. I would explain that I too was learning to play, and the resulting tone was cheerily patronizing: Good luck with that! Reading about an international tournament, I was struck by a suggestion that a grandmaster had passed his peak. He was in his 30s. We are used to athletes being talked about in this way. But a mind game like chess?”
Read the whole piece, it’s a good reflection on how our brains change with age. I particularly like this sentence:
“As we get older, there is one thing at which we get worse: Being a novice.”
I always found it depressing that my phone, even set to the lowest level, can beat me at chess.
peakmemory 
That is just fascinating. Chess is one game that is for the elite intelligent. There should be more emphasis of such games early on at school.
Thank you for your comment. I am curious why you think “there should be more emphasis of such games early on at school”?
If it because you think chess is fun and is an important cultural practice, I completely agree. If it is because of claims that chess improves cognitive skills, I am more skeptical.