Returning to competitive chess after a long absence can be incredibly frustrating. (A short absence can actually be helpful, for reasons I am not sure I fully grasp.)
Gata Kamsky, the aforementioned top-rated player in the US, challenged for the world championship in the 90s but set aside the game and went to law school. He returned to the board and shows flashes of his extraordinary talent and understanding of the game, but appears to lag far behind the world’s best in terms of opening preparation. He also plays very slowly, getting himself into terrible time pressure.
This all feels familiar to me (except of course the parts about talent and understanding). After skipping most of the 90s, I returned with a greatly diminished tactical facility and a general tendency to get WAY behind on the clock. This year, I was essentially inactive from February through mid-June, and now find those symptoms have manifested themselves again.
These things are generally chalked up to “mental rust.” There’s an interesting similarity between this effect and a disorder called Sluggish Cognitive Tempo, a form of attention deficit disorder that commonly displays in symptoms which are the opposite of classical ADHD, according to Wikipedia:
Instead of being hyperactive, extroverted, obtrusive, and risk takers, those with SCT are passive, daydreamy, shy, and “HYPO”-active in both a mental and physical way. Their demeanor is sluggish as if “in a fog” and logically they also process information more slowly. A key behavioural characteristic of those with SCT symptoms is that they are more likely to be lacking motivation…. Those with SCT symptoms show a qualitatively different kind of attention deficit more typical of a true information input and output problems such as memory retrieval and active working memory.
A person with ADHD is likely to have enhanced spatial and visualisation abilities – critical to good chessplaying; those with SCT appear to process logical information very slowly – like Kamsky (and me) running constantly short of time at the board. The “working memory” mentioned above is like computer RAM – it’s the space in your brain where you hold and process a bunch of stuff simultaneously – again critical for chess success.
SCT apparently stems from problems in the prefrontal cortex. I would be curious to know whether research has been done on the physiological basis for “mental rust”, i.e. lack of practice in specialized cognitive activities.
Any good drugs for SCT? :)
Besides beer?
As far as the short absence helping? Maybe it’s akin to strength training, where you’re supposed to give your muscles a day to recuperate between workouts.
Yes, so, if you’re not playing well, take a day off and drink beer.
SCT is a permanent problem, in as far as my personal experiences are concerned. Someone with SCT would display differences in symptoms after breaks or after considerable experience. It’s a “life-long” disorder, so to speak. In other words, playing chess would always be a problem. SCT patients would exhibit an inability to see the big picture and it wouldn’t matter how much they practice. A person wouldn’t just be great at playing chess for years, then take a long break and be slow at it. They would always be slow at it, and never really get it.
I tell you all of this because of my own personal experience with SCT and my research of it.
Correction, “Someone with NOT SCT would display differences in symptoms after breaks or after considerable experience.”
Sorry about that…
Hi James – thanks – not my intention to suggest that rusty chessplaying is exactly like SCT. Just that when you *are* rusty, you show some characteristics that are reminiscent of SCT.
Interestingly, this post is by far the most popular over the lifespan of this blog due to continual traffice coming in off of Google. That suggests to me that sluggish cognitive tempo is perhaps under-researched and there’s a dearth of public information.
I have a daughter, age 11 who displays all the symptoms associated with SCT. Are you guys doctors? I’m looking for advice on what types of accomodations can be made by her public school next year ??
Hi Kelly. No doctors here. (We have a lawyer or two but they mostly won’t admit it.) Hope you can track down some useful information elsewhere – last I looked in Google it seemed to me that good SCT information resources are not as plentiful as you might hope.
Scott, you wrote the article above on SCT? You made a significant error in explaining SCT vs ADHD. In fact, you stated the exact opposite.
Your statement “A person with ADHD is likely to have enhanced spatial and visualisation abilities – critical to good chessplaying; those with SCT find those abilities compromised.”
This is incorrect, the actual definition is
” Those with SCT have difficulty with verbal retrieval from long term memory, but may have greater visual spatial capabilities”
Just thought I’d clarify. We have a daughter with SCT, NOT ADHD.
:o)
Cheers.
Hi AnneMarie – looks like you’re right. Not sure how I misread that originally. It’s the speed of logical processing that appears impaired (according to wikipedia anyway). I’ll make a correction. Thanks – Derek
So if a child makes straight A’s in school, but cannot stay focused, has little to no motivation, and can be very lazy have this disorder? A lot of what is described here fits my daughter who was diagnosed with ADHD but doesn’t have the hyper at all. She does struggle with staying focused, she does not like reading and scores low on reading comprehension and is horrible at spelling (I know doesn’t make sense with the straight A’s but it’s how it is.). Math on the other hand she is a whiz at! I really want to get to the bottom of her issue before just going in and changing her medication for the third time in one year.
Well, what fun. I found your website and I am intrigued. “Ressemblences” seem related to the popular difficulties with ADD spectrum and other impairments involving executive function in the brain. Voila! fun with another bunny trail!
FYI about SCT. It is on a contiuum with ADHD at one end and SCT on the other; see also the ressemblence with tortoise and hare. It is also akin to ADD inattentive type, with a few less bells and whistles, if you know what I mean.
For the record you are accurate with the metaphor of computer processing speeds; it doesn’t mean the computer is broke, obsolete, or inferior, it just means, well, dial up compared to broadband. One could get lost in ressemblences, I am very aware of that.
I also saw remarks from others on the blog about evaluation and treatment and yes, there is but jump through all the hoops with the screening tools AND clinical evaluation tools AND the developmental history AND the school history. Combined give you a pretty decent starting point as well as benchmarks to measure improvement with the two primary treatment modalities necessary: RX and counseling. Ok well, that was fun. I will visit another day!
I would be very leery of labels. In my life I can tell you I rode the special school bus, started school a year late, and scored a year behind in my age category on a standardized IQ test as a child. I did show strong spatial abilities, i.e. was good at drawing when others drew scribbles. I had to take special math, reading, speech classes etc. through elementary school. As a result of my own intense efforts I eventually caught up with my peers and have probably surpassed many of them. I’m now a CPA. I earn six plus figures. Everyday I treat my brain like something to be bowed before my will and that goddamnit I can be smarter tomorrow than I am today. I believe it all depends on how much mental anguish you are willing to endure. If you’re just going to give up and say oh I’ll never improve, well you’ll probably get exactly that, nothing. I’ll never have the suborbital IQ of a Chris Langan, I realize that, but I don’t believe people are nearly as limited as they think.
About that last post, SCT isn’t related to a low IQ at all. In fact, i have SCT and an IQ of 135. The main symptons are the lack of attention and motivation for doing things which don’t imply any kind of mental challenge. I’ve looked everywhere for medication to keep me a bit more motivated or “awake” but found nothing. Can anyone help me out here? By the way i’m 18 and i’ve had this problem my entire life.