Introduction: The abundance of age-related cognitive decline will increase due to graying of the global population. The goal of the present study was to investigate whether playing chess can improve working memory capacity and performance in a creativity test in healthy older adults. Methods: Fifty older adults (age 50–80) participated in this study. Half of them were member of a chess club and play chess at least two times per week. And the other half never be in a chess club or play chess. Working memory capacity and creativity were measure by means of Wechsler working memory scale and Guilford's Alternative Uses task respectively. Results: Compared with the non-player group, the chess-player group showed better performance in both working memory and creativity tests. Conclusions: This study provides good support for the potential of chess plying to improve working memory and creative thinking in healthy older adults.
