Psy.:halagy in By
Nikolai Krogius
R-H-MPRESS 417 Northem Boulevard, Great Neck, N.Y. 11021
Pitman House Limited
Publisher's Foreword
The role of
s cholo
in chess has long been underrated in the Western
World. Most players spend all of their study time immersed in books abou t the openings and the endgame. without e ven trying to analyze their own strengths and weaknesses as a player. In the Soviet Union, on the other hand, it has long been known than an understanding of on eself and one's opponents and an analysis of one's own faults as a chess player can often be even more f ruitful than C a:-c.,- -e -----: =- s·tc-cuay-·ofl e a es operungs 00 .
N ikolai Krogh. is logist as well as
an
International Grandmaster and a professional psycho-
being an expert on the various methods used to train Soviet
chess players. He has written several articles and books on chess psychology and the present volume combines the very best of Krogius' writings on the subject. Amongst the important subjects discu ssed in this book are time trouble, its causes, effects and cures, tournament tactics, the study of one's opponent, and attentIOn -
ow 0
ve op one s concen ra otnurd1lowlocuretlre-variollS--
deficiencies of attention that are seen the play of every chess enthusiast. We at R.H.M. are proud to be the first publishers to be bringing most of this instructive material to th� attention of English speaking chess players. We feel sure that those who read this book will add a compfetely new dimension to their
play and thatthey willerradieate-defeets--tha-t-hav�¥-POintS-i.un-\Jtbe�-- past. Please be sure that you read the description of THE R.H.M. SURVEY OF CURRENT CHESS OPENINGS which follows the indexes at
the end of this
book. As well as announcing our forthcoming titles in the series, this description will acquaint you with ou r new loose-leaf upda ting service which will, we feel
certain, prove of immeasurable help to all chess players in attaining rapid
------f,fon1rMlwlr<arrrrld1'pmrogressill thequality-of-the-tNtta'f";---- We take this opportunity to thank you for your interest in R.H.M. Press pu blications. Sidney Fried Publisher
Symbol, A good move . II
?
An excellent, beautiful or hard-to-find move . A poor move.
?1 A very poor move or a blunder. I? An interesting move, possibl inv olvin
------<Jlr---J.:0u010US move.
Acknowledgements Most of the material in
this book is deri�m--Krog-i-e-majer lt?-tw --werk-s
Cbelovek v Sbakhmatakb (The Human Element in Chess or more literally, Man ,
in
Chess) which was
Published in Saratov in
1967; and 0 Pslkhologil
Shakbmatnogo Tvorchestva (The Psychology of Chess Creati vity) published in Moscow in 1969. The remainder of the source material comes from Krogius' articles in the Soviet chess press and from his
-----"-;c;m=a-;;;ny;;:e�lli
art of the book e.AlDY-aAlt'-'-.I
hmatlsta (The Memory and Attention of the Chess Player)
which was published in Moscow in 1968. R.H.M. wish to thank the following people for their help in the editing of this book.
The original publications from which this book was created were
translated from the Russian by Katya Young and Young's translation was edited by
Bernard Cafferty. Katya Dr. Nicholas Young and Bernard Cafferty's
was edited and type d by Jacqueline Lery who also assisted in checkin pescnpt.
a
e final
d Levy acted as overall editor with the responsibil ity of merging
Krogi us material into a cohesive volume. The proofs were checked by Kevin ,
O'Connell.
_ _
Contents Foreword by Boris Spassky
Preface
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Introduction . . ...
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Psychologists on chess
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Chess players on psychology - the question of style.
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LEKHINH RETI TORRE . ...
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2 Intuition in Chess 3 Attention
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Factors affecting attention: Unfamiliar conditions at a competition
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One's position in the tournament and the sig nificance of the result of the game ........................ . An "unpleasant" opponent The opponent's behaviour Controlling one's emotions
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60 61
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deliberate cha nge of direction and content
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4 Some Deficiencies of Attention. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . r of attention ....�t"'_'"_nsfl ....,
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AFFECTING ATIENTION
INDIVIDUAL CHARACTERISTICS
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The extent to which attention
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5 What is Time Trouble? Objective causes of time trouble: Inadequate
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Doubts li nked to an exaggerated importance of the opponent's individual style
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6 Effects and Cures of Time Trouble The dynamics of the mental processes
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Style during time tr ouble Practical advice
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7 Tournament Tactics I want a draw! J have to winl .
