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Published online 6 August 2004 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news040802-19

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Science secret of grand masters revealed

Chess experts gain the edge over opponents by falsifying their own ideas.

For all you budding Kasparovs out there, a team of cognitive scientists has worked out how to think like a chess grand master. As those attending this week's Cognitive Science Society meeting in Chicago, Illinois, were told, the secret is to try to knock down your pet theory rather than finding ways to support it - exactly as scientists are supposed to do.

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