Chess players perform worse under reduced air quality

Josie Sharp, Reporter, explains the effects of air pollution on the human mind and what we should do about it

AIR pollution has become an increasingly important topic that can be easily missed in the tornado of information around climate change. Recently, new impacts of air quality have become apparent but luckily new strategies to tackle its source are also emerging.

Researchers at the University of Adelaide have succeeded in developing ‘green hydrogen,’ so named because its only byproduct is water vapour, after separating the hydrogen from the oxygen in water. This electrolysis process uses electricity and creates hydrogen fuel, providing an alternative to fossil fuels, hence its ‘green’ description (if the electricity is obtained from a green source). This would vastly reduce the air pollution that we are being affected by without even realising.

Indoor air quality is largely unthought of when discussing brain health in the workplace, but many recent studies show that the quality of air in a work environment greatly affects cognitive power. As more and more critical thinking is both required and expected in corporate office jobs, air quality must be considered and studied.

Steffen Künn, Juan Palacios and Nico Pestel completed a study in January which investigated how indoor air quality affected strategic decision-making by chess players during tournaments. Why chess players? People who play chess professionally have to consistently be making non–routine strategic decisions, requiring intuition, perception, and problem–solving skills, all of which demand a large amount of cognitive power. Scientists studied 30,000 moves across two years’ worth of tournaments, then compared their moves to the chess en- gine ‘Stockfish’ which finds the optimal move that could have been made. The air quality was found by measuring the concentration of fine particle matter in the air that had a diameter smaller than 2.5 micrometres (2.5μm). Various studies have concluded that any particles smaller than 2.5 are tell–tale signs of air pollution, as the droplets that are inhaled at this size can enter the bloodstream.

Scientists studied 30,000 moves

The results showed that when the fine particle matter was below 2.5μm, it significantly increased the likelihood that the players did not select the most optimal move according to Stockfish. The increased probability per move was 2.5 per cent, which resulted in in a 26.3 per cent overall likelihood per match, showing how air quality significantly altered the chess players’ decision-making each game. Do we need to start considering air pollution in strategic games such as chess? With the development of green hydrogen, we are slowly repairing our ozone layer and fighting against air pollution. However, it is still unknown if enough is being done to counter the worrying fact that air pollution is affecting our cognitive functions.