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Chess, Cognitive Overload, and Bobby Fischer

Chess, Cognitive Overload, and Bobby Fischer
A little knowledge is a dangerous thing, so is a lot.

Surprisingly, this quote by Albert Einstein finds support from the famous fictional detective, Sherlock Holmes.

During his adventures with Sherlock Holmes, Watson often found himself impressed by his brilliance. Yet, one day, after quoting Thomas Carlyle, he was equally surprised by Sherlock’s ignorance for some things. This was because Sherlock had no idea that the earth revolved around the sun! Upon being question about it, Sherlock’s response was more logical than Watson had expected. According to Sherlock, his brain was like an attic. It had limited storage. In order to add new information, the old one had to be thrown out. Thus, he only stored important facts about his cases in his attic, and not information which would be of no use to him.

These are not just smart-sounding words by two masters in their own fields. Rather, this shows that Einstein and Sir Conan Doyle (through Sherlock) knew of a concept far before its existence, the concept of Cognitive/Information overload.

Cognitive overload is a situation where one is given more information than the brain can process. It is the reason why a student often feels overwhelmed when their teacher is too fast. After a point, one cannot filter the information, leading to ‘filter failure’. It causes problems such as sweating, anger issues and stress. However, the impact of Cognitive overload might be more severe than this. This might become more apparent if we look at the life of certain chess players.

After on pair of moves in chess, 400 possible board setups exist. 197,742 after the second pair of moves and about 121 million after the third. An experienced chess player needs to take all of these into account. Along with that, he needs to try and predict his opponent’s next move. This needs a lot of memory power. So much so that experienced chess players can often play whole matches in their head. In fact, this is a technique they use to practice. They can play imaginary matches against imaginary opponents. Chess players study the games of their opponents so often that they can even replicate their techniques and strategies in these imaginary matches!

This sounds unbelievable at first. Yet Timur Gareyev proves otherwise. This chess Grandmaster holds the world record for playing the greatest number of matches blindfolded. He played 48 matches, 3 over the last record. The story becomes crazier because he played all these blindfolded, while on an exercise bike! All of these matches took about 23 hours to complete, during which he rode approximately 50 miles. Such exhaustive mental must take a toll.

Unfortunately, the evidence which proves this is plenty. The list of chess players who went crazy is never-ending. Bobby Fischer is one of the more notable of these players.

Bobby Fischer was arguably one of the greatest chess players ever to have lived. He defeated Donald Bryne when he was 13. The game he played is often dubbed as “the game of the century”. Yet, it was his love for chess which was his downfall. Becoming the first American to win the world championship title, he was the people’s hero. However, as time passed on, his paranoia got the better of him. He started believing that the Russians would do anything to defeat him. He secluded himself for a long time, not talking to anyone. Often heard on radio shows talking about Jew conspiracy theories, Fischer died in Iceland due to liver failure.

The list of crazed chess players is disheartening to read. From Paul Morphy, who was seen talking to imaginary people, to Aron Nimzovitch, who threw his chess board after losing. Although, there is one story which acts like a lamp in the darkness.

Lázló Polgár is a Hungarian chess teacher and educational Psychologist. He had a theory, saying geniuses are made, not born. He is also the father of the famous Polgár sisters who are testaments to his theory. From a young age, Lázló trained his daughters in the game of chess. Their toys were chess pieces, even their pillows were in the shape of chess boards. They weren’t given any formal education. All they did was play chess. As a result, Judit Polgár became a grandmaster at the age of 15 and Susan at the age of 22.

Why did the Polgár sisters manage something at such a young age when someone like Bobby Fischer couldn’t? Maybe the answer was their age. According to studies, children have better memories than adults sometimes. This might be a reason to the sisters’ fame at such a young age. Whatever may be the reason, the path to excess knowledge is always a treacherous one. Greed, even it is for something as good as knowledge, is still bad.


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