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I do not believe everyone has the mental capacity to become a grandmaster. In case you think that's overly harsh, I'll expand that to say I'm almost certain I d

I do not believe everyone has the mental capacity to become a grandmaster. In case you think that's overly harsh, I'll expand that to say I'm almost certain I do not have the mental capacity to become a grandmaster. It just takes a different type of analytical thinking ability.

TameAntelope 5y ago
The best way I've found to think about this is that, physiologically, there's nothing stopping your brain or mine from being the brain that holds a GM mind. However, in order for that to have happened, we needed to have our brains manipulated a very specific way as children, when plasticity was at its highest, into learning how to think the way that best fits with being a chess GM. Since that didn't happen, our minds have settled into patterns of thinking that are very hard to now undo or rebuild, and likely not as well suited for chess. Could we tear down how we think about problems at a fundamental level and rebuild ourselves to think like GMs? Yeah, probably. Could we do this while maintaining any amount of day job, social life, or literally any other aspect of a natural human life? No, probably not. Changing not just your opinion on a topic, but literally how you think, seems pretty insanely hard to do after childhood/adolescence. I don't love the phrase "mental capacity", maybe "mental configuration" is more accurate.
- foobarbaz33 5y ago
  > here's nothing stopping your brain or mine from being the brain that holds a GM mind Is it really true everyone has the same mental potential? For the specific case of a chess GM, it could be many people have the potential. Or maybe not. There are some easy tests to quickly observe and compare mental traits between people. For example, some people can juggle many distinct numbers in their head at once. Their brain is like a computer memory. Personally I start to fall off around 4 variables when doing mental math and don't believe I can increase that significantly. Do I have (or ever had) the same potential as someone who can juggle 50 variables in their head?
- password321 5y ago
  We have different capacities. That is why some become a GM at 12 and some are stuck an IM for life. And it extends beyond just being a GM or not. No one atm is as good as Magnus Carlsen for example, yet have been training at even younger ages.

TameAntelope 5y ago

The best way I've found to think about this is that, physiologically, there's nothing stopping your brain or mine from being the brain that holds a GM mind. However, in order for that to have happened, we needed to have our brains manipulated a very specific way as children, when plasticity was at its highest, into learning how to think the way that best fits with being a chess GM. Since that didn't happen, our minds have settled into patterns of thinking that are very hard to now undo or rebuild, and likely not as well suited for chess. Could we tear down how we think about problems at a fundamental level and rebuild ourselves to think like GMs? Yeah, probably. Could we do this while maintaining any amount of day job, social life, or literally any other aspect of a natural human life? No, probably not. Changing not just your opinion on a topic, but literally how you think, seems pretty insanely hard to do after childhood/adolescence. I don't love the phrase "mental capacity", maybe "mental configuration" is more accurate.

foobarbaz33 5y ago
> here's nothing stopping your brain or mine from being the brain that holds a GM mind Is it really true everyone has the same mental potential? For the specific case of a chess GM, it could be many people have the potential. Or maybe not. There are some easy tests to quickly observe and compare mental traits between people. For example, some people can juggle many distinct numbers in their head at once. Their brain is like a computer memory. Personally I start to fall off around 4 variables when doing mental math and don't believe I can increase that significantly. Do I have (or ever had) the same potential as someone who can juggle 50 variables in their head?
password321 5y ago
We have different capacities. That is why some become a GM at 12 and some are stuck an IM for life. And it extends beyond just being a GM or not. No one atm is as good as Magnus Carlsen for example, yet have been training at even younger ages.