Saturday, February 19, 2022
I used to believe Chess was a game of minds, finding patters and was absolutely pure and then I came across this tweet and was really devastated by reading what women chess players have to go through.
Adding fuel to the misery, I was shocked when I read this comment from Susan Polgar. This is utterly shameful and disgusting and despite being at the top of their career, this is what they have to face. And the fact that this has been going on for 5 decades is shameful in itself. Do you know the story of Polgar sisters? It is interesting to know even if you don’t follow Chess.
Lazlo Polgar was born in Hungary, with no grandfathers, grandmothers, no cousins. Everyone was wiped off in the Holocaust and luckily he survived along with his father. Since childhood he always aimed to have a family, and a special one. Right from his college days, he realised that the education system was broken and he could raise up geniuses if he gave his kids the right head start. He then met Klara, daughter of his mother’s friend and shared his vision for his children. Soon they got married and gave birth to their first daughter, Susan, in 1969. Lazlo picked up chess for this genius and started training Susan in 1972, yes, at the age of 3 years, Susan Polgar was learning pawn attacks. Within months of training, Susan was learning end games and openings and beating men in the championships. She was years ahead of her peers in school and Lazlo decided to educate her at home so that she could focus on chess training. The couple then gave birth to Sofia and Judit, who too went on to become chess GM. Susan became the first woman to qualify for the men’s world championship, although the Chess Federation did not allow her to participate, and the rule soon changed because of her accomplishments. At age 21 Susan became the first woman to achieve grandmaster status by playing against men. The other two prodigies too went on to become great chess players and even now dominate over the board.
“Kids today are smarter than us when we were their age.”
If you use twitter, there should not be any doubt about the above mentioned statement.
Researchers have found that scores on IQ tests have actually improved over time. On average, IQ test scores worldwide have been increasing over time: younger generations perform better than older generations. Per generation, the average IQ test scores increase by 10 points. This is called the Flynn effect.
Why does it occur?
There’s no one reason behind this. Our education system has improved, our eating habits, lifestyle and everything has gradually improved. We’ve started addressing many of the public health issues that prevented people in earlier generations from reaching their full potential. The Flynn effect tells us that the human mind is much more adaptable and malleable than we might have thought. It seems that some of our thinking patterns aren’t necessarily innate, but rather things that we learn from our environment. When exposed to modern industrial society, we think about the world in different ways than our ancestors did. This actually tells us that IQ can be shaped by the environment we live in.
This reminds me of the importance of environment, the importance of your friend circle(or semi circle). Oh! It’s a small world, everything is linked with each other. Leaving you here to ponder upon the link and how it becomes a full circle.
See you on next Saturday, until then have a great weekend :)
Cheers!
Some things that you may find interesting-
Article: Myths about how humans burn calories
Movie: The Game Changers (settles the debate of veg v/s non veg)
Song I am listening to: A Thousand Years by Christina Perri
Thought of the week: “The Flynn effect serves as a reminder that when we give people more opportunities to prosper, more people do prosper.”
Here are the last three posts if you were too occupied to read them: