European Journal of Physical Education and Sport Science ISSN: 2501 - 1235 ISSN-L: 2501 - 1235 Available on-line at: www.oapub.org/edu Volume 3 │Issue 11 │2017 doi: 10.5281/zenodo.1036807 ANALYSIS OF CHESS GRAND MASTERS Egemen Ermiş1i, Necati Alp Erilli2 Yaşar Doğu Faculty of Sports Sciences, 1 Ondokuz Mayıs University, Samsun, Turkey Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, 2 Cumhuriyet University, Sivas, Turkey Abstract: In chess, in order to determine the status of chess players and their ranks in classification, World Chess Federation awards players with titles - provided that they fulfill certain criteria. The greatest title that can be earned is the title of Grand Master. In this study, age of becoming Chess Grand Masters has been studied. The factors which have caused the age of becoming a Great Master to fall rapidly in recent years have been researched. It has been found that birth dates close to our day and other social opportunities are influential in the fall of the age of Grand Masters. Keywords: chess, grand master, title, chi-square analysis 1. Introduction Chess is a complex intellectual game and is considered a hard mental activity that requires sophisticated problem solving skills and behavioral efficiencies. World Chess Federation (FIDE) describes chess as a game played between two opponents who move their pieces on a square board called a chessboard . The player with the light-colored pieces (White) makes the first move, then the players move alternately, with the player with the dark-colored pieces (Black) making the next move. A player is said to have the move when his opponent s move has been made FIDE Handbook, 7 . Chess, the game on which the greatest number of books have been has the feature of being the most computer programmed game. Accordingly, chess can be defined as an intelligence game played between two players and deserving computable infinite game description. Copyright © The Author(s). All Rights Reserved. © 2015 – 2017 Open Access Publishing Group 221 Egemen Ermiş, Necati Alp Erilli ANALYSIS OF CHESS GRAND MASTERS The term computable infinite seems very ambiguous, but how long the game will last cannot be fully calculated. The Belgian mathematician Maurice Kraitchik calculated that a 40-move chess game could be played in 25 10115 different forms (Kraitchik, 1955). This number is more than the total number of atoms on earth. When we examine the general opinions about chess, we can see that Reti describes chess as a game about which thick volumes have been written and to which the most serious people have devoted all their lives. Reti also states that chess is more prevalent in culturally prestigious countries and that it is a purely mental game that excludes chances. Chess is a new and constantly developing art, and perhaps it is a science (Reti, 2009). Chess is the embodiment of brain gymnastics. As it is played between two people, it is a brainstormed sport with many people, even the person himself or with the computer (Averbach, 2000). As for former World Champion Garry Kasparov, chess is far too complex to be definitively solved with any technology we can conceive of today (Kasparov, 2007). So many descriptions about chess actually summarize the beauty of chess sport. Chess literature is a term used for a very large field, and in fact it contains all of the chess pieces, as well as the pieces that are of any interest to chess like chess articles, chess compositions, chess history, chess books, chess magazines and chess software. We can group the works on chess written in recent years into four categories: Studies involving the relation of chess sports to education: De Bruin et al. (2014), Kazemi et al. (2012), Howard (2011), Gerdes and Gränsmark (2010), Bilalic et al. (2009), Bilalic et al. (2007), Draper (1963). Studies on chess computer programs and their effects, calculations etc: Barnes and Castro (2015), Dailey et al. (2014), Bennett and Lasenby (2014), Bühren et al. (2012), Krawczyk et al. (2011), Bourzutschky et al. (2005), Ewerhart (2002), DeCoste (1997), Peterson (1996), Adelson-Velskiy et al. (1975). Studies on sports psychology: Gliga and Flesner (2014), Hänggi et al. (2014), Howard (2014), Gobet and Ereku (2014), Charness (2012), Ruiz and Luciano (2012), Moxley and Ericsson (2012), Linhares and Fritas (2010), De Bruin et al. (2007), Grabner vd. (2007). Studies based on mathematical calculations such as position calculations or number of moves in chess: Chassy and Gobet (2015), Gong et al. (2015), Thanatipanonda (2014), Vecek et al. (2014), Sörqvist vd. (2013), Boros et al. (2012), Regan and Haworth (2011), Erilli et al. (2010). For viewing / downloading the full article, please access the following link: https://oapub.org/edu/index.php/ejep/article/view/1138 European Journal of Physical Education and Sport Science - Volume 3 │ Issue 11 │ 2017 222