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q T he Study of One's Opponent 10 Know Thyself Under the X-ray
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elegieal--dueI---.-.-.-.� n ...
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...-.--.--.-��-.-n j.H-reac-t-iooThe-£ha... lmportant trifles
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Appendix: T he Link Between Age and Success . When to start
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-+T'hhelYpsyeh
12 Mistakes
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8 Looking at one's opponent
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228 234
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237
Foreword By Boris Spassky Nikolai K rogius is well-known to chess lovers. His debut in major events was the RSFSR Junior Championship in 1948. Since then Krogius has
made in
hccome a Grandmaster. has twice held the title of RSFSR Champion an d has
hccome a regular participant in the USSR Championship and various inter national events.
I should also like to observe that of the generation of Soviet chess players who l'ame onto the scene in the fifties. quite a number are active in tournaments. but it is comparatively rarely that any of them makes a n attempt in the literary field. Kro ius has set a
ood exam Ie to our Grandmasters and Masters. especially
\im:e his work has turned out to be full of good sense and interesHng thoughts. The author has not followed the traditional method of chess literature. which consists in the concrete analysis of pos itions from the opening, middle game and I'ndgame, but has tried to shed light on the problems of contemporary chess from the point of view of human psychology.
---------- � ��,
It is difficult to overestlma e the slgntficance of psychOlogy
mcllesS-;Ioriti
not only knowledge, but also character. attention, will and. on occasion. the player's mood which determines the outcome of a game and its artistic value. And such occurrences as time-trouble. mistak es and blunders! Don't they happen in almost every game? And yet very little has been said about their lIature and how to avoid them.
Krogius raises these important and topical questions and makes authoritative
,uggestions on ways of solvmg them. This IS not surprtsmg. SlDce thealnn-Ol..-,----
hesides being a chess expert. is also a scientist in the field of psychology.
Every innovation faces great difficulties, and one could argue wit h quite a number of the theses of the book. But we must not expect the impossible. The author has a serious (if as yet unfinished) discussion with the reader about how ------
--.�llecl1estsptayer 1rtnKs_at1h�nt�1IOwi1e reacts to his successes-anft1d£l--tcfaIHifl-llulHr'f'es-s----- and how he tries to avoid mistakes. And this is what is so attractive and so valuable about Krogius' book.
I think that numerous chess fans of every possible level of attainment and tClurnament experience will read this book with great interest and will more than nnee
stop and think about their chess ambitions, joys and disappointments.
Becoming a chess player, attaining mastery of the art of chess. is a difficult -----.-n-ct-thurny-p ath-:-l-think that
Kr�----wiH be of gr-e�
dlc�s players in developing their skill. This discussion of the human element
I:hess is long overdue.
1
in
Preface -+m·SSi-lis5--
In
_ _____
analyses of combinations and opening v ari ati on s w ho actuall y create
vam for the traditional
I want to speak about those
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the combinations and carry out the analysis, that is, about
those who play chess. It is said th at Bronstein, while preparing his challenge for the World m '' .!.t'' --.:Ot �a !!Jl.!.
_ _ _ _ _
...Jllp, hung a big photograph-of-BotviDftik, the World Champion, 011
the wall of his study. Such a training method, even
if somewh at pecuJiar s hows to the overall (and not ,
once ag ain what great importance expert players attach
just in relation to chess) study of the opponent. This is because the successes and failures of a chess player depend not only on his knowledge and tournament experience, but also on his self'control, persistence and other qualities. That is
why 1 invite the reader to acquaint hi mself with a nu mber of questions about the �;ru:.�llological
_ __ _
As yet this is a little-studied aspect of chess, but one cannot underestimate its significance for practical play. I have not set out to make a comprehensive analysis of psychological p rep ar ati on ;
1 have just tried to bring to the notice of of the main points of this problem. The chief purpose of the and raise the curtain on some new questions and show how a
chess lovers some book is to
chess player fights, worries, thinks, doubts and,
on
occasion, makes mistakes.
