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| Type | Bachelor's Thesis |
| Scope | Discipline-based scholarship |
| Title | An empirical study of problem-solving in chess |
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| Institution | University of Zurich |
| Faculty | Faculty of Business, Economics and Informatics |
| Date | 2021 |
| Abstract Text | Research about the acquisition of expertise provides insights into the mental processes of the human mind and allows us to improve our learning methods. Cognition researchers often perform experiments with standardized tasks which allow them to observe and measure these mental processes. The game of chess proved to be of high value for such explorative experiments, leading to findings of pattern recognition, memory capacity, and problem-solving strategies. Our work provides empirical evidence about the importance of opening familiarity in relation to general calculation abilities in chess. We recruited 297 chess players via social networks who solved 32 purposefully selected chess tasks each in an online setting. Contrary to previous studies, which focused primarily on expert chess players, we study the tactical problem-solving abilities among amateur-level players. Our results show that opening selection significantly shapes the tactical pattern recognition of beginners in the early stages of chess development. This effect diminishes with an increased skill level to a point at which puzzles are solved equally well regardless of opening familiarity. These findings are in line with established theories of skill acquisition in chess. |
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