Don Schultz is recapping the changes he has seen. The one I am most impressed by is Scholastic Chess.
Last week I walked in on a chess camp at Frying Pan Farm, Outstanding. These folks have a grasp of the future.
And why does scholastic chess need the USCF?
Didn’t Scholastic Chess originate with members of the USCF?
I think the Internet has had a huge impact as has the computer, but not for the reasons stated. Both of these innovations have signicantly impacted how chess is studied. In the 1970’s I could put 8 hours into finding the materials I need to study, and then 4 hours studying them. Today, I can find materials needed for study, and organize them in under an hour. Chess study is much more efficient.
I can then IMMEDIATELY go to the Internet and test the ideas on live opponents in blitz games. There are many people playing online chess at many sites all day. Clearly, there is MORE CHESS being played today than 30 years ago.
There has been a significant impact on USCF tournaments, but not on USCF itself since it so missed the boat on the Internet.
Elo rating: We’ve had a rating system since 1948, and have used Elo since 1960. It’s now part of our culture. It has already exerted all the influence it likely ever will.
Jet Plane: Ditto. Plane travel became common during the 1950s.
Exodus: Korchnoi and Kasparov have not and likely never will come to live in the USA. The influence of the ex-Soviets was to triple the number of strong US players, which in turn created a critical mass of chess knowledge. However, their presence alone is enough of a benefit. Look at the top 20 players: 13 foreign-born.
Demise of Soviet political influence: See last FIDE president election and tell me they still don’t run the show.
The Chess Computer: In 1985 Kasparov played 15 of the top chess computers in Hamburg, Germany and won every game, with the score of 32-0. Would he use such cannon fodder to help him analyze world championship games when he had a team of GMs?
The Internet: Why do you think clubs and associations are dying all over the place?
The main factors affecting the evolution of USCF chess are demographics (e.g. the aging population, at least of chess players) and competition from other activities that include, but are not limited to, the Internet.
Assuming, arguendo, that it did, so what?
Who was the first U.S. Cadet Champion?
Who won the U.S. Cadet Championship in 1955?
Who organized the first High School Championship?
One out of three is not bad for scholastic folks.
Arthur Bisguie won two U.S. Junior Championships (1948, 1949). Who won the first?
The causality could run in the opposite direction. I.e., once a GM gets stage 1 Alzheimers his strength drops, he stops having fun, and he stops playing actively. His friends wouldn’t notice significant behavioral impacts until later stages.
Brain games have shown little if any correlation with the incidence of Alzheimers. Physical exercise OTOH seem to improve one’s resistance to Alzheimers.
It could also be the other way around in a different way. Brains genetically programmed to enjoy chess, puzzles, etc may be, by virtue of having those genes, unlikely to contract Alzheimer’s.
In other words, taking up chess, Sudoku, etc may not make you less likely to get Alzheimer’s. Rather, a genetic tendency to resist Alzheimer’s may make you more likely to enjoy chess and Sudoku.
Bill Smythe
Playing chess seems to me to be unlikely to help prevent Alzheimer’s at all, but perhaps the more one exercises one’s brain, the longer one might be able to stave off decline. (Is there a measurable difference in synaptic structure of the mentally active? If so, what’s the causal relationship–Smythe’s chicken-egg question? Hypotheses to be tested.)
It could also be the other way around in a different way.
Could been the same with obesity. Obesity is tied in with so many other unlikely maladies. Maybe you slowly put on weight as you start to exercise less or function less efficiently due to the other under-lying undetected conditions.
What has allowed us to evolve and thrive is working memory. It is from playing games that we learn and chess has been the workhorse of games.
“Learning doesn’t happen from failure itself but rather from analyzing the failure, making a change,
and then trying again.” Learning easier when you are young because you are growing and do not avoid failure. Older chess player have to avoid the pitfalls of unconscious reasoning, but can be successful like GM Larry Kaufman.
The USCF and Elo are Lagging Indicators. They only change after the parade has gone by.
Yes indeed. There’s an analogy for physical exercise. If you’re unhealthy, have trouble breathing, heart disease, inflammation (leading to a host of diseases, not just arthritis), you’re hardly going to be physically active. Does exercise promote health, or is it the other way around?
For 160,000 years folks only lived to about 40. We are just now learning how to live longer.
Alzheimer’s is a new disease for us. We will see if chess helps and if it does will it retard human evolution.
Depends on what you mean by “intelligence” and whether such improvement can be measured or otherwise demonstrated. I don’t believe, for example, that it will affect IQ scores.
I do believe that the chess experience, especially in connection with joint analysis, contributes to critical thought processes.
I played in the U.S. JUNIOR Championship in 1955. There was no CADET Championship.
Who won in 1955?
Charles Kalme won the 1955 US Junior Ch., scoring 9 points in a 10 round Swiss System. 25 players. Site was Lincoln, NE. R. Fischer scored only 5 points; he drew an interesting theoretical game in the Two Knights Defense with David Ames. David, you should have crushed him!
Source: Bobby Fischer’s Chess Games by Wade and O’Connell.