Over the last few years there have been a few boardgame-related publications in scientific journals.  More recently, work by Wasserman & Koban¹ using Hive to study the development of player skill was reported in the Journal of Expertise.  Unsurprisingly, they showed that the more Hive is played, the better the understanding and the better the player becomes at playing.  There is conflicting evidence in the literature about whether skill acquisition generally increases at a continuous rate (linear) or increases with diminishing returns (more curvilinear).  This study suggests that player skill increases with diminishing returns, however, understanding increases linearly, at a continuous rate.  Thus, the implication is that if the best players wish to improve their game play, they need to increase their understanding more than less advanced players.

– Image used with permission of BGG contributor zombiegod

¹ Wasserman, J. A. & Koban, K., J. Expertise (2019), 2(2), 121.