The Akron Chess Club » BBC

Brain function begins faltering as early as 45

Contact Information — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 19:49:00 +0000

Brain function begins faltering as early as 45
A study published in the British Medical Journal suggests the brain’s abilities begin to decline as early as age 45.
Samantha Stainburn
January 6, 2012 17:55

A study published in the British Medical Journal suggests the brain’s abilities begin to decline as early as age 45, BBC News reported. Previously, scientists had thought that cognitive decline does not truly begin before age 60, according to BBC News.

“We were expecting to see no decline, based on past research,” Archana Singh-Manoux, who led the research team, told Reuters. “It doesn’t suddenly happen when you get old. That variability exists much earlier on. The next step is going to be to tease that apart and look for links to risk factors.”

Over a 10-year period, researchers at University College London tested about 5,100 men and 2,200 women between the ages of 45 and 70 on memory, vocabulary, hearing and visual comprehension skills, Fox News reported. They found a 3.6 percent decline in mental reasoning in women and men ages 45 to 49, Fox News reported.

Older people’s mental reasoning abilities declined more, the study found, according to Fox News. There was a 9.6 percent decline in the abilities of men ages 65 to 70 years at the start of the study, and the abilities of women in that age group declined 7.4 percent.

Not all study participants experienced “senior moments.” One-third of all individuals in the study showed no deterioration over the period, Reuters reported.

According to Reuters:

Pinpointing the age at which memory, reasoning and comprehension skills start to deteriorate is important because drugs are most likely to work if given when people first start to experience mental impairment.

“Previous research suggests that our health in mid-life affects our risk of dementia as we age, and these findings give us all an extra reason to stick to our New Year’s resolutions,” Dr. Simon Ridley, head of research at Alzheimer’s Research UK, told BBC News.

Source: http://www.globalpost.com

Why Chess and Economics don’t mix

Contact Information — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 13:42:00 +0000

Why Chess and Economics don’t mix

A Havard Professor (Grandmaster Ken Rogoff) on his chess addiction and why he had to give up the game

Click here to hear the interview.

Genius and Madman

Contact Information — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 03:06:00 +0000

Storyville: Bobby Fischer, Genius and Madman

James Walton reviews Bobby Fischer, Genius and Madman (BBC Four), the latest instalment of Storyville documentary series, which profiles chess grandmaster Bobby Fischer.
By James Walton
10:30PM GMT 30 Nov 2011

In July 1972, one sporting event dominated American TV. It was broadcast live in Times Square, and channels cleared their schedules for coverage. The occasion, rather improbably, was the World Chess Championship in Reykjavik.

One obvious reason for the interest was the Cold War element, with America’s Bobby Fischer taking on the Soviet champ Boris Spassky. Another, though, was Fischer. Storyville: Bobby Fischer, Genius and Madman (BBC Four) chronicled his extraordinary life with the aid of compelling footage and a series of eyewitnesses who still looked a bit shell-shocked at what they’d seen. By the end, both parts of the subtitle seemed equally accurate.

According to an early interview, Fischer first got serious about chess when he was seven. But “getting serious” was essentially a euphemism for full-blown monomania. Growing up in Brooklyn, with no father and a distant mother, Fischer spent every available moment playing and studying the game. By 14, he was the US champion, and already dreaming of the world crown.

Not, given his many neuroses, that he made it easy for himself when the time came. One of the many highlights last night featured the minders responsible for getting him to Reykjavik reliving “the most stressful week” of their lives. In the end, as Fischer mysteriously dithered, or just kept running away, Henry Kissinger had to personally intervene to persuade him to go. Then, having arrived two days late, he blew the first game with an unthinkably basic error – and the second by the even simpler method of not showing up on stage.

Before long, however, it wasn’t hard to see why the world had once been captivated by the sight of two men staring at a chessboard. And, to its great credit, the programme was never afraid to plunge us deep into the rarefied world where chess is played at a level that none of us can understand. Game six, for example, was apparently “a symphony of placid beauty” – which Fischer opened by moving a slightly different pawn than usual. “Spassky was ready for many things,” said one commentator last night. “But not for that.”

When, two months later, he’d finally won the 24-game match, Fischer was asked what he wanted to achieve next. “My goal now,” he unironically explained, “is to play a lot more chess. I feel I haven’t played enough.”

As goals go, this should have been achievable. But in 1975, before his first defence, he was stripped of the title when the chess authorities ran out of patience with his extravagant demands (including a lot more money and a total change to the rules of championship chess). After that, he began – or continued – the long mental decline that led him to embrace an anti-Semitism that would have seemed weirdly virulent even if he hadn’t been Jewish. On September 11, 2001, he made a rare public statement – to call the Twin Towers attack “wonderful news”.

