Chess Masters Play Both Sides of the Brain

Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, German researchers found that chess masters bring both sides of their brain into play�a kind of cognitive “parallel processing.” Amateur chess players, by contrast, engage only one side of the brain when playing chess. In cognitive tasks unrelated to chess, however, the expert players used no more brain power than the amateurs. The results would seem to say less about chess than about the cognitive bases of expertise: parallel processing is cultivated with practice, and is part of the development of mastery over a given skill. �via New Scientist