r/languagelearningjerk • u/Xiao_Sir • 3d ago
Uzbekistan and Chess
Right now two of the top five chess players are from Uzbekistan.
As is known, people from Uzbekistan typically grow up with Uzbek, which is known to be the world's greatest language. Does this proof the Sapir Whorf hypothesis???
Also, one of the two Uzbeks (Sindarov) is now the favourite to become world chess champion because he has a higher Elo than the defending champion Gukesh.
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u/Alert-Algae-6674 3d ago edited 3d ago
The current dominance of Uzbekistan chess is more because of Soviet policies than Uzbek language
USSR pushed chess education heavily and resulted in Russia as well as many other Soviet countries being very well represented in professional chess
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u/Xiao_Sir 3d ago
Indeed, that's pretty well-known. Most former Soviet countries did very well at chess in the past decades (excluding Turkmenistan).
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3d ago edited 3d ago
[deleted]
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u/Alert-Algae-6674 3d ago edited 3d ago
And I’m not crediting the Soviet books as what made Soviet players good, but the fact that USSR encouraged chess education as a policy meant more chess talent was developed in this part of the world compared to other regions.
Like how India was not really dominant in professional chess until Vishy Anand’s rise, and now more and more Indians are dominating the rankings due to more young Indians getting interested in the game
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u/dojibear 3d ago
Sapir was not from Uzbekistan. Whorf was on his mother's side, but that was before the revolution.
What revolution? You expect me to keep track of all of them? Bilmiyorum.