The effect of masks on cognitive performance.

The use of face masks has been a key response to the COVID-19 pandemic in almost every country. However, despite widespread use of masks in classrooms and offices around the world, almost nothing is known about their effects on cognitive performance. Using a natural experiment, I show that mandatory mask wearing has a negative causal effect on the cognitive performance of competitive chess players. I analyzed the quality of almost 3 million chess moves played by 8,531 individuals (ages 5-98 y) in 18 countries before and during the pandemic. Wearing a mask decreased the quality of players' decisions-a measure of their cognitive performance-by approximately one-third of an SD. However, the disruptive effect of masks is relatively short-lived, gradually weakening such that there is no measurable disadvantage from wearing a mask after roughly 4 h of play. The mask effect is driven by a large, negative effect for experts, with minimal change in performance at lower levels, and is stronger in high-incentive competitions. I provide support for a distraction mechanism whereby masks interfere with performance when working memory load is high.

Checkmates: Teens Mentoring Kids in Florida Chess Club

What makes a chess club hip? Could it be that watching hours of Netflix's The Queen's Gambit made it more popular, or is it simply because of the players and facilitators involved? At the Miami-Dade Public Library System's South Dade Regional Library, it is more of the latter. The library's weekly Chess Club program has been offered for nearly a decade, but in March 2020 it came to a halt when in-library programming was suspended due to COVID-19. When the club resumed at the beginning of 2022, turnout was lower than it had been in the past. We had a low turnout of about five kids when we started after COVID, but it steadily increased to about fifteen to twenty kids weekly, not including the teen interns.

Coronavirus disease 2019 scenarios for a long-term strategy under fundamental uncertainty.

Early on, scientists have pointed out that coronavirus disease 2019 is most likely here to stay, although its course and development are uncertain. This requires a long-term strategy of living with the virus. However, the urgency of new waves of infection and the emergence of new variants have invoked an approach of acute crisis management over and over, hindering the design of a structural approach for the long term. Exploratory scenarios can provide scientific strategic guidance to policy processes to be better prepared in this situation of fundamental uncertainty. We have therefore developed five scenarios, which describe the possible long-term development of the pandemic from an epidemiological, virological, and broader societal perspective. These scenarios are based on four driving forces that are both important and uncertain: immunity, vaccination, mutations, and human behavior. The scenarios are (1) return to normal, (2) flu+, (3) external threat, (4) continuous struggle, and (5) worst case. Working with scenarios is crucial for appropriate public communication and provides guidance for anticipating the various conceivable possibilities for the further course of the pandemic.

Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on psychomotric components in chess games for children aged 8-10

As teachers of physical education and sports coaches, we are concerned to keep informed about the latest developments in the field and to learn the best methods and techniques to enable students to take part in physical education and sports in the current conditions, especially within the context of the crisis imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic. We consider it important to know the psychomotor components of students aged between 8 and 10 years, through components of the game of chess. Chess prepares the young generation to integrate harmoniously into society, and resolves and strengthens their psyche to help them cope with difficulties and teaches them not to give up in times of adversity. In this sense, the main purpose of this chapter is to discuss the use of methods and means that aim to stimulate and improve mental endurance, and hence attention, to achieve the best results in children 8-10 years of age, as practitioners of chess in school. © 2022 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Family education in the sports initiation of chess from a scientific and innovative perspective

The article aims to expose ways of family education aimed at preparing families of Chess practitioners in the initiation phase. It is derived from an ongoing investigation, the results of which contribute to a line of work of the Study Group of School Sports Initiation, of the Faculty of Physical Culture, of the University of Sancti Spiritus "Jose Marti", focused on the search for knowledge theoretical and practical contributions that help to support, from a more scientific and innovative perspective, the role of the family in sports initiation in the spiritual context. The routes are presented in different modalities: workshops, activities, consultancies, recommendations, among others. The research methodology used is based on the dialectical approach, which allows the combination of theoretical methods (analysis-synthesis, historical-logical, induction-deduction), empirical (observation, interview, document analysis, self-assessment scale, analysis group, methodological triangulation) and mathematical-statistical (percentage calculation and descriptive statistics). The situation caused by COVID-19, prevents the experimentation phase of this proposal in the planned stage, but at the moment it is applied in the Sports Complex "Eumelia Abreu Carvajal" of the municipality of Fomento. Preliminary results reveal a very positive assessment of families on the pathways of family education, taking into account the three dimensions that are taken into consideration to assess the level of preparation: acquired knowledge, increased motivation and improved attitudes towards this practice sport in the initiation stage.

