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11/5/2020 A team of scientists from Germany, the Netherlands and the USA studied the development of cognitive abilities in humans and evaluated them using chess games. The result: cognitive skills only increase up to a certain age and today's chess players play better than those of previous generations. | Picture: Pixabay

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A team of scientists from Germany, the Netherlands and the USA researched the development of intelligence by evaluating the results of a total of 24,000 chess games played between 1890 and 2014 with a total of 1.6 million moves.

The scientists wanted to find out whether and how the cognitive abilities developed over the course of the lives of the players in question and how the skills of players from previous generations compare with the skills of today's players.

With the help of computers the scientists evaluated nd compared the quality of the moves and looked for patterns and developments.

The scientists reached the following conclusions:

1. Human cognitive abilities are age-dependent. At first, they continue to increase, but from a certain age, around 35 years, they stagnate.

2. Today, people perform better in chess than people of the same age in earlier generations. The level of play has risen continuously over the course of the study period of almost 125 years.

The results were recently published in the "Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America" (PNAS).

However, Professor Sunde, one of the scientists who conducted the study, indicated a weakness of the study, which is that a lot of top players stop playing tournament chess around the age of 50.

Another arguable weakness of the study is the fact that the ability to play good chess is a very special talent. Good chess skills are not necessarily transferable to cognitive performance in other areas. Moreover, at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century chess theory was hardly developed. And the computer has dramatically increased the knowledge of chess and improved the level of play in the last 30 years.

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Chess and scientific research - Chessbase News

How competitive is Robert Saleh? Ill let you be the judge of that.

The 49ers defensive coordinator meets with a familiar foe Thursday night in Packers head coach Matt LaFleur. Saleh and LaFleur struck up a friendship while working together on Central Michigans staff in 2004 before crossing paths again in Houston, where Saleh held the title of defensive quality control coach. LaFleur, meanwhile, served as an offensive assistant under veteran coach Gary Kubiak.

The two eventually branched out with LaFleur ascending to head coach status in Green Bay via Tennessee and Los Angeles (where he rubbed shoulders with offensive prodigy Sean McVay) and Saleh joining forces with Kyle Shanahan (also a Texans alum) in San Francisco. Despite their shared past, the 41-year-old Saleh has no plans to go easy on LaFleur Thursday night. Its difficult to compartmentalize when your opponent is a close friend, unless youre Saleh, who claims hed go full throttle against his own mother if he ever got the chance.

Yikes. Saleh is not the sentimental type, it would seem. Jason Pierre-Paul of the Buccaneers made headlines last week when he expressed wanting to destroy his former team, the New York Giants, on Monday Night Football. Thats one thing, but dunking on your own mother? Thats cold.

The Saleh/LaFleur narrative is certainly a thread worth pulling on, but the bigger narrative surrounding Thursday night's game is the lack of available bodies with both teams weathering mass absences brought on by the continuing spread of COVID-19. Its a marvel the game is even being played with Green Bay trotting out spare parts at the running back position (forgotten sixth-round pick Dexter Williams will be tasked with backing up Aaron Jones in this one) and San Francisco down to its millionth-string wide receiver (who, apparently, is Richie James). To quote the great Jerry Seinfeld, good luck with all that.

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Niners DC Robert Saleh would gladly beat his mother in chess - CBS Sports Radio 910

GM Jeffery Xiong won the November 3 Titled Tuesday tournament, only his second Titled Tuesday victory so far. The American grandmaster finished on a fantastic 10/11 and remained undefeated.

Xiong had won once before, on April 18, 2017, which was also a qualifier for the Speed Chess Championship of that year. Like then, Xiong finished in clear first place in this week's tournament, an 11-round Swiss at a 3+1 time control with a total of 702 participants.

The live broadcast of the tournament.

There was a very surprising leader after seven rounds: IM Loic Travadon (@lolo9292), who was the only player left with a 100 percent score.

The French IM won his seventh game against the Indian talent GM Raunak Sadhwani (@RaunakSadhwani2005) in a game that can only be called The Dance of the Knights.

That was where the fun ended for Travadon, who lost three games in a row. In round eight, he was nicely outplayed by GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov (@ChessWarrior7197).

Xiong started with five wins before drawing with GMs Hikaru Nakamura (@Hikaru) and Vladimir Fedoseev (@Bigfish1995). The young American GM then won four games in a row to clinch the title, also profiting from the move-less draw between the other two players who were on 9/10, Sadhwani and the Dutch GM Jorden van Foreest (@joppie2).

