How CircleChess and Neurostellar are bringing cognitive science into chess training
Chess is a game of skill, calculation and concentration. But how much do we really know about what happens in a player's mind during a game? CircleChess and Neurostellar are exploring this question by bringing cognitive science to chess training. Their initiative combines chess data with cognitive-performance tracking to study focus, endurance and decision-making. Here’s a look at how this could add a new dimension to understanding chess performance. Photos: CircleChess
A different way to read a chess game
When we analyse a chess game, we usually focus on the board. We look at the moves, find the mistakes, check the engine evaluation and try to understand where the game changed. If a player makes a blunder on move 40, for example, we can identify the mistake and find the better move. But one thing this process doesn't tell us is what was happening with the player when they made that decision.
Were they losing concentration? Were they mentally tired? Were they struggling under time pressure? Did their ability to maintain focus change as the game progressed? CircleChess and Neurostellar are trying to explore these questions.
They have introduced a tournament format called Battle of Brains, which combines competitive chess with cognitive-performance tracking. The first edition took place in Chennai on August 22.
Kumar Gaurav, Founder of CircleChess, explained the thinking behind the initiative:
For years, we have looked at chess through the lens of moves, mistakes, preparation and engine evaluations. But there is another layer that we have always found a gap in - what is happening in a player’s mind while they are making those decisions. Why does focus drop? Why does decision-making change under pressure? Why can the same player perform so differently across different moments of a game? Our partnership with Neurostellar allows us to start looking at those questions in a completely new way. Battle of Brains is a first step towards bringing cognitive intelligence into competitive chess, and we believe this could fundamentally change how players understand, train and perform.
- Kumar Gaurav, Founder, CircleChess
This tournament combines two technologies: Caissa, CircleChess' chess platform, is where the players compete online, while Orbit, a cognitive-tracking device developed by Neurostellar, is worn by the players during the games. Caissa looks at what is happening on the chessboard; Orbit looks at what is happening with the player. This creates two different sets of information from the same game.
Caissa can identify mistakes, weaknesses and patterns in a player's chess. Orbit, on the other hand, provides measurements related to cognitive performance like cognitive endurance, deep-work duration, focus and changes in cognitive state. Karthik Raghavendran, Founder and CEO of Neurostellar, explained what they hope to understand through Orbit:
We built Orbit to answer a simple question: what does peak mental performance actually look like, moment to moment? Battle of Brains was the first time we got to answer that live, on a leaderboard, in front of a room full of players and spectators.
- Karthik Raghavendran, Founder & CEO, Neurostellar
Let's take an example. Imagine a player has played very well for the first 40 moves. Their calculations have been accurate. Then, suddenly, they make an unusual mistake. A normal game analysis can tell us exactly what went wrong. The engine can show the best move and explain how the evaluation changed. But it cannot tell us why the player made that mistake at that particular moment. This is where cognitive data could provide another layer of information.
If the player's cognitive performance also changed around the same point, it gives us something new to investigate. Was the player experiencing mental fatigue? Had their ability to sustain focus changed? Was the long period of calculation beginning to affect their performance? This does not mean that cognitive data can automatically explain every chess mistake. The relationship between how we think and the decisions we make is much more complicated than that! The idea behind this initiative is to look for patterns.
This could become interesting when a player has a large number of games to analyse. Suppose Caissa studies hundreds or even thousands of games and finds that a player repeatedly makes calculation errors towards the endgame. That already suggests that calculation over a prolonged period may be an area that needs work. Now add cognitive data to the picture. If the player's cognitive reports show a similar change in performance during those periods, then we have another factor to consider. A player might need specific training to work on calculation skills as well as maintaining concentration and endurance.
Play → Measure → Identify → Train → Measure again.
In this way, chess training can be made more personalised.
GM Vishnu Prasanna, Chief Chess Officer at CircleChess, is working directly with Neurostellar on the initiative. His role is to connect cognitive-performance data with the practical realities of chess. He can identify what was happening on the board when a player's cognitive performance changes.
Were the player's calculations becoming less accurate? Were they taking longer to make decisions? Were they making more tactical errors? Were they changing their style of play? A chess coach can identify this better!
Vishnu explained what the first Battle of Brains event showed and where the project could go from here:
Battle of Brains in Chennai was an important first step in changing how we understand chess performance. For decades, we have measured players through results, ratings and engine evaluations, but that tells us only what happened on the board. By combining chess data with cognitive data, we can begin to understand how a player’s focus, endurance and decision-making change under real competitive pressure. The first event gave us valuable validation, and our goal now is to keep improving the technology and eventually make this a meaningful part of how chess players train, compete and understand their own performance.
- GM Vishnu Prasanna, Chief Chess Officer, CircleChess
Another interesting part of this project is the involvement of Paddy Upton, a mental conditioning coach who has worked with World Champion Gukesh in the past. His role brings the mental-performance side of the project into focus. Once players have information about their cognitive performance, the next question is: What can they actually do with it? If a player discovers that they struggle to maintain focus during prolonged periods of calculation, they could then work on specific techniques to improve that.
Below is a sample cognitive-performance report generated by Orbit. It shows how a player's session might be broken down and analysed.
The question Battle of Brains is exploring is whether we can understand the circumstances in which mistakes happen. This is still an early-stage project. If this approach works as intended, it could add a new dimension to chess training!
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