Adaptivity

Each individual brings his or her own unique set of strengths and weaknesses to any new chess position. A chess problem that is quite easy for one person might be impossible for another. In order to benefit from chess training, the level of difficulty must be appropriately set at a level that is challenging without being discouraging. This level is different for each individual, and it will change over time as performance improves. The response to challenge is a central component of how the nervous system operates, and shaping the response properties of the system progressively and adaptively is a part of all effective learning processes. This critical insight into the effectiveness of chess training is put into practice in the precise methods by which chess difficulty is adjusted. Each task needs to be adapted in a way that optimizes training intensity and improvement in that domain. The ability to adjust a task’s difficulty in response to an individual users’ performance on a moment-to-moment basis is one of the key innovations in chess training that has been made possible by computer technology.