Photo/illustration courtesy of Christopher Chabris
This week Perpetual Chess features an interview with USCF Master and renowned Cognitive Scientist Christopher Chabris. In the world of psychology, Christopher is best known for his collaboration with Daniel Simons regarding "inattentional blindness". This was most famously demonstrated in the viral Youtube video called "Invisible Gorilla." Professors Chabris and Simons later published a book expanding on their research and Christopher has published many more interesting studies related to human biases and cognition. But of course, we mostly talked about chess and how Christopher's research relates to chess!
Are there examples of "inattentional blindness" or other cognitive biases in chess competitions? If so how can we combat them?
Detailed advice on how to assimilate chess patterns and improve quickly at the game based on Christopher's experiences and his knowledge of how the brain works.
Stories from Professor Chabris' time in the chess world. He has been in involved in publishing chess books and periodicals (see here), and has rubbed shoulders with Kasparov, Caruana and other chess luminaries.
A discussion of the state of Christopher's own chess game, and some prominent and some lesser known chess book recommendations.
Thanks to Christopher Chabris for a fascinating discussion! You can follow him on twitter here, or visit his website here.