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 Psychology |
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Psychology does seem to be important If you want to investigate your own psychological terrain just have a look at your chess game. Are ratings important to you? Will you do everything you can to keep them as high as possible? Or are you more interested in exploring different ideas on the chessboard and don’t care too much about winning?...It’s all very complicated to go inside yourself and discover who you really are. Chess can reflect this. Interesting how some of the great grandmasters in history seemed to have some psychological issues. Anyway chess is a grand game and still holds a fascination for me even though I have never been able to really master it, probably because I have never learned to master myself. |
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shamash 23-Mar-12, 11:22 |
Deleted by shamash on 23-Mar-12, 11:23.
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sixofspades to the attack a player whose rating exceeded yours by over a hundred points, in looking not at the outcome but at your choices against a stronger player, {a player who averages a day per move while you average three-quarters of an hour, more like blitz chess than correspondence chess, putting you at a double disadvantage}, what I notice about your play during the month of that game, once the game emerged from the opening into early middlegame, the most complex phase of chess, is how well you handled: -the nice little combination you produced in moves 11-14. --the discovered attack launched on your queen in moves 16 - 18, and 21, 24, ---the fierce attack on your King by your opponent's major pieces in moves 19-22, 26, ----your Counterattack with move 27, -----your comfort in using your King as an attacking piece in moves 32-33, giving you a likely dominance of the Kingside and with probably 2 passed pawns in the endgame to ensue, in game  game some pretty sophisticated stuff -- and in every respect courageous play, not passive play, and certainly moves conceived and executed with confidence. To me, looking at how you handled your opponent's ferocity, and the needs of the position, this is a game that shows mastery of the game. |
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Thanks for taking the time Since Mercury has gone retrograde (for you astrology fans out there) I have lost every game I played and am starting to get sloppy. In my last game I meant to play D5 at move 13 and instead played E5….typical of Mercury Retrograde….I will have to be more careful in the future. It has been often said that Chess is a metaphor for life (Boris Spassky)…and I find that to be very true. From the mistakes in the opening (early childhood) that we have to learn to live with and their resulting pawn structures in the middlegame (adulthood issues) and on to the sparseness of the endgame (old age) with it’s limited resources. Not to mention the ‘alternate realities’ that metaphysics often alludes to which appear in chess as variations (the road not taken). I could go on but I have sense I may have said too much already. Again Shamash thanks for taking the time going over that game of mine. It was one of my better efforts. |
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Thoughts on the Psychology of Chess I will quote from segment 34, “Playing in Blinkers’ as it very much relates to a lot of my own problems in playing chess. ‘The Finnish psychologist Pertti Saariluoma has identified a remarkably common source of error in chess thought. In simple terms, it happens when you become so fixated on one move or variation that it produces an inhibiting effect on all other thoughts…..These common errors are all connected with the way we perceive chess positions. With up to 32 pieces scattered over 64 squares, and our poor brains generally incapable of juggling more than seven items at the same time, we need to codify the pieces into meaningful subsets. We don’t think in terms of discrete pieces on their individual squares, but instead understand a position in terms of the relationships between groups of pieces. The trouble is that such a process is liable to lock us into particular mind-sets…..The only solution – though difficult to put into practice – is to train yourself to look again at each move of a variation in a fresh and naïve manner. Somehow, you have to put your previous thoughts aside and clear a path in your mind to let radically new ideas to come through.’ This is one of my biggest problems while playing chess and is greatly exasperated by my inherent impatient nature. I move too fast. It’s as if there is some long lost memory from my childhood where I missed out on something and now feel I have to rush in and make that move or do this or that in my life or else I will lose the chance to act…I can get so locked into a thought on the chessboard that I don’t consider anything else. This reflects my life as well. Perhaps if I can master this deficiency in my chess game it will better enable me to master the affairs of my own life. Hey, I did say this was about the psychology of chess….so there… |
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Follow-up on the Psychology of Chess In William Hartston’s book, ‘Improve your Chess”, the following segment after ‘Playing in Blinkers’ is called ‘One move at a time’ and it is really joined at the hip with the previous segment. I quote Bill… ‘The strongest players have the ability – and the considerable mental energy needed – to approach each position on its own merits irrespective of what went on before. Countless opportunities are missed by players who blindly pursue last move’s plan without taking into account of a crucial change of circumstances.’ Again I didn’t take the time to look at these ‘change of circumstances’ due to basic character flaws in my psychological makeup (impatience). Until I master this deficiency in myself my chess game and maybe my life in general will languish. Chess really is a metaphor for life. |
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blake78613 27-Jun-12, 07:34 |
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Hence this thread |
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tactical_abyss 27-Jun-12, 10:04 |
So many,younger,newer players in the chess arena,never use a good board,relying ONLY upon the computer screen.This may work for many,but not everyones thought's process the same way,and better 3D visualization may be better for some other players or in combination with the computer screen.Most of my chess understanding/visualization of complex tactical and positional situations I attribute to using and playing games OTB,not the other way around on the screen. In a way,same with descriptive notation,not algebraic.I grew up with descriptive and can visualize the board better if someone writes or tells me in descriptive.But then,others cannot do the same.For those players who never or rarely use an OTB setup with a game or position,I would try it a few times,maybe a few hundred times!It may just improve your memory or visualization factors better. |
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bigpeta 27-Jun-12, 15:36 |