None the less, Fischer never came across here as an out-and-out villain. (He was, after all, mentally ill.) True, his friends became increasingly exasperated – even to the point of regarding his death in 2008 with something approaching relief. Yet, their feelings always seemed closer to sadness than to anger, and that always seemed about right. Storyville could easily have served up a straight character assassination. Instead, it took the much braver – and wiser – decision to present the life of Bobby Fischer as a bona fide tragedy.

More here.

Chess girls

Contact Information — Sat, 25 Jun 2011 09:03:00 +0000

Susan Polgar Inspires “Chess Girls”

Chess Grandmaster Susan Polgar’s life is portrayed in the new BBC radio documentary “Chess Girls.”

Written by Melanie Hess

Susan Polgar’s parents defied the government in communist Hungary to school their daughter in a highly unusual way– chess, eight hours a day, every day.

Now a grandmaster, Polgar’s story of ascension to worldwide fame through her childhood as a unique education experiment is portrayed in BBC’s recent production, “Chess Girls.”

Polgar, who is well known for breaking the gender barrier in chess by becoming the first female grandmaster, had anything but a normal upbringing. The BBC radio documentary, which premiered June 16, shares the exceptional progression of Polgar and her two sisters, Judit and Sofia.

“My father had that idea even before I was born. When he had children he’d like to raise them in a special way,” Polgar said, “focusing on a certain area and trying to excel, rather than kind of being mediocre in many things.”

“Chess Girls” dramatized the irregularity of Polgar’s schooling and noted that the media was often surprised to hear the Polgar girls genuinely say they were happy.

Polgar said her family was often criticized, but she never felt negatively about her early days.

“My childhood was good,” Polgar said. “It was certainly very natural because it was the only environment I knew, so that was very normal for me.”

At 15 years old, Polgar was ranked as the number one women’s chess player in the world.

“I was pioneering in open competition,” Polgar said. “At that time, it was simply revolutionary because most women simply admitted that they are not as good as the men, just like in physical sport. Even though, chess is not a physical sport, but a mental exercise. Therefore, that has been a major theme of my career, to fight for gender equality.”

In her current position as the director of the Susan Polgar Institute for Chess Excellence (SPICE) and Knight Raiders coach, Polgar employs many of the same techniques her father used to help her achieve her status today.

“I incorporated all the different knowledge I acquired over the years,” Polgar said. “And I am trying to share the best of it with our chess team members here.”

Source: http://today.ttu.edu

An amazing feat

Contact Information — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 06:00:00 +0000

Deep sea hunter fishes underwater for five minutes – on one breath
by Scott Carmichael
Jan 24th 2011 at 12:30PM

Deep sea hunting is something you have to see to believe – in the video above, an Indonesian hunter swims to a depth of 65 feet, and stays there for just under three minutes. Other dives can send them underwater for up to five minutes. Armed with nothing more than his trunks, a pair of goggles and a spear gun, this hunter scours the seabed for his catch – staying underwater as long as it takes to catch what he needs.

Full story here.

Nature vs. Nurture: Is there such a thing as natural talent?

Contact Information — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 06:12:00 +0000

Click here to listen to the one hour lively discussion on BBC radio show “World Have Your Say” with host Ros Atkins, Matthew Syed, formerly the best table tennis player in the UK, former Utah Jazz NBA star John Amaechi, and Susan Polgar, etc.

The topic: Is there such a thing as natural talent?

LIVE on BBC Radio

Contact Information — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 17:00:00 +0000

I am on BBC Radio LIVE right now with British Table Tennis great Matthew Syed, former NBA player John Amaechi, and other star guests. The name of the program is World Have Your Say.

The topic is whether ‘talent’ is a useful and valid concept, or whether all excellence can be learned.

I am on BBC radio via Texas Tech KOHM radio studio. You can listen to it LIVE here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/audioconsole/?stream=live

A perfect move to Lexington, Kentucky

Contact Information — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 05:00:00 +0000

A Soviet chess master’s perfect move
Post categories: Into_America
Franz Strasser 13:08 UK time, Friday, 23 July 2010

Gregory Kaidanov is considered one of the best chess players in the world. He and his family emmigrated from the former Soviet Union to Lexington, Kentucky in 1992 and have never looked back. He teaches chess to students around the world over the internet, and says America is home now.

Here is the full 4 minute video.