A man walks along the inside of a circle of chess tables, glancing at each for two or three seconds before making his move. On the outer rim, dozens of amateurs sit pondering their replies until he completes the circuit. The year is 1909, the man is Jos¿ Ra¿l Capablanca of Cuba, and the result is a whitewash: 28 wins in as many games. The exhibition was part of a tour in which Capablanca won 168 games in a row.

How did he play so well, so quickly? And how far ahead could he calculate under such constraints? "I see only one move ahead," Capablanca is said to have answered, "but it is always the correct one."

This article was originally published with the title The Expert Mind.

6 Comments

1. 1. HintonBR 08:53 PM 11/21/07

   Fantastic information. It would have been nice to represent a differing opinion for balance, but the data and analysis certainly raises some interesting points to consider as we look at educating/training people.

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2. 2. Aravindakumar,N 02:39 PM 11/27/07

   GoodChess player can play by Intution. Intution can be described as below:
   
   Knowledge = n* practice
   Intelligence= correct use of knowledge.
   Wisdom = Intelligent use of knowledge
   Intution = knowledge*Intelligence*wisdom

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3. 3. the_thinker 03:52 PM 1/10/08

   Those who are interested by the topic addressed in this article will be fascinated by Malcolm Gladwell's latest book: Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking.

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4. 4. Talent-Talk.com 04:38 AM 5/25/08

   I think this is an interesting article but the study is flawed because no attempt has been made to define or describe natural ability or innate talent.
   
   Inventory the participants innate abilities, using a process such as Highlands, then come back and write the article again with a more reliable benchmark.

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5. 5. Jayhorn 11:29 AM 12/3/11

   This is a trick :) He simply makes a move, observes his opponents move, and then on the next table makes that move against his new opponent.
   
   Derren Brown, British magician and illusionist extraordinaire, did this with 20 British Grandmasters and beat ALL of them, imitating the fellow GM's moves. It was basically like Grandmaster vs Grandmaster

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6. 6. Booksy 08:04 PM 12/30/11

   @Jayhorn:
   Obviously Derren Brown did not 'beat' ALL of them - that would be impossible if they are being played one against another. For every game he 'won', he would also 'lose' one, because he is playing two halves of the same game, and therefore would never be able to win more than half the games. In fact, if I recall, there were only a handful of GMs, along with an assortment of lesser masters, and one amateur who was president of some university chess club (which may sound impressive to a layman but has no bearing on chess playing ability). Derren Brown acheived a plus score in the trick by playing the masters against each other and beating the weaker player himself. A better magic trick would be to get 20 British GMS in the same room, as I don't think even the British Championship can manage that.
   
   As for Capablanca, and any other Grandmaster who ever gave a simultaneous display, this trick does not apply (nor would the grandmaster want to use it anyway) as the grandmaster always plays white in every game, making it impossible to play one player against another.

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