Chess players’ appreciation of beauty proves widespread taste for mathematics

Evidence

A very little reflection is enough to expose the absurdity of the ‘literary superstition’. There are masses of chess-players in every civilized country—in Russia, almost the whole educated population; and every chess-player can recognize and appreciate a ‘beautiful’ game or problem. Yet a chess problem is simply an exercise in pure mathematics (a game not entirely, since psychology also plays a part), and everyone who calls a problem ‘beautiful’ is applauding mathematical beauty, even if it is beauty of a comparatively lowly kind. Chess problems are the hymn-tunes of mathematics. — G. H. Hardy, A Mathematician’s Apology, 172

Categorization

• SEED: “Chess problems are the hymn-tunes of mathematics” is a quotable analogy worth an essay on popular mathematical aesthetics.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — G. H. Hardy, A Mathematician’s Apology, 172
• XREF: connects to: Mathematical proofs gain beauty through economy and lack of variation — G. H. Hardy, A Mathematician’s Apology, 237; Beauty is the first test of mathematics and ugly mathematics has no permanent place — G. H. Hardy, A Mathematician’s Apology, 169

Broader Connections

• Beauty is the first test of mathematics and ugly mathematics has no permanent place #corroborates (0.70) — G. H. Hardy, A Mathematician’s Apology, 169
• Mathematical proofs gain beauty through economy and lack of variation #corroborates (0.60) — G. H. Hardy, A Mathematician’s Apology, 237