How master chess players choose their opening gambits

Stanford study analyzes frequency of specific moves in 3.45 million chess games.

Found evidence of players copying winning moves (success bias), choosing atypical moves (anti-conformity bias), and copying moves by celebrity players (prestige bias) Study was published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Stanford s.

Study finds evidence of cultural biases in chess openings of master-level games played betwe 3.45 million 2019.

In the Queen's Pawn opening, players sometimes choose outlandish moves to rattle opponents (anti-conformity bias) In the three Kann opening, the study found that players mimic moves associated with winning chess games more often than expected by chance.

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