This work explores the correlation between the game of chess and social conditions for women in both medieval and Renaissance France. Beginning with an introduction to the importance and symbolism of the game in European society and the teaching of the game to European nobility, this study theorizes how chess relates to gender politics in early modern France and how the game's evolution reflects the changing role of women. I propose that modifications to increase the directional and quantitative abilities of the Queen piece made at the close of the fifteenth century reflect changing attitudes towards women of the period, especially women in power. In correlation with this, I also assert that the action of queening, or promotion of a Pawn to a Queen, demonstrates evolving conceptions of women as well. This work seeks to add to the growing body of work devoted to the exploration of connections between chess and political and social circumstances during the periods under consideration. As the question of the interconnectedness between the game and gender relations is in its beginning stages of exploration, this thesis is offered as a further analysis of the gender anxieties and conceptions present in the game's theory and history.

An area of study that has received much attention over the past few decades is simulations involving threat assessment in military scenarios. Recently, much research has emerged concerning the recognition of troop movements and formations in non-combat simulations. Additionally, there have been efforts towards the detection and assessment of various types of malicious intentions. One such work by Akridge addressed the issue of Strategic Intention Recognition, but fell short in the detection of tactics that it could not detect without somehow manipulating the environment. Therefore, the aim of this thesis is to address the problem of recognizing an opponent's intent in a strategic environment where the system can think ahead in time to see the agent's plan. To approach the problem, a structured form of knowledge called Template-Based Interpretation is borrowed from the work of others and enhanced to reason in a temporally dynamic simulation.

Chess is a deep and intricate game, the master of which depends on learning tens of thousands of the patterns that may occur on the board. At Noctie, their mission is to aid this learning process through humanlike chess AI. A prominent challenge lies in curating instructive chess positions for students. Usually these are either manually found by going through large numbers of real games, or handcrafted – a time-consuming process. For effective learning, it is often useful to collect many positions following the same theme, or exhibiting the same type of pattern. Curating such collections from real games is a challenging task. This thesis investigates the transformer decoder-only architecture and its capability of generating realistic, game-like chess-positions. This investigation involved the development and training of a decoder model using Pytorch, and a simple web-based Turing test gaining larger understanding of testers experience. The developed chess model successfully generates chess positions, with constraining possibilities of fixed pieces, score intervals, and fixed empty positions. Controlled re-generation ensures satisfaction of score intervals, while empty positions are handled by iterating over the model's probabilities. Based on the limited data provided by the Turing test, the model seems to fool players below 2000 rank-points on chess.com, where guess percentages land near the 50 percent mark, providing no clear indication that it deviates from randomness.

The purpose of this bachelor’s thesis was to create a robot that could play chess through voice recognition and robotics. The two areas to be investigated were the robot’s precision and speed. The reason for building a robot arm of the SCARA type was that it can easily pick up and place pieces with reach over the entire chessboard. The robot arm is controlled from a Raspberry Pi 4 and is moved by two Dynamixel AX-12a servomotors. To pick up chess pieces, a continuous 360-degree servomotor was used to lift an electromagnet which was mounted on a gear rack. AUSB microphone was used to collect what move the player indicated. The Stockfish chess engine was used to generate moves for the robot. The parts of the robot that had the greatest impacton precision were the stability of the aluminum profiles, the gear ratio between the gears that transmit torque to the arm, the gear mesh contact ratio and the size of the electromagnet. The time it took to complete a move could be reduced by increasing the speed of the motors whena chess piece was not attached to the electromagnet, andusing a larger gear in the RC servo that raises and lowers the electromagnet. / Syftet med det här kandidatexamensarbetet var att skapa en robot som genom röstigenkänning och robotik kunde spela schack. De två områden som skulle undersöka svar robotens precision och hastighet. Anledningen till att bygga en robotarm av SCARA typ var att den enkelt kanplocka upp och ställa ner pjäser med räckvidd över hela schackbrädet. Robotarmen styrs från en Raspberry Pi 4och drivs av två stycken Dynamixel AX-12a servomotorer. För att plocka upp schackpjäser användes en kontinuerlig 360-graders servomotor som lyfte en elektromagnet monterad på iniumprofilerna, utväxlingenmellan kugghjulen som överför moment till armen, anliggningsytan vid kuggingreppen och storlek av elektromagnet. Tiden det tog att genomföra ett drag gick att minska genomatt öka hastigheten på motorerna då en schackpjäs inte sattfast på elektromagneten, samt använda ett större kugghjulhos RC servot som höjer och sänker elektromagneten.

