The Neuroscience of Chess

This piece, by Ashley Melendres, was published on 04/08/25. Image credit: Abolfazl Alipour

Maybe you were introduced to chess as a kid, playing with your family and learning through theory books. Maybe you got bored during the lockdown and turned to Twitch or Netflix, discovering chess in the process. Or, perhaps you’ve never heard of chess until reading this blog. Regardless, you may be wondering how chess works - mentally, that is. What happens when one of the world's greats (Hikaru, Magnus Carlsen) solves a puzzle? How can they always find the best move? The answer is complicated.

A study by Roland Grabner at the University of Graz may offer some clues. He notes that chess involves lots of puzzle recognition and memorization. So, it seems reasonable to theorize that those with good memories are better at chess. In reality, though, there are so many positions and combinations that it’s impossible to memorize all of them. The biggest thing that will determine your chess ability is numerical intelligence. Numerical intelligence is one’s ability to understand and reason with numbers + mathematical calculations/concepts. To quote Grabner, “The numerically more intelligent players seem to be able to utilize their strengths best to calculate different moves”. He concludes that this alone, while making a substantial difference in a person’s chess ability, is no substitute for practice.

While having high numerical intelligence (and lots and lots of practice) helps explain how top players are so good at chess, it does not fully answer how they are so good at chess. For that, we have to turn to analysing brain waves. An interesting study by Hageman (2021) looked at high-level chess players' brains while solving puzzles via an electroencephalography machine (EEG for short). The first thing they looked at was to see if they could find some sort of ‘a-ha’ moment when the players found the correct answers to the puzzle. The next thing they looked for was to see if the waves across the players’ scalps changed as they solved the puzzle. Although the data they collected is interesting to look at, unfortunately, it does not paint any sort of clear picture. There is no uniform ‘timelock’ where we can clearly see that players solve the puzzle. Possible reasons for this are:

1. Variability between players

2. Variability between puzzles

3. Chess processing in the brain can’t be determined by only one measurement

All in all, there doesn’t seem to be one exact way scientists can determine how chess players function. Hopefully, more research in the coming years will shed some clarity, but until then, just know that the best way to get better is to train your brain through games, puzzles, and theory. If you’re curious to learn more about chess or its neuroscience, join us at this week's Neurochess collab!

Sources:

1. https://neurosciencenews.com/chess-intelligence-practice-14809/

2. https://lichess.org/@/NDpatzer/blog/science-of-chess-what-happens-in-the-brain-when-we-see-the-best-move/bUh7lAVj

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