It is possible that some of my statements will appear disputable. This is na tural, since this
is a complicated subject-the psychology of man-and it
is
too early to put a fuD-stop after our discussions of a n umber of the q uestions that we broach.
If, however, the thoughts expressed in this book make the reader think about his own creativity and take a critical look at the reasons forhis..wlns-andlosses..-it-- will be the best possible appreciation of the author's work.
2
Introduction
PtychoJollsts on Chess The chess player expects that psychology wil1 help him by revealing the intellectual qualities needed for more succ essful play, and by demonstrating how to control the formation and development of these qualities, Psychological investigat ions
WI
I a so
e me ra
er more person
pro lerns, a-rm-so:-, -f--,.,...----
analyse the peculiarities of a competitor's play, we can determine the most suitable training methods for that player, we can help him to study effective methods of calculation and we can help him to overcome problems such as recurrent time trouble, In this way psychological research may and should be
--mitize-d-toimprove-the-ptayeA-per-f&m-a-nee by de'/-etepin-g--and-m.ainta-inin-g-hi,�-- '\Xlrting abilities,
That is not all. Not only is psychology of use to the chess player. but chess itself has a considerable interest for general psychology. Chess has recently come III the attention of students of cybernetics. mathematicians and scientists who
are in terested in the role that the game plays in forming a man's character-its
heneficial effect on his mind, his determination and his senses. They view chess
��
the
in¥e-st-i-gatiGn-om f- -an's-cr-eatilre processes+-'
Il"arning the secrets of chess they see a way
-'-'---___ _
10 the understanding of the riddles of
man's creative activity, However. at the moment. the success of scientists in ,-rcal ing computer programs that play chess is ralher limited. the reason being Iha I until recently the programmers have ignored the specifically human aspects
III ('hess (the ,'n" fining
role
motional factors and the im
rtance of intuition),
themselves solely to the logical analysis of chess theory.
The difference between the human player's thinking and the "thinking" of Ihl' machine are well illustrated in the works of the Soviet psychologists O. Iikhomirov and V.
Pushkin. who not iced that in many of the computer
Jlrn!:rams the search for a move proceeds by wa y of reducing the number of variations to be examined. Man thinks differently. Initially, he too rejects the I
sa isfac or
variations, but if his intended move does not satisfy him he
Immediately widens the scope of his search and analyzes new possibilities. The need for a different approach to the problem of perfecting machine play
3
CHESS AND PSYCHOLOGY
was indicated by the Academician* V. Glushkov; "In order to master the -------iprogr-amm-ing-of-the-----most-compl-icat-erod-p- blems-in-t.h.e-spher-e--of-man's- intellectual labours there is. perhaps, no other way but to investigate the process of human reasoning." Work has already been undertaken in that direction. for example there was the match between a Soviet and an American computer program in 1967 and there are also the interesting proposals advanced by Botvinnik in his book "Com uters. Chess and Lon
Range Planning."
In connection with the intensive research being done in programming. the question arises "Will chess cease to exist once computers have learnt how 10 play well?" If one is speaking theoretically it must be admitted that an electronic super-grandmaster can be created since chess is a system of finite information. even if this finite information is very great. However. we should not work on the supposition that there will be electronic champions. we should turn to the actual livin
ones, this is all the more advisable since the material alread
collected in
the field of chess psychology interests both chess players and computer scientists. The first investigation in this field was made by the French psychologist A. Binet and dates from the year 1894. Binet was studying blindfold play and collected some very interesting data from which he drew the correct conclusion -----
-.'lrartn-e----visuatimagesmcl'iess players bear a mamly conceptual character. Thus, for instance, some master players were unable to answer off-hand a question about the colour of a particular square on the board. However, Binet himself was apparently not too well up on the finer points of chess and he believed the assertion of one of his subjects that he could calculate five hundred moves ahead. In 1925 the competitors in the Moscow International Tournament were
-----
�s."ubjected_to--p"Sychotogical illYestigation and N.
