Socializing and playing chess are going to help you in those areas and possibly in tandem. Ribbonfarm.com is a good website that has blog essays which deal wit

Socializing and playing chess are going to help you in those areas and possibly in tandem. Ribbonfarm.com is a good website that has blog essays which deal with many topics and some about social strategies which are a lot like chess strategies. Also maybe getting into debates with people as long as it isn't something so controversial that it becomes too heated.