This question of pattern recognition and memory came up in the Susan Polgar video. Susan seemed to have a phenomenal memory, and she has got an excellent memory, but the gentleman who raised the question had a good point about pattern recognition. They showed Susan for three seconds a fairly full chess position. She instantly replicated this. Then they showed her for three seconds a position with the pieces scattered on random squares. In this case her memory was not a lot better than anyone else's. They said that in the first case she used a memory, or recognition, technique known as 'chunking', whereby certain groups or patterns of pieces, for example the king in a corner behind three pawns with maybe a rook at f8 and a knight at f6, occur typically in a normal chess game. The random position they showed her was never, if ever, likely to occur in any actual game.
One little thing I must question, and this comes up in other videos, is the question of the number of possible games of chess. This is apparently astronomical. A video about Susan Polgar stated that the number of possible games, or maybe it was the number of moves in the number of possible games, was greater than the number of atoms in the known universe. But balance this against the fact that at the top level of human chess the game, under classical time-control of two hours per forty moves, has become very sterile. There is draw after draw and the match is decided on rapid-play shoot-out, like a penalty shoot-out in soccer. Or when one player does manage a win under classical time-control, it is ground out at move a hundred and something from a tiny advantage maintained deep into the endgame, a la Magnus Carlsen. Why? Because the number of POSSIBLE games is radically different from the number of PROBABLE games, where the openings run along lines of a far more limited number of recognised good sensible moves. Admittedly the superhuman chess programmes like Stockfish and Alpha-Zero play games among themselves that do not end in draws, proving that chess is not played out, 'solved' or exhausted.
People who put all their eggs in one basket in a particular field (i.e. sports, acting, singing, dancing) are un-balanced by definition. The fault is not with the endeavor itself. The fault is in the specialization.
Very nice to hear from David Shenk about so many facets of chess! Fans of this will probably also enjoy this book: A World of Chess: Its Development and Variations through Centuries and Civilizations ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE--k_-UbPAQvE.html
There is no need to change Chess. Chess was already changed in another lineage. Chinese Chess. Make chess a Tri-athlon. 1 game of Western Chess. 1 game of Chinese Chess. 1 game of Backgammon as a tie-breaker.
Hmm. As far as chess is the first game of skill, that is not entirely true. Physical games precede history. Boxing, wrestling, archery, javelin, etc. As far as board games, yes.
Chess is an 'amalgamation'. Not only is it a war game, but it is game that represents the class system within society. The squares are the 'land' that must be taken. The pieces, represent all who we find within society, such as the 'pawns' [ the people] the kings and queens [royalty] the castles [ the class system] the bishops [ the Church] the knights [again, Royalty]. It can be argued too, that Chess also represents a 'race war' between black and white. That is how I have always viewed it.
The bishops are the church?? What church?? In Russia the bishop figure is named 'Slon' meaning elephant in ancient chess, the representation of the angular "cut" on its head is an elephant's tusk. Since when are elephants part of the church? Stop your pollution of religious bullshit.
Chest is a simple but deep game that we can find many metaphors in but I think its more likely that they were easily available colors? Make them out of bone. Toss one set in something dark like mud or coals?
Yeah, the queen is transgender. Used to be male in satranj (ancient chess), named the "Vizier," meaning something like "king's advisor" just don't let the Christianity nations know, they'll have chess banned no doubt.
dear Microsoft, * dude is unorganized * he reads his own work like he doesn't know it * he names drop like an insecure sycophant (Alan Sorkin?) * he is empty in any air of intellectual authority * he is boring as all hell
