hey i read this page because i was curious about the brain and chess. if you are right handed you are usually left brain dominant and vis versa. if your left handed and analysis is on the right side of the brain would that give you an upper edge in overal learning of the game and how quick you can become better?
http://coe.sdsu.edu/eet/articles/dominance/index.htm

Thats not strictly true.

While right handed people are 90% likely to be left hemisphere dominant the picture is more equivical with us lefties with only 50-60% being rt hemisphere dominant.

At least thats what i remember from medical school. Im not a neurologist so am open to correction!!

I believe it to be true, I'm right handed, but when I click the submit move button using my left hand!!!!!

i am a visual learner which is on the right side of the brain so i think i'm right dominant. i am semi amadextrius or however you spell it. wouldn't people who had the right side dominant though be better at chess since that part of the brain does with analasys.

I'm left handed!

And, if you go online you can find thousands of articles analyzing the differences -

some of which, are much more researched and/or credable.

as for chess, well, do a little reasearch......

See how many GM's are left handed - then compare that to the ratio of left/right handers in the general population.

magnus carlesen is left handed and his elo is 2708 i dont know how many other gm's are left handed but i'll research it.

Ohh, and unfortunatly the issue isn't as simple as that

Am I left handed??

I write with - left
throw a ball - right
play tennis - right
cook - left
draw - left.

etc, etc

^ while I write with my left hand the majority of other things (such as sports) I tend to favour my right. -- thought it must be siad that when it comes to things such as tennis i have to play with both hands, then decide which one I am better with, because niether seem more/less 'natural' than the other...

Originally posted by kmac27
magnus carlesen is left handed and his elo is 2708 i dont know how many other gm's are left handed but i'll research it.

Originally posted by Shinidoki
Aparently so is boobby fischer, though the article has no citations or references....

i throw left
kick with both
write right
eat right liike with a spoon or fork
bowl with either shoot pool right
punch left. so i dont know what one i am either. i figure mainly left because baseball i use my left and i could have been ambidextrious if my dad had me throw and stuff with both hands.

This might be of intrest

http://www.bath.ac.uk/pr/releases/fingerlength.htm


The length of your index finger compared to the length of your ring finger could be an indication as to how well you can play chess.

I think the 'hard working hands' have the best chance by far. there's no miracle cure for laziness.

Originally posted by wormwood
I think the 'hard working hands' have the best chance by far. there's no miracle cure for laziness.

What a great question! I just wish I had a good answer.

I managed to dig up a couple of papers that reference a study by Cranberg and Albert (1986) in which they showed that left-handedness is more frequent among chess players than among non-players. However, nothing is mentioned about whether the lefties were better at chess than right-handers.

I wasn't able to locate the actual Cranberg/Albert study on the internet. The papers that I found referencing the Cranberg study are:

http://wjh1.wjh.harvard.edu/~cfc/Chabris1999d.pdf (see page 73)

http://www.tc.umn.edu/~athe0007/BNEsig/papers/NeuroscientificBasisOfChess.pdf (see pages 3 and 4)

Originally posted by kmac27
magnus carlesen is left handed and his elo is 2708 .