Judgment: Its Role and Value for Strategy

Abstract

Chess is an intellectually demanding game played by millions of people around the world. Yet unlike tennis or other competitive sports there are few changes in the rankings of chess players. There have only been twelve world chess champions (see Table 1) since the official title was first established in 1886. Emmanuel Lasker held the title for 27 years (between 1894 and 1921), Aleksandr Alekhine for seventeen, and Mikhail Botvinnikfor thirteen. The last world champion, Anatoly Karpov, held the title for ten years between 1975 and 1985. In the 1985 the current champion, Gary Kasparov was the youngest player at the age of 22 to win the world chess title, which he has succesfully defended since. Below the world champion there are grandmasters, masters and many levels of chess experts in addition to the great numbers of common people playing chess. Yet grandmasters (including the world champion who is the top among the grandmsters) consistently win against all other chess players.