Chien Ming Chess Blog

I found this very interesting article written by Norbert Thomas at ezinearticles.com . Source : http://ezinearticles.com/?Emotions-in-Chess&id=2242933

Chess is one of the most intellectual and competitive games. During a game of chess you experience different kinds of emotions. For example: Joy, confidence, satisfaction, relief, despair, fear, anger, frustration, hopelessness.

Emotions come and go.

Emotions will hit you unexpectedly when you suddenly experience a dramatic change in your game.
Pieces are attacked and have to be protected or must retreat to a bad square. The opponent just started a strong attack at the kingside or you nearly ran into a fork and almost lost a piece. Or the game becomes so complicated and rich in tactical possibilities that you can't work out the right moves over the board. And you become deeply immersed in the position again and again. But you still don't know for sure what to play next, recalculating the same variations over and over again. The position is going slowly but surely downhill.

This creates emotions of various kinds.

When you are winning you feel happy and you get a big boost of confidence. You just love the position now. You are winning. That's great! Yes! Chess is a great game indeed. Joy comes up.
But on the other hand, when you make a bad move, then you feel frustrated and have doubts and you might lose faith in your ability to find good moves. You might tell yourself: "I play like a beginner. I ruined my position totally. Why am I playing like an idiot? I should have seen this attack coming!"

Emotions can paralyze your mind.

Emotions often obstruct and cloud your thinking just when clear rational thoughts are needed . Time pressure increases the stress even more and the upcoming emotions might block your thinking completely and you are unable to calculate the next moves. You switch off your brain and play in guessing mode. You just guess the right moves now, which leads to a deadly blunder! Your last move ruined your game beyond repair. A wave of frustration gives you the rest and you resign. Damned! How could I make such a move? Why is my brain blocked? I played like a fool? I should give up chess.

Chess is not a quiet game! Maybe quiet on the surface for the onlooker, but deep within yourself there is something really big going on. A big mental adventure, full of traps and surprises. The rational thought struggles versus the emotional response. Sometimes rely just on your emotional response, your mind is unable to work out everything and you need to use intuition. But often the emotions are just obstructing your mind when rational thoughts are needed to calculate a combination.

Just observe your emotions!

You can't escape your emotions and can't control them. They come and go. There is one weapon you have to beat them. Just observe them! The principle of observation is taught in various meditation techniques.
Don't fight your emotions. Just observe them. It is a sort of meditation. You are NOT the emotions! Never forget that! Just watch your frustration and despair for a minute and it will lose its power over you and might even fade away. After that start analyzing your position.
It's just a game. Relax and start thinking again. Your opponent makes mistakes too. You still can win. If your game is totally ruined just resign and go home. Have a good rest, analyze your game and you will play better next time.

Interview with Viswanathan Anand in Der Spiegel
Published on ChessBase

SPIEGEL: What is the role of emotions?

Anand: They are decisive. The moment in which you realise that you have made a mistake is the most unsettling you can imagine. You have to try to keep control of your emotions. Chess is a form of acting. If your opponent senses your insecurity or your annoyance or your dejection, then you are bolstering his courage. He will take advantage of your weakness. Confidence is very important – even pretending to be confident. If you make a mistake but do not let your opponent see what you are thinking then he may overlook the mistake.

SPIEGEL: Are you good at reading the faces of your opponents?

Anand: Usually their faces are completely calm and dispassionate. The exception was Garry Kasparov, against whom I played a World Championship in New York in 1995. He was an open book. What I tend to do is to listen to their breathing.

SPIEGEL: You listen to your opponent breathing?

Anand: If the breathing is deep or shallow, fast or slow – that reveals a lot about the degree of his agitation. In a match that lasts a month even a clearing of the throat can be quite important. Incidental facts are also important: did your opponent have a fight with his wife? If he is occupied with private matters he may not be as focussed as usual.

Here is the full article on ChessBase

courtesy of ChessVideos.TV

Strategy : long term plan. More abstract. Some elements : development, initiative, tempo, pressure, control center-square-files-diagonals etc

Tactic : A sequence of moves that give immediate advantage. Tactic is “short term/ more concrete”. Some elements : mate,capture,threat, fork, pin, back rank, discovery check, etc

Strategy requires thought. Tactics require observation. – Max Euwe

Tactics is knowing what to do when there is something to do. Strategy is knowing what to do when there is nothing to do – Tartakower.

