“Recall of Random and Distorted Chess Positions: Implications for the Theory of Expertise”, Fernand Gobet, Herbert A. Simon1996-07 (chess psychology)⁠:

This paper explores the question, important to the theory of expert performance, of the nature and number of chunks that chess experts hold in memory. It examines how memory contents determine players’ abilities to reconstruct (1) positions from games, (2) positions distorted in various ways, and (3) random positions.

Comparison of a computer simulation with a human experiment supports the usual estimate that chess Masters store some 50,000 chunks in memory. The observed impairment of recall when positions are modified by mirror image reflection implies that each chunk represents a specific pattern of pieces in a specific location.

A good account of the results of the experiments is given by the template theory proposed by Gobet & Simon1996 as an extension of Chase & Simon1973b’s initial chunking proposal, and in agreement with other recent proposals for modification of the chunking theory (Richman et al 1995) as applied to various recall tasks.