All applications have been reviewed, and the winners have been chosen for the Fall 2023 cycle of the Chessable Research Awards!
The Chessable Research Awards are for undergraduate and graduate students conducting university-level chess research. Chess-themed topics may be submitted for consideration and ongoing or new chess research is eligible. Each student must have a faculty research sponsor.
Applications for the Spring 2024 cycle of the Chessable Research Awards are available until October 1, 2023. For more information, please visit this link.
From the Fall 2023 applications, Chessable chose one winner in the graduate student category and one winner in the undergraduate student category.
The graduate student winner will receive $1,000 and the undergraduate student winner will get $500. Each of their faculty research sponsors receives $500. Winning students will write Chessable blog posts, to be submitted by January 15, 2024, describing their progress on their research.
We’d like to thank the students who submitted research proposals. It was not easy choosing two winners from the excellent proposals submitted.
Let’s meet the winners:
Denise Trippold, Graduate Student Winner
Proposal: Talent identification in chess: Psychological correlates of chess skill in children and youth chess players
The faculty research sponsor for Denise Trippold’s research is Dr. Roland Grabner.
Denise Trippold is studying for her Master’s Degree in Psychology at the Karl-Franzens-University of Graz. She plays for the Austrian women’s team and is the 2023 Austrian women’s champion. She is also a coach, arbiter, and official. She has taught chess players from beginners at the local club to the top youth players in Austria. As a member of the board of the Austrian Chess Federation and as the leader of its women’s commission, her main aim is to support girls and women in chess.
On her chess journey, Denise met talented young chess players. She became interested in what makes youth chess players become good at chess. Her thesis examines the relations between chess skills and different psychological variables to provide a first step in the identification of psychological indicators of chess talent. Included indicators are chess-related activities, cognitive variables, personality, motivation, and more. Having children and youth chess players as research participants is special because most of the previous studies analyzed adult chess players. The data collection via questionnaire is already finished and analysis of that data is next.
Aditya Gupta, Undergraduate Student Winner
Proposal: Determining Chess Piece Values Using Machine Learning
The faculty research sponsor for Aditya Gupta’s research is Dr. Vijay Tayal.
Aditya started playing chess when he was in the third grade. He is a US Chess National Master and the author of Becoming a Chess Master: Practical Tips and Strategies. He is the founder of ChessPupils, a non-profit organization which provides free chess instruction. He is also a Machine Learning enthusiast, interested in the intersection of chess with Machine Learning in all aspects of the game. In his free time, he loves to play tennis and solve chess studies. Aditya is a dual credit mathematics major at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
Aditya’s research uses Machine Learning methods to evaluate whether the value of the chess pieces really is pawn = 1, knight = 3, bishop = 3, rook = 5, and queen = 9. Using Machine Learning models and a dataset containing thousands of games, he is trying to find the true value of each of the chess pieces. The initial results seem promising, showing that much of the system may hold merit in the values, but the evaluations may slightly differ.
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We’d again like to thank all the students who submitted applications for the Fall 2023 Chessable Research Awards. We look forward to applications for our Spring 2024 cycle of the Chessable Research Awards. For more information, please visit this link.
Featured Projects
The Chessable science team also has featured projects, some led by outside researchers and some conducted in-house. Science Project Manager Karel van Delft is seeking participants for in-house research on decision making in chess.
How well do chess players with different ratings solve different types of tactical chess positions? And how long does it take them to do so? The Chessable science team invites chess players to take part in an online test.
The test consists of ten positions which should be solved in a maximum of five minutes each. Before the test begins, there are two sample puzzles. After solving the positions, participants may answer some questions via a link.
Chess players of all levels can participate. The only condition is to have a FIDE Elo rating.
To participate, click on https://chessable.typeform.com/decisionmaking to fill in a short questionnaire (Elo rating, name, etc.). After a few weeks you will get a link to the online test.
Names of participants will be kept confidential. The research results will lead to a research paper and a blog on the Chessable science pages.
Via the questionnaire participants can opt for a one-month free Chessable PRO Account. To get the Chessable PRO account, list your existing Chessable account or create a Chessable account for free at www.chessable.com. After November 21 you will see the PRO status when you open your account.
Links and Contact information
Chessable PRO Account: https://www.chessable.com/pro
Chessable science: https://www.chessable.com/science and click on the green banner “View Our Active Scientific Research”
Chessable science blogs: https://www.chessable.com/blog/chess-science
For questions or remarks, please contact Karel van Delft
Chessable Science Project Manager
[email protected]