Strategy is a piece of stone you are working on, and tactics is basically the instrument you use to cut the stone. So we should see tactics as an instrument to help us to achieve what we want to achieve. - Petrosian

If one thinks strategy as a block of marble, then tactics are the chisel with which a master operates in creating works of chess art - Petrosian

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Chess is a game for people of all ages. We can learn to play at any age and in chess, unlike in many other sports, we don't ever have to retire. Age is also not a factor when we're looking for an opponent --young can play old and old can play young.

Chess develops memory. The chess theory is complicated and many players memorize different opening variations. We will also learn to recognize various patterns and remember lengthy variations.

Chess improves concentration During the game we are focused on only one main goal -- to checkmate and become the victor.

Chess develops logical thinking. Chess requires some understanding of logical strategy. For example, we will know that it is important to bring our pieces out into the game at the beginning, to keep our king safe at all times, not to make big weaknesses in our position and not to blunder our pieces away for free. (Although we will find ourself doing that occasionally through our chess career. Mistakes are inevitable and chess, like life, is a never-ending learning process.)

Chess promotes imagination and creativity. It encourages us to be inventive. There are an indefinite amount of beautiful combinations yet to be constructed. Chess teaches independence. We are forced to make important decisions influenced only by our own judgment.

Chess develops the capability to predict and foresee consequences of actions. It teaches you to look both ways before crossing the street.

Chess inspires self-motivation. It encourages the search of the best move, the best plan, and the most beautiful continuation out of the endless possibilities. It encourages the everlasting aim towards progress, always steering to ignite the flame of victory.

Chess shows that success rewards hard work. The more we practice, the better we'll become. We should be ready to lose and learn from our mistakes. One of the greatest players ever, Capablanca said, "You may learn much more from a game you lose than from a game you win. You will have to lose hundreds of games before becoming a good player."

Chess and Science. Chess develops the scientific way of thinking. While playing, we generate numerous variations in our mind. We explore new ideas, try to predict their outcomes and interpret surprising revelations. We decide on a hypothesis, and then we make our move and test it.

Chess and Technology. What do chess players do during the game? Just like computers they engage in a search for the better move in a limited amount of time. What are we doing right now? You are using a computer as a tool for learning.

Chess and Mathematics. We don't have to be a genius to figure this one out. Chess involves an infinite number of calculations, anything from counting the number of attackers and defenders in the event of a simple exchange to calculating lengthy continuations. And we use your head to calculate, not some little machine.

Chess and Research. There are millions of chess resources out there for every aspect of the game. We can even collect your own chess library. In life, is it important to know how to find, organize and use boundless amounts of information. Chess gives us a perfect example and opportunity to do just that.

Chess and Art. In the Great Soviet Encyclopedia chess is defined as "an art appearing in the form of a game." If we thought we could never be an artist, chess proves us wrong. Chess enables the artist hiding within us to come out. Our imagination will run wild with endless possibilities on the 64 squares. We will paint pictures in our mind of ideal positions and perfect outposts for our soldiers. As a chess artist we will have an original style and personality.

Chess and Psychology. Chess is a test of patience, nerves, will power and concentration. It enhances our ability to interact with other people. It tests our sportsmanship in a competitive environment.

Chess improves schoolwork and grades. Numerous studies have proven that kids obtain a higher reading level, math level and a greater learning ability overall as a result of playing chess. For all those reasons mentioned above and more, chess playing kids do better at school and therefore have a better chance to succeed in life.

Chess opens up the world for you. We don't need to be a high ranked player to enter big important competitions. Even tournaments such as the US Open and the World Open welcome players of all strengths. Chess provides us with plenty of opportunities to travel not only all around the country but also around the world. Chess is a universal language and we can communicate with anyone over the checkered plain.

Chess enables you to meet many interesting people. We will make life-long friendships with people we meet through chess.

Chess is cheap. We don't need big fancy equipment to play chess. In fact, all we may need is our computer! It is also good to have a chess set at home to practice with family members, to take to a friend's house or even to our local neighborhood park to get everyone interested in the game.

CHESS IS FUN! This isn't just another one of those board games. No chess game ever repeats itself, which means we create more and more new ideas each game. It never gets boring. We always have so much to look forward to. Every game we are the general of an army and we alone decide the destiny of your soldiers. We can sacrifice them, trade them, pin them, fork them, lose them, defend them, or order them to break through any barriers and surround the enemy king. We've got the power!