Overcoming enduring inequalities in Global Value Chains? Interpreting the case of Brazil’s Covid-19 vaccine supply through a chess metaphor: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Organization, Theory and Society

This article draws on the Covid-19 vaccine supply chain to illustrate the structural inequalities characterising Global Value Chains. We show how the highly unequal vaccine distribution between the Global North and the Global South is shaped by the concentration of high-added value activities of vaccine development and production in the Global North and their nationalistic economic policies. These policies are short-sighted, as they fail to take account of the health risks that low vaccination rates in the Global South entail, not only for the North, but for the whole world. Using the metaphor of pawns moving in a chess game, we advance two possible scenarios. In the first, regional suppliers from low- and middle-income Global South countries will remain unimportant actors in the global vaccine supply chain, leaving inequalities intact. In the second, these suppliers will upgrade their activities in the vaccine supply chain, supported by public policies fostering industrial infrastructure, systems reforms and technological standardisation, leading to a more polycentric supply chain configuration. The persisting concentration of the governance of Global Value Chains in the Global North, we argue, will not only exacerbate current inequalities, but also likely lead to worldwide health, economic and social vulnerabilities.

Developing of a program for online chess training

The development of computer technologies has created preconditions, and the Covid-19 pandemic – the need to create an opportunity to conduct a training process in chess entirely online. For the effectiveness of the process, it is necessary to develop a comprehensive program through which to conduct group training. The accepted hypothesis was: it is possible to conduct group chess training online with a sufficient degree of efficiency. The methodology used was: Comparative analysis of success in test form in over-the-board and online training;Comparative analysis of the cognitive anxiety of the competitors in the present and online form in connection with their results from the competition. A high degree of similarity was found in the results of the tests (14 out of 15), as well as in the degree of cognitive anxiety – 0.274 in over the board trainees and 0.316 in online trainees. © 2021, Scibulcom Ltd.. All rights reserved.

Online cheating amid COVID-19.

We present evidence of cheating that took place in online examinations during COVID-19 lockdowns and propose two solutions with and without a camera for the cheating problem based on the experience accumulated by online chess communities over the past two decades. The best implementable solution is a uniform online exam policy where a camera capturing each students computer screen and room is a requirement. We recommend avoiding grading on a curve and giving students less time but simpler questions on tests.

The Effect of COVID-19 Confinement in Behavioral, Psychological, and Training Patterns of Chess Players.

The outbreak of COVID-19 has triggered a pandemic, jeopardizing global health. The sports world is also suffering enormous consequences, such as the suspension of the Olympic Games in Tokyo or, in chess, the cancelation of the World Candidates Tournament 2020. Chess is a sport characterized by high psychophysiological demands derived from long training durations, tournaments, and games, leading to mental, emotional, and physical stress. These characteristics could provide chess players a certain advantage in facing quarantine situations. This study aimed to analyze the effect of COVID-19 confinement on behavioral, psychological, and training patterns of chess players based on their gender, level of education, and level of chess played. We analyzed chess players (N: 450; age = 38.12 ± 14.01 years) in countries where confinement was mandatory: Professional players (N: 55; age = 43.35 ± 13), high-performance players (N: 53; age = 38.57 ± 13.46), competitive players (N: 284; age = 36.82 ± 13.91), and amateur players (N: 58; age = 39.10 ± 14.99). Results showed that chess players significantly decreased physical activity per day while increased chess practise during the confinement period. However, anxiety levels remained moderate despite the anti-stress effects of physical activity. Amateur players showed a significantly higher level of social alarm than professional and high-performance players. Moreover, professional players showed higher values of extraversion than high-performance players and amateur players. In neuroticism, professional players showed higher values than high-performance players. In addition, the professional players showed higher scores in psychological inflexibility than competitive players. Finally, chess players with the highest academic level showed higher levels of personal concern and anxiety due to COVID-19 as well as lower psychological inflexibility compared to those with a lower academic level. In conclusion, chess players, especially those with a higher academic level, might have adapted their psychological profile to fit confinement situations and the worrying levels of physical inactivity.