Uploaded June 2022 | Updated September 2026, 2 hours ago
What makes great chess players so great? What's going on in their heads? Do they just have great memories? How far do they look ahead?
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00:00 Introduction
00:24 The early experiments
1:46 A brain superpower
3:12 Depth of search
4:33 Human experts vs AI chess programs
References:
My summarization of the memory results is really recounting this recent study:
Smith, E. T., Bartlett, J. C., Krawczyk, D. C., & Basak, C. (2021). Are the advantages of chess expertise on visuo-spatial working-memory capacity domain specific or domain general?. Memory & Cognition, 49(8), 1600-1616.https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Chandramallika-Basak-2/publication/351245327_Are_the_Advantages_of_Chess_Expertise_on_Visuo-Spatial_Working_Memory_Capacity_Domain_Specific_or_Domain_General/links/609036d0a6fdccaebd073806/Are-the-Advantages-of-Chess-Expertise-on-Visuo-Spatial-Working-Memory-Capacity-Domain-Specific-or-Domain-General.pdf
But there's lots of other research along the same lines.
The earliest research was here:
de Groot, A. D. (1965). Thought and choice in chess. The Hague: Mouton Publishers.
Chase, W. G., & Simon, H. A. (1973). The mind's eye in chess. In Visual information processing (pp. 215-281). Academic Press. sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B9780121701505500111
And here are some other solid articles I looked at:
Charness, N. (1992). The impact of chess research on cognitive science. Psychological research, 54(1), 4-9. link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF01359217
Bilalić, M., McLeod, P., & Gobet, F. (2008). Expert and “novice” problem solving strategies in chess: Sixty years of citing de Groot (1946). Thinking & Reasoning, 14(4), 395-408. researchgate.net/profile/Fernand-Gobet/publication/49401082_Expert_and_novice_problem_solving_strategies_in_chess_Sixty_years_of_citing_de_Groot_1946/links/57651cbb08ae1658e2f46b20/Expert-and-novice-problem-solving-strategies-in-chess-Sixty-years-of-citing-de-Groot-1946.pdf?_sg%5B0%5D=started_experiment_milestone&origin=journalDetail
Connors, M. H., Burns, B. D., & Campitelli, G. (2011). Expertise in complex decision making: The role of search in chess 70 years after de Groot. Cognitive science, 35(8), 1567-1579. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1551-6709.2011.01196.x
What makes great chess players so great? What's going on in their heads? Do they just have great memories? How far do they look ahead?
Join my online learning community: benjaminkeep.com/community
00:00 Introduction
00:24 The early experiments
1:46 A brain superpower
3:12 Depth of search
4:33 Human experts vs AI chess programs
References:
My summarization of the memory results is really recounting this recent study:
Smith, E. T., Bartlett, J. C., Krawczyk, D. C., & Basak, C. (2021). Are the advantages of chess expertise on visuo-spatial working-memory capacity domain specific or domain general?. Memory & Cognition, 49(8), 1600-1616.https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Chandramallika-Basak-2/publication/351245327_Are_the_Advantages_of_Chess_Expertise_on_Visuo-Spatial_Working_Memory_Capacity_Domain_Specific_or_Domain_General/links/609036d0a6fdccaebd073806/Are-the-Advantages-of-Chess-Expertise-on-Visuo-Spatial-Working-Memory-Capacity-Domain-Specific-or-Domain-General.pdf
But there's lots of other research along the same lines.
The earliest research was here:
de Groot, A. D. (1965). Thought and choice in chess. The Hague: Mouton Publishers.
Chase, W. G., & Simon, H. A. (1973). The mind's eye in chess. In Visual information processing (pp. 215-281). Academic Press. sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B9780121701505500111
And here are some other solid articles I looked at:
Charness, N. (1992). The impact of chess research on cognitive science. Psychological research, 54(1), 4-9. link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF01359217
Bilalić, M., McLeod, P., & Gobet, F. (2008). Expert and “novice” problem solving strategies in chess: Sixty years of citing de Groot (1946). Thinking & Reasoning, 14(4), 395-408. researchgate.net/profile/Fernand-Gobet/publication/49401082_Expert_and_novice_problem_solving_strategies_in_chess_Sixty_years_of_citing_de_Groot_1946/links/57651cbb08ae1658e2f46b20/Expert-and-novice-problem-solving-strategies-in-chess-Sixty-years-of-citing-de-Groot-1946.pdf?_sg%5B0%5D=started_experiment_milestone&origin=journalDetail
Connors, M. H., Burns, B. D., & Campitelli, G. (2011). Expertise in complex decision making: The role of search in chess 70 years after de Groot. Cognitive science, 35(8), 1567-1579. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1551-6709.2011.01196.x
