I too play chess often and have had similar thoughts. But I wonder whether day-to-day variation in winning is mostly random, and any perceived correlation with other intellectual tasks is erroneous or self-fulfilling. You could do an experiment for a few weeks where you rate your ability on both each day—sometimes playing chess after, sometimes before other tasks—and measure the correlation. Of course it can’t be blinded so it may be self-fulfilling.
From another experiment I did on ways to improve sleep, I’ve found that self-perceived correlation between various ways to improve sleep (eg eating a banana before bed) and sleeping well turned out to be entirely illusory.
Also cf many years ago research showed that ‘form’ in sports (individual sportspeople going through extended periods of good or bad play) was almost entirely illusory and just random variation. Concurred by work I’ve been involved with on poker software—two identical computer programs playing each other can look like one is much better than the other for very long runs of hands.
I too play chess often and have had similar thoughts. But I wonder whether day-to-day variation in winning is mostly random, and any perceived correlation with other intellectual tasks is erroneous or self-fulfilling. You could do an experiment for a few weeks where you rate your ability on both each day—sometimes playing chess after, sometimes before other tasks—and measure the correlation. Of course it can’t be blinded so it may be self-fulfilling.
From another experiment I did on ways to improve sleep, I’ve found that self-perceived correlation between various ways to improve sleep (eg eating a banana before bed) and sleeping well turned out to be entirely illusory.
Also cf many years ago research showed that ‘form’ in sports (individual sportspeople going through extended periods of good or bad play) was almost entirely illusory and just random variation. Concurred by work I’ve been involved with on poker software—two identical computer programs playing each other can look like one is much better than the other for very long runs of hands.