Xiong's last-round win was against none other than GM Alireza Firouzja (@Firouzja2003). The American player surely knew his way in the Closed Sicilian, but it was only in the endgame that Firouzja blundered:

November 3 Titled Tuesday | Final Standings (Top 20)

Xiong won the $750 first prize, GM Daniil Dubov (@Duhless) won $400, Sadhwani $150, and Van Foreest $100. The$100 prize for the best female player went to GM Valentina Gunina (@Vanina1989) who scored 7.5/11.

Titled Tuesday isChess.com's weekly tournament for titled players. It starts each Tuesday at 10 a.m. Pacific Time (19:00 Central Europe) with a weekly prize fund of $1,600.

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Jeffery Xiong Wins Nov. 3 Titled Tuesday - Chess.com

When No. 8 Florida faces fifth-ranked Georgia Saturday in the Worlds Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party, all eyes will be on the Gators offensive attack against the UGA defense.

These are two of the best units in the country on their side of the ball, and they will meet as top-10 teams for the third consecutive year a first in the rivalrys history.

I think it's a chess match going back and forth, UF offensive coordinator Brian Johnson said. Trying to find what the best matchup is, how you can exploit certain looks that they provide. They have an excellent system and they recruit great players to go play in that system.

Three of those great players are unavailable for this game, with Georgia missing a trio of starters in safety Richard LeCounte (motorcycle accident) and defensive linemen Julian Rochester (ACL) and Jordan Davis (elbow). Nonetheless, this defense will still be Floridas toughest test yet.

The Bulldogs rank first in the SEC in six categories: opponent first downs, sacks, scoring defense, total defense, rushing defense and passing efficiency defense. They also boast the leagues third-best passing defense.

They play hard, and they have talent at every level of the defense, Florida coach Dan Mullen said. I dont want to say its just players. Kirby [Smart] has a great defensive scheme. They have answers to the questions. He knows it inside and out. They do a good job of putting their guys in great position to make plays, and theyre not afraid to tweak.

They can put big guys in the game to stop the run; they can put pass rushers in the game to get pressure; they can cover and play man coverage; they can try to confuse you with looks and a lot of different zones; they mix it up a lot. Theyre a very, very good defensive football team and its not one thing that makes them a great football team. Its every layer of it.

As good as Georgia is defensively, the Gators have been even more elite on offense. Theyre the best in the country at red-zone conversions and rank No. 2 in the SEC and top-10 nationally in five categories: yards per play, scoring offense, passing offense and passing offense efficiency.

UFs total offense also ranks 15th in the FBS behind quarterback Kyle Trask, who leads the league with 18 touchdown passes and is the only player in school history to throw four-plus TDs in four consecutive games. His offensive line, which also ranks second in the SEC in sacks allowed, must hold its own against Georgias front seven.

Every time you play against a Coach Mullen offense there's different strengths, whether it's Dak Prescott or it's an elite back or elite receivers. It's always something different, Smart said. You try to play to your strengths and not always to his. This year, it'll be different obviously because we have different players on defense in terms of our injuries, and they're not exactly the same as they were last year.

What hasnt changed is the Kyle-to-Kyle connection between Trask and tight end Kyle Pitts, who ranks in the top five nationally in receiving touchdowns (7) and tight end receiving yards per game (88.8). Pitts didnt score against the Bulldogs in 2019, but caught four passes for 78 yards.

He demands double coverages, and Smart is unable to assign one player to Pitts because of how much Mullen lines him up at different spots.

You gotta know where he's at, certainly, Smart said of Pitts. He's extremely talented. I mean, he was extremely talented last year. He's only gotten better. Seems like he's gotten a little bigger, a little more physical. Dan finds ways to use him in both the run game and pass game.

But, he's elite. He's first-round talent, there's no question about that. In a lot of my history in the SEC, I don't know that there's been a guy like that. He's a receiver/tight end in one.

In the 24-17 loss last season, Floridas offense only gained 278 total yards, converted just 2-of-9 third-down attempts and lost the time of possession battle (35:48 to 24:12) with only seven possessions. Johnson said first downs will be critical Saturday and his unit has to score touchdowns not field goals in the red zone.

We have some great players on offense, and they have great players on defense, Johnson said. We gotta do a great job of putting our guys at positions so they can go and make plays on a consistent basis.

I think the biggest thing is us going out there and playing at an extremely high level and doing what we do to go win the game.

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Florida-Georgia game will be 'chess match' between Mullen, Smart - GatorBait.net

By Michael Brown, CP Op-Ed Contributor | Saturday, November 07, 2020 Michael Brown holds a Ph.D. in Near Eastern Languages and Literatures from New York University and has served as a professor at a number of seminaries. He is the author of 25 books and hosts the nationally syndicated, daily talk radio show, the Line of Fire.

As a boy, I remember watching the epic chess battle between Boris Spassky and Bobby Fischer. It was aired on channel 13, the PBS station in New York, and a bell would ring, announcing the latest move. This, in turn, would be posted on the screen, after which the experts would debate the reason for the move.