The purpose of this thesis was to create a robot that through the use of visual recognition and robotics could play chess.The idea for this project came from the fact that there is an increasing demand for smart robots that can make their own decisions in a changing environment, and the fact that chess has recently seen a surge of new players. The optimal design of the arm making the moves was decided to be of SCARA type, which is a common robotic arm that excels in pick-and-place operations. The movement of the arm was driven by two stepper motors connected to a Raspberry Pi and an external power supply. Movement in the Z-direction was achieved through the use of a servo motor driving a gear rack vertically. A camera was placed above the chessboard, and through the use of numerous programs and functions, images were converted to chess notation which was then sent to a chess engine running on the Raspberry Pi. The visual recognition worked optimally when the chessboard was well and evenly lit. When lighting was poor, values that defined colors could be changed, allowing for proper evaluation of the colors, however when the illuminance dropped below 15 lux the blue pieces became indistinguishable from the black squares and therefore the visual recognition stopped working. / Syftet med det här examensarbetet var att skapa en robot som genom användning av bildigenkänning och robotik kunde spela schack. Idén till detta projekt kom från det faktum att det finns ett ökande behov av smarta robotar som kan fatta sina egna beslut i en förändring miljö och det faktum att schack nyligen har sett en ökning av nya spelare. Den optimala utformningen av armen som flyttar pjäserna beslutades vara av SCARA-typ, som är en vanlig robotarm som utmärker sig i ’pick-and-place’ operationer. Armens rörelse drivs av två stegmotorer anslutna till en Raspberry Pi och en extern strömkälla. Rörelse i Z-riktningen uppnåddes genom användning av en servomotor som drev en kuggstång vertikalt. En kamera placerades ovanför schackbrädet, och genom användning av flera program och funktioner konverterades bilder till schacknotation som sedan skickades till en schackmotor som körs på Raspberry Pi. Bildigenkänningen fungerade optimalt när schackbrädet var väl och jämnt upplyst. När belysningen var dålig kunde värden som definierade färger ändras för att möjliggöra korrekta utvärderingar av färgen, men när belysningsnivån sjönk under 15 lux blev de blå pjäserna oskiljbara från de svarta rutorna och programmet slutade därför att fungera

Many multiplayer games feature teams, and whether they are pitted against each other or against the game itself it seems likely that the way these teams bond will affect the players' experience. What are the factors that influence the experience of being a team member in a game? To what extent can the game designer manipulate the cohesion of the teams by changing the game design? How does the satisfaction of the player with their team relate to their feeling of cohesion? How does cohesion differ between tabletop and online games? These issues become particularly important where the group dynamic is central to the desired outcome of the game e.g. educational games aiming to place the players in specific social situations. Four studies were conducted on four similar simulation games (two tabletop, two online) used for teaching in International Development Studies. These games explore farming in sub-Saharan Africa and require 12-30 players to play in small groups. The group dynamics are important for the learning outcomes. Similar groups of participants (all students of International Development Studies) played one game each. Each group played for 3 hours before completing a questionnaire about their experience and wrapping up with a full-group reflective discussion. Results from the two tabletop games suggested that, as expected, altering the rules of the game manipulated levels of team cohesion. However, the lack of significant result from the two online games suggests that careful design is required to achieve the same outcomes in the online environment. This suggests that seemingly small changes between tabletop and online implementations may impact the game play experience in unanticipated ways. The team cohesion reported by the players was found to correlate strongly with the team member satisfaction levels of the players. The gender composition of the teams was shown to have a large impact on both team cohesion and team member satisfaction: having one or more females in the group significantly increased both measures.

This doctoral thesis consists of four papers. Strategic behavior across gender: A comparison of female and male expert chess players analyzes gender differences in risk behavior in chess. We use a panel data set with 1.4 million games. Most notably, the data contains an objective measure of individual playing skill. We find that women are more risk averse and that men choose riskier strategies when playing against female opponents even though this reduces their winning probability. Gender differences in time preference and inconsistency among expert chess players presents findings on gender differences in time preference and inconsistency in chess. Impatience is estimated by measuring preferences for game durations while inconsistency by exploiting the 40th move time control. The results reveal that men are more impatient while women are more time inconsistent. Moreover, the difference in impatience increases with expertise while the difference in inconsistency decreases. Beauty queens and battling knights: Risk taking and attractiveness in chess explores the relationship between attractiveness and risk taking in chess. We examine whether people use riskier strategies when playing with attractive opponents and whether this affects performance. Our results suggest that male, but not female, chess players choose significantly riskier strategies when playing against an attractive female opponent, although this does not improve their performance. Strategic Learning in Repeated Chess Games, examines if chess players in repeated games with the same opponent, learn about the opponent’s type and adapt future strategies accordingly. It also shows how matching background characteristics affect the choice of strategy. The findings show that chess players learn about the opponent’s type. Players with similar background characteristics coordinate better than players of different gender or nationality but this difference decreases as the players update their beliefs. / At the time of doctoral defense, the following papers were unpublished and had a status as follows:Paper 2: Manuscript. Paper 3: Manuscript. Paper 4: Manuscript.

