Air Pollution Causes Chess Players To Make More Mistakes, Study Finds

Chess experts make more mistakes when air pollution is high, a study has found. From a report: Experts used computer models to analyse the quality of games played and found that with a modest increase in fine particulate matter, the probability that chess players would make an error increased by 2.1 percentage points, and the magnitude of those errors increased by 10.8%. The paper, published in the journal Management Science, studied the performance of 121 chess players in three seven-round tournaments in Germany in 2017, 2018, and 2019, comprising more than 30,000 chess moves.

The researchers compared the actual moves the players made against the optimal moves determined by the powerful chess engine Stockfish. In the tournament venues, the researchers attached three web-connected air quality sensors to measure carbon dioxide, PM2.5 concentrations, and temperature. Each tournament lasted eight weeks, meaning players faced a variety of air conditions. Fine particulate matter, or PM2.5, refers to tiny particles 2.5 microns or less in diameter, which are often expelled by burning matter such as that from car engines, coal plants, forest fires, and wood burners. Further reading: Study Reveals Links Between UK Air Pollution and Mental Ill-Health.

Effect size?

[Mononymous]

There are several interesting numbers in TFS, but nothing to tell us whether or not this news for nerds is "stuff that matters".

Re: This Totes Does It

[fod_dzug]

I think it is arguing that we need cleaner air, which I am for. If you can clean up the air without regulation, great.

Re:

[Darinbob]

I love the smell of capitalism in the morning. Smell like.. profits!

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[Z80a]

Given how you probably can prove that the air pollution is poisoning and killing people, it's probably a case of legal matters rather than regulations.

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[Iamthecheese]

>On shoddy science.

Would you care to specify the problems you have with this science? Which methodological problems do you see? How is the research incomplete or biased?

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[gosso920]

The article doesn't mention how many players utilized anal beads while playing, and how that counteracted the effects of air pollution.

Sample size too small

[FeelGood314]

https://pubsonline.informs.org... [informs.org]

They are basically saying there is a correlation between event performance and air pollution at the event. With only 7 events I'm not convinced. It could be the food served, the time of the year, the temperature or just statistical noise.

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[timeOday]

Definitely would need to be replicated before taking at face value.

I wonder if players are barred from using air tanks? Oxygen has been shown to enhance cognition [nih.gov].

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[JeffSh]

keep performance enhancing drugs out of chess.

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[guruevi]

Or other things that correlate with air pollution, such as noisier environments and busier (more stressful) cities, putting players on edge. Given all that 2% chance at making a mistake based on the optimal move a chess computer does, that's assuming the chess computer does predict something humans would do in the first place.

Clear Correlation

[Roger W Moore]

Well, we would expect air pollution to correlate to increased mistakes at some point because when you can't see the board due to billowing smog you are definitely going to make mistakes.

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[rk1234567]

Fuel-driven vehicles are also a major cause of pollution in the world, which release large amounts of pollutants through smoke.

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[rk1234567]

Fuel-driven vehicles are also a major cause of pollution in the world, which release large amounts of pollutants through smoke. [autorepairszone.com]

In other news:

[fbobraga]

Water is wet

Performance Enhancement

[quantaman]

Does this mean that chess players will start "doping" in online play by using air purifiers and supplementary oxygen?

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[fropenn]

On the other hand, if I want to win I should take up smoking during games or at least have burritos for lunch.

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[GFS666]

Does this mean that chess players will start "doping" in online play by using air purifiers and supplementary oxygen?

If I was doing competitive chess, that's what I would do. And I do not think it would be considered "doping". This is removing an exterior influence, not adding something to your "interior" body like a drug.

From the "WHO GIVES A SHIT" department....

[bev_tech_rob]

Really? Nothing better to study?

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[account_deleted]

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[account_deleted]

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[CEC-P]

Because people do other things in that air than play chess. This is the example.
Just kidding, it's all a ploy to get chess players to wear plague doctor masks to increase viewership.

Neat

[Powercntrl]

If there is an effect, it is obviously not linear because you would've had players eating the chess pieces, back when they used to allow indoor smoking everywhere.

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[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Correlation

[Whateverthisis]

So the AI, that runs on computers and data centers and thus eats up tons of power producing carbon emissions, is cheating by poisoning it's human grand masters?

That seems like the logical conclusion here.

Re:Correlation

[hey!]

People have actually looked into this question -- whether rising baseline CO2 levels might affect human decision making. Right now we're centuries away from having a problem with that *outside*. Outdoors CO2 is a trace gas with a concentration of around 420 ppm and cognitive impairment starts at around 1400 ppm. But *indoors* is a different story. We're already at a point where some people are working or studying in environments above that 1400ppm threshold.

In a well ventilated workplace the CO2 levels should be below 800, but levels as high as 2000, or even 5000 are not unheard of, particularly for things like conference rooms, classrooms, and some industrial settings. 5000 is the OSHA exposure limit, but really that should be much, much lower, especially in situations where cognitive impairment is in itself dangerous. As baseline CO2 creeps up at 25 ppm/decade, you won't have to go so far out on the right tail of the bell curve of bad design to see problems.

Now as always there's a lot to unpack here, because high levels of CO2 also highly correlated with other indoor pollutants which are known to *also* impact cognition. The bottom line is that anyone designing office space or schools really, really needs to pay more attention to ventilation. It's not just that there's 125ppm more CO2 in the air than there was fifty years ago; it's now we understand so much more about the impact of indoor air quality on worker performance. That should have been a Captain Obvious revelation, but evidently it wasn't so obvious to a lot of building designers.

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[Tim the Gecko]

Outdoors CO2 is a trace gas with a concentration of around 420 ppm and cognitive impairment starts at around 1400 ppm.

There's an interesting story in The Atlantic [theatlantic.com] about how knowing the indoor CO2 levels can make you miserable (or freezing cold and even more miserable).

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[hey!]

I don't know for how many years I've made this very recommendation to managers: don't bother measuring things you have no intention of doing anything about. Particularly something you're neurotic about.

Ever stop to consider ...

[PPH]

... that the people conducting these studies might be the ones huffing soot?

It's amazing what computer models can do

[Oligonicella]

to support an agenda.