From the August 2006 Scientific American Magazine | 4 comments

The Expert Mind ( Preview )

Studies of the mental processes of chess grandmasters have revealed clues to how people become experts in other fields as well

Teachers in sports, music and other fields tend to believe that talent matters and that they know it when they see it. In fact, they appear to be confusing ability with precocity. There is usually no way to tell, from a recital alone, whether a young violinist's extraordinary performance stems from innate ability or from years of Suzuki-style training. Capablanca, regarded to this day as the greatest "natural" chess player, boasted that he never studied the game. In fact, he flunked out of Columbia University in part because he spent so much time playing chess. His famously quick apprehension was a product of all his training, not a substitute for it.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR(S)
Philip E. Ross, a contributing editor at Scientific American, is a chess player himself and father of Laura Ross, a master who outranks him by 199 points.

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