Darker cells mean a higher score for this topic on that metric.
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Quick answers
Does this atlas rank groups by IQ, race or nation?
No. Pathways and evidence stay individual. Scores are browsing aids — never group biological or racial ranks.
What did de Groot find?
Masters did not always search deeper in simple measures; they saw better positions. Perception as expertise.
How much does practice explain in games?
Macnamara et al. 2014: about 26% in their games coding — minority, largest among their bands.
Were the Polgárs a proof of nurture?
László Polgár’s project produced three elite players, including Judit. It is a powerful family experiment, not a proof that any child can be world number one.
Is go the same file as chess?
Shared search and pattern; different aesthetics and institutions (Japan/Korea/China houses).
Does chess make you smarter at life?
Near transfer to similar search tasks is likelier than far transfer to every decision. “Chess in schools raises IQ” is a weaker claim.
Research on strategic talent runs from Adriaan de Groot (1946) through later critiques. Mechanisms are interacting systems.
Evidence percentages below are relative judgements for this atlas, not fabricated precise statistics. Named studies keep their published bands.
Findings
- 1946 · Adriaan de Groot — Masters see better positions Search depth was not the simple differentiator in his tasks.
- 1973 · Chase & Simon — Chunked position memory Expertise as trained vocabulary of patterns — order-of-magnitude counts, not a sacred 50,000.
- 1990s · Polgár sisters’ careers — A nurture-intensive household Three elites from one project; not a universal recipe.
- 2014 · Macnamara et al. — Practice ~26% in games Highest of their bands; still a minority.
- 2000s · Gobet / Ericsson — Templates plus designed study The expert-performance programme applied to chess.
- 2016 · Silver / Hassabis et al. (AlphaGo) — Machines change the opponent Human talent now includes using engines without becoming them.
Mechanisms
- Pattern vocabulary — Chunks and templates (Chase, Simon, Gobet).
- Selective search — Where to look, not only how deep.
- Opponent modelling — Theory of mind under a clock — overlap with interpersonal skill.
- Designed study — Openings and endgames as Ericsson hours; bullet spam is not the same variable.
Evidence
A mature research tradition.
~26%.
Invalid leap.
Often overclaimed.
A strong case, not a law.
Debates
- Talent residuals after hours — Hambrick versus strong practice camps — the 2014 number is the peace treaty’s size estimate.
- Chess in schools as IQ policy — A political use the transfer data may not carry.
- Engine dependence — Whether study-with-machine grows or replaces human search.
Strategic talent: size the claim to the study. Interaction, not a 50/50 slogan, is the default model.
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