Orientador: Gisele Maria Schwartz / Banca: Antonio Carlos Carrera de Souza / Banca: Alessandro Batezelli / Resumo: A presente pesquisa, de natureza qualitativa, teve seu objetivo centrado na reflexão acerca dos aspectos psicológicos e didáticos referentes à prática do jogo de xadrez nos contextos escolar, competitivo e no lazer, focalizando a atuação de profissionais envolvidos, sob a perspectiva da motricidade humana. O estudo foi realizado em duas etapas, constando de uma revisão bibliográfica acerca da temática em foco seguido pela pesquisa exploratória, desenvolvida por meio de entrevista estrutura, contendo 15 perguntas abertas. A amostra intencional foi composta por 13 sujeitos, brasileiros, professores de xadrez, de ambos os sexos, faixa etária entre 22 e 62 anos, com níveis socioeconômicos variados e escolaridade superior, com experiência no ensino do xadrez acima de 4 anos, sendo todos professores em escolas e/ou clubes e técnicos com reconhecimento nacional na modalidade, participantes dos Jogos Regionais, ocorridos no ano de 2006. Os dados, analisados descritivamente, por meio da Técnica de Análise de Conteúdo Temático, indicam que é possível notar que o jogo de xadrez constitui-se em um universo bastante amplo e, conforme o local de atuação, há variações na nomenclatura utilizada para designar este profissional como técnico ou como professor. O perfil referente à formação dos atuantes interferem sobre a forma com que lidam com xadrez tomado como jogo ou esporte, visto que, entre eles, poucos possuem em sua formação a Graduação em Educação física. Com base nos resultados da pesquisa, torna-se relevante a realização de novos estudos, capazes de aprofundar os conhecimentos acerca do ensino desta modalidade, tendo em vista vi as diferentes possibilidades de atuação profissional com o xadrez, bem como, a conscientização sobre as necessidades de adaptações para cada contexto, aprimorando a metodologia utilizada por eles na passagem do conhecimento. / Abstract: This research, of qualitative nature, has as objective to determine the psychological and didactic aspects referring to the practice of chess game in school, competitive and leisure contexts, focusing the performance of the professionals involved, under the perspective of human movement area. The research was based on literature review and on explanatory research, developed through an interview with 15 open questions. This instrument was applied to a sample compound by 13 Brazilian chess teachers, of both sex, between 22 and 62 years old, from different social economical and instruction levels, with experience in chess teaching in schools, and/or clubs up to 4 years, and coaches of national recognition, who have participated in the Regional Games, which happened in 2006. Data were descriptively analyzed through Thematic Content Analysis Technique, showing that chess game consists in a very ample universe, and according to the performance place there are some variations in the used nomenclature to assign this professional as coach or as a teacher. The profile referring to participants professional formation intervenes in the way they deal with chess, as a game or sport, since among them few are Physical Education Graduated. Based on the results of this research, it is relevant the accomplishment of new studies, deepening the knowledge concerning to teaching-learning of this modality, focusing the different possibilities of professional performance with chess, as well as, the awareness on the necessities of adaptations for each context, improving the methodology used when teaching. / Mestre

The serious leisure inventory and measure (SLIM) was tested with 348 chess players to confirm the factors, assess the effects of method bias, and propose a set of the best-performing items for the 18 factor SLIM. The 54-item SLIM demonstrated acceptable fit and reliability values. The effect of method bias was evidenced in the sample and explained one-third of the variance. Inspection of factor loadings, when controlling for method bias, yielded one best-performing item per factor. Findings indicate method bias continues to be problematic for self-report measures such as the SLIM.

Manqala games are played in large parts of Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, South-America and some parts of Europe. Bao is the variation which is found on the East African coast, and only in the Swahili speaking areas. Ways of playing Bao though differ along the coast, and de Voogt focused his research on the sophisticated variant of Zanzibar. The author deals with this Zanzibar variation of Bao in analogy to chess. The first aim of his research project was to find out what distinguishes a master of Bao from an ordinary player. Psychological methods, derived from the study of chess playing are his main methodological instruments, which make the book a remarkable study in the psychology of players, and the role of memory and calculation. His second aim is to introduce Bao to the field of computer games, comparable to computer-based chess.