  In this paper we report the existence of long-range memory in the opening
moves of a chronologically ordered set of chess games using an extensive chess
database. We used two mapping rules to build discrete time series and analyzed
them using two methods for detecting long-range correlations; rescaled range
analysis and detrented fluctuation analysis. We found that long-range memory is
related to the level of the players. When the database is filtered according to
player levels we found differences in the persistence of the different subsets.
For high level players, correlations are stronger at long time scales; whereas
in intermediate and low level players they reach the maximum value at shorter
time scales. This can be interpreted as a signature of the different strategies
used by players with different levels of expertise. These results are robust
against the assignation rules and the method employed in the analysis of the
time series.
