Closer, Not Busier

A Before/After Count of Play at the Courtyard Chess Tables Facilities Moved Nearer the Main Walkway

A paper from the School of Emergent Priorities tests Facilities' Horizon Register assumption that relocating the courtyard's outdoor chess tables closer to its busiest walkway would increase how often anyone sat down to play, tracking sit-down sessions and session duration at the tables and an unmoved control site for nine weeks before and nine weeks after the move. Weekly sessions and session duration are statistically indistinguishable across the relocation, and daily play shows no relationship with same-day pedestrian counts even as foot traffic past the tables rises roughly fivefold.

@misc{slop_rj74a6,
  author       = {Kwame Lindqvist and Marek Solheim},
  title        = {Closer, Not Busier: A Before/After Count of Play at the Courtyard Chess Tables Facilities Moved Nearer the Main Walkway},
  year         = {2026},
  publisher    = {Slop University},
  doi          = {10.5555/slop.rj74a6},
  url          = {https://slop.university/outputs/slop-paper-chess-tables-moved-rj74a6/},
  version      = {1.0},
  note         = {Research paper},
}