Chess and Children

By Vicki Hayes on Tuesday, August 11, 2009.

We spoke to psychologist Alison Gopnik today about young children’s ability to imagine alternate courses of action and their probable results – what philosophers call "counterfactuals."

That’s a helpful skill in the game of chess. Producer Vicki Hayes spoke with a pair of brothers, aged 13 and 9, who could be chess champs in the making. You can hear her story at the Public Radio Exchange.

(Photo by Ed Yourdon via Flickr/Creative Commons)

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