Sometimes, they would be utterly baffled. Why would Fischer do this? It makes no sense. What was Spassky thinking?

Then, after playing out a number of potential scenarios, sometimes a dozen or more moves ahead, they would realize the strategy. It was absolute genius.

When it come to the Lord, the one who inhabits eternity and who sees the end from the beginning (see Isaiah 57:15 and 46:10), He is always an infinite set of moves ahead. That should give us comfort and faith in the midst of the current crisis. (Make no mistake about it. No matter what side youre on, were in the midst of a national crisis.)

Think about it.

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The greatest crime ever committed by human beings was to crucify the Son of God. Yet that was the act God used to make salvation available to the world. And without the crucifixion, there would be no resurrection. Who saw this coming in advance? Only the Lord Himself.

The book of Genesis tells us how the sons of Jacob (also known as Israel) sold their younger brother Joseph into slavery in Egypt. They did it out of malice, plain and simple. They knew they would never see him again. They got rid of him for good.

Joseph then ended up in a dungeon in Egypt, falsely accused of a crime he never committed while serving as a slave. But it was there, in the dungeon, that he accurately interpreted the dreams of two fellow-inmates.

Sometime later, this resulted in Joseph being brought before Pharaoh, the ruler of Egypt, to interpret his dreams. And this, in turn, led to him becoming Pharaohs right-hand man. (Literally, he went from the dungeon to the throne.)

As a result of his position and the wisdom God gave him, Joseph ended up saving the region from famine, also saving the lives of his own brothers and their families.

Years later, when they were afraid he would retaliate against them, he said to them, You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives (Genesis 50:20). God used your bad plan to accomplish His great plan.

In point of fact, what the brothers did to Joseph was downright evil, also causing their aged father years of mourning and grief. Yet God used this to save countless thousands of lives.

John 11 tells us when Jesus was informed that His good friend Lazarus was sick, He waited a few days before going to see him. Why? The Lord wanted him to die so He could resurrect Him from the dead. This would bring greater glory to God.

Had the Lord simply healed Lazarus by speaking a word the moment He learned Lazarus was sick, people would not have realized that Jesus Himself was the resurrection and the life (see John 11:24-25). And the event would not even be recorded in Scripture.

The worst-case scenario led to the best case scenario, which is often how God works. Thats just who He is. Have you seen this happen in your own life as well?

In the last century, there was no greater horror than the horror of the Holocaust, the most devastating attack on the Jewish people in history. Yet it is out of the ashes of the Holocaust that the modern State of Israel was born. And, from a natural point of view, without the horrific evil of the Holocaust, it is unlikely that there would have been enough support in the United Nations to recognize a Jewish state.

This, of course, does not minimize the ghastly loss of life. It simply reminds us that God brings good out of evil and light out of darkness. That is who He is.

What does this have to do with the elections?

Lets say that there is massive corruption taking place in the presidential elections. Lets say the pollsters were intentionally biased. Lets say that Big Tech and Big Money really are working against Trump.

Then the mess we are in right now, one which puts us precariously near an all-out war on the streets, will lead to the exposure of corruption on a level we have never seen before. Let the light shine brightly! Let the darkness be exposed!

Conversely, if the corruption and darkness are being grossly exaggerated, the light will expose our gullibility, our willingness to believe almost anything, our propensity to be blinded by our biases. And for Christian Trump supporters who proclaimed him uniquely chosen by God and therefore called to a second term, the light would expose the degree to which we were seduced by a partisan political spirit.

I personally hope that the seemingly impossible happens, that Trump is proven to be the rightfully reelected president, and that the prophecies about him prove true.

But what if a Biden-Harris presidency was needed to reveal the dangerous radicality of the left, leading to greater spiritual desperation in the Church, leading to a spiritual awakening in the society? What if the worst-case scenario for tens of millions of conservative voters resulted in the transforming of even more millions of hearts in the years ahead?

I shared some of my thoughts on this on a Facebook livestream if youd like to hear more about the spiritual side of things. For the moment, though, I encourage you to put your faith in God to work out His best purposes in the midst of chaos and crisis.

Hysteria and frenzy are not fruits of the Spirit. Faith and peace are.

And so, while I am deeply concerned about the state of our nation and know that many lives are at stake, I have a great sense of anticipation as well.

The ultimate Grandmaster has a plan.

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Dr. Michael Brown(www.askdrbrown.org) is the host of the nationally syndicatedLine of Fireradio program. His latest book isEvangelicals at the Crossroads: Will We Pass the Trump Test?Connect with him onFacebook,Twitter, orYouTube.

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God, the elections, and 4-D chess - Christian Post