Byakov, E. Petrovsky and P.
Rudik wrote a book about their experiments. Lasker, Reti, Tarta kower and Torre were amongst those who submitted to these experiments. The chess players, who were being compared with non chess playing subjects, were found to have highly developed, dynamic qualities of concentration and reasoning, as 11 as
having
a
specific
chess memory The allthors proposed��ed_
"psychograph" of a chess player-sixteen qualities which, in their opinion, determined success in play. Many of their recommendations are indisputable, for instance self-control, the ability to integrate one's thoughts and disciplined determination. Some of their proposals, however, are debatable. They assume, for example, that the development of a chess player's reasoning is not directly related to the general level of his cultural development, but. practice has eLrw. n... he1mingly demonstrated ----"ouv...
_____
that this opinion is incorrect and that a hiW-
general culture helps to develop chess playing ability
•
i.e. a member of the U.S.S.R. Academy of Sciences
4
in
a remarkable way .
INTRODUCTION
Similarly the authors' assertion that they did nol discover any real talent common to the greatest players could be attributed to the narrowness of the methods employed in the mvesbgatton, The well known chess master and psychologist Blumenfeld has also made a si�nificant contribution to the assessment of the psychological questions involved in chess thinking; he has demonstrated that the chess player's thinking is rich in vividness and that it has an exceptional emotional content and intense
--
oeremimrtioll.
Blumenfe1d-not-ed--th-e--JH"-ac--tk-a-l---cbaucter of chess thinking in
that the thought is directly linked to the action; the time limit in tournament play intensifies the thinking process and compels the mind to work in the most economical manner. Blumenfeld was the first to suggest a number of interesting methods for the psychological investigation of creativity in chess. For instance he introd uced the practice of noting the time taken for each move, which has now become very p(lpular as a method--6f-reeording th�r�hougbts during the game. Blumenfeld also tried to investigate the intuitive forms of chess thin kin g. In this respect special attention should be given to his assumptions about the emergence of intuitive conjecture, which depends upon the retention in the memory of images of similar positions. In all, Blumenfeld made many very p.t.acticaLre.coJIUD.e.lLdali�.ms for instance he advised that if a move is forced it �hould be played, and only then should the player make a deep study of t e resulting position, and not vice versa. He emphasized that in calculating, one
-_
should not rely solely upon visual concepts, as they are less tangible than the clireet impression of the position on the board; thus it is necessary to check every mllve. however obvious it may appear from prev ious study. In recent years various works devoted to chess psychology have been . American Grandmaster Reuben Fine in his book "The I',vcho\ogy of the Chess Player" examines the creativity of orp y, telmtz, Fmanuel Lasker, Capablanca, Alekhine, Euwe, Botvinnik and other great players. by applying Freud's analytical concepts to their lives. Fine explains the (\evclopment of chess skills by the role played by "repressed" instincts and other a"umptions of Freudian psychoanalysis which are hard to believe. r rrt-pl-ay-i:n----- llnfortunately Fme dId not utilize filS own rich expernmce-uf-tournane writing this book. I\lso of interest are the investigations into the potential of young players using 1,',ls proposed by the Czech psychologist L. Cherny. The subject is asked. say. to move a knight from QRI to every other square of the board as quickJy as pllSsible. After the completion of this problem black pawns are placed on QB3, KH3. QB6 and KB6. then the knight is once again moved to every square except 'hose occuple y, or a iCKetl"'"by, the pawns. In these and-o-ther tests a stop watch is used to record the time taken for the solution of the problem; the IllImber of errors and the accuracy of the solution are considered as are the 5
CHESS AND PSYCHOLOGY persistence and determination of the subject. Although the Cherny tests may not provide sufficiently complete and objective material with which to assess the ·------". ....'rtru�-nl_e_l'raye1'0b-ey
do deserve attention along wtlh oHler methods. �
interesting to note that experiments conducted by Cherny several years ago correctly predicted a great chess future for Hort, yet the trainers did not regard him as the most prom ising player in the group of guinea pigsl -----
�C�he�88�8DpHla�y�enonplye�� Valuable material