A Novel Investigation of Attack Strategies via the Involvement of Virtual Humans: A User Study of Josh Waitzkin, a Virtual Chess Grandmaster

Abstract

A growing body of evidence suggests that attack is a significant concept that has been explored by researchers from various disciplines such as marketing, psychology, and computing. Additionally, there has been substantial research undertaken on the role of attack in chess, which brought significant contributions to different fields of research. In this paper, the researcher investigates the attack concept in chess, as a strategic game by exploring virtual chess players of different strategies. In particular, the researcher explores the performance of an attacking grandmaster against three other class-A players of different chess personalities that vary in controlling the center of the chessboard. To this end, the researcher collected data from four virtual chess players: a grandmaster and three class-A players. The selected grandmaster is Josh Waitzkin who is known for his fearless attacking style and deep endgame understanding. The class-A players have different personalities: (1) a player who strongly controls the center of the board; (2) a player who ignores the center; and (3) a player who offers traps to control his opponent. The researcher measured different dependent variables including the errors of the players and the moves of the games. The findings show that class-A players of particular chess personalities perform differently. Additionally, the study reveals that there is a positive relationship between the findings and some of the existing real-life scenarios in the business domain.