gerald abrahams a great read for those interested in this side of the game |
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O yes, Liverpool barrister & chess master Gerald Abrahams. . . wrote the finest single work on chess, and one of the more enduring, THE CHESS MIND. |
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baronderkilt 01-Jul-12, 22:25 |
sixofspades ... Poses some very interesting Questions to me. When I first read this I thought of Bishops, like fleet footed messengers, then you mentioned hanging your Bishop. It has just occurred to me to wonder if certain Chess Pieces, or position types, might have any interesting correlations with the planets, stars, or zodiac ? That would be extremely interesting if someone came up with such a thing. CHESS By The Stars would be a very interesting book to read, imo. Or even, Chess By Numbers, The Numerology Of Chess and Chess Stars (GM's). Who would the Stars signal to be the next World Champion? Chess from the Astrologers Perspective. Having grown up thru the 70's ... I find such things to be wildly thought provoking. What if there were correletions? Or causality? Would Mars ascending indicate a time of tactical melees? What do they say about Carlsen? Would Mars favor Topalov's fighting style? |
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baronderkilt 01-Jul-12, 22:41 |
JKarp Sixofspades, I wonder if many INTP's might also be Virgo's, like me. Some manner of Truth Seekers of Chess, yet having a love of artistic combinative play. Perhaps introverts of Chess. Perhaps finding fascination as an Openings specialist? |
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baronderkilt You could even draw up a horoscope for the start of a chess game. Now that is something I have not thought about. Interpreting a chart can be complex. For instance when you were born your sun was in virgo (using the symbolic tropical zodiac), but it was also in a house, has aspects to it (angular relationships between the planets), your sun in virgo is ruled by mercury (which rules virgo) which would be in another sign. I could go on but this post is already getting too long. Funny you should mention Astrology as I am beginning to get the itch to return to it. It has just been on my mind lately. |
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blake78613 02-Jul-12, 07:18 |
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blake78613 |
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tactical_abyss 02-Jul-12, 07:58 |
Get your chess games in now.Don't forget about 12/21/12! (I'll never get my $$ worth on my life membership!). |
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tiger_lilov 03-Jul-12, 10:05 |
Don't Overthink Chess. It is complicated enough without you making it even more so. Many players, young players can produce class levels of play by moving quickly, while older folks who have read hundreds of chess books move very slowly. At a local chess center, I witnessed a game between a 900 rated player and an elderly gentleman who had just finished reading "My System". I don't know about this book, but many say it is rather useful. He has also read many other chess books, and has a vast amount of chess knowledge. The 1000 was a first grader who had been playing chess for not a year. Also, he was not interested in studying books; only playing quickly. In the first game, the old man took minutes a move, while the kid played in seconds. Despite that, they reached an equal endgame where the old man, after a very long think, blundered a rook to a basic removal of guard tactic! The kid played very quickly, not noticing it, and later lost. So let us ask: Why did the man blunder after such long think? In fact, the best move in that position was obvious to me in a second, and clearly so, as all other moves lost at least a pawn. Anyways, in the second game, the player's time usage was the same, and this time, the older man lost to a slow endgame grind against the 1000 kid. Even though the kid knew not even 1% probably about chess than the old man, he was able to find moves in seconds and got 50%. The older fellow lost to a tactic after long thinks. The reason this happened: Nothing to do with tiredness, can guarantee that! The older man knew so much about chess, but he did not have a decent thought process to use the information properly. This led to 2 things: 1)Blunders, since the thought process was not adequete to filter out basic tactics. You can know everything about chess, but if you don't have a way to avoid blunders, they will happen guaranteed. 2)Slow play that was not even good-He knew so much information, he was confused. I'll bet he was thinking about 50 rules of principles at a time in a single position, trying to calculate lines over and over again.. etc. This only confused him, and his final decision was unsure, and overthought. The conclusion here is that in non critical position, you should use your thought process only 1 time! By the way, I was one of the coaches there, and I gave the kid a few lessons earlier on. All I told him were a few key ideas about chess, and a quick thought process that would avoid blunders. He did not use the thought process fully, since he played very quickly. But he did play attacking moves, and always played moves that increased his activity: He made far fewer blunders than he did before. Conculsion: Chess is all about Thought process and chess knowledge. The thought process applies everything you know about chess. If you know too much, your thoughts will be scrambled and confusing. Reallly, this is the main problem with just about every plateud class player's mentality, and why they can't find the best moves. They keep getting knowledge, without improving thought process. The opposite has never occured in my experience ever. |
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marinvukusic 04-Jul-12, 15:57 |
This is completely incorrect. A chess coach primarily needs to teach his pupils how to develop their thought process and it is very much possible to achieve. The largest practical issue is to adjust the thought processes not only to the position but to the chess clock situation. There are at least 4 different thinking methods I know of, 3 of which are relevant and useful to a normal player (the 4th is a relatively bad method but is used in practice). The correct application of these methods does depend on experience to an extent but the coach is the one to work on it with the student. |
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tactical_abyss 04-Jul-12, 16:27 |
Some chess mentors remind me of overtraining their son in football.The father was a star quarterback in college and they must simply keep the honor and tradition going on...its not only the family name at stake,but the fathers ego.So eventually the story ends in the father either being disappointed in their son,the son gets hurt on the field,smacked around by the father or the kid quits altogether,and its all blamed on the kid. And believe it or not,it happens on the chessboard with trainers over and over...and I see it at the club in NYC constantly,even with a smack on the hand once in a while!Truly! Motto in all of this?I'll let that to all the readers. |
