The superior capability of chess experts largely depends on quick automatic processing
skills which are considered to be mediated by the caudate nucleus. We asked whether
continued practice or rehearsal of the skill over a long period of time can lead to structural
changes in this region. We found that, comparing to novice controls, grandmaster and
master level Chinese chess players (GM/Ms), who had a mean period of over 10years of
tournament and training practice, exhibited significant smaller gray-matter volume in the …

Chess is a good model to study high-level human brain functions such as spatial cognition,
memory, planning, learning and problem solving. Recent studies have demonstrated that
non-invasive MRI techniques are valuable for researchers to investigate the underlying
neural mechanism of playing chess. For professional chess players (eg, chess grand
masters and masters or GM/Ms), what are the structural and functional alterations due to
long-term professional practice, and how these alterations relate to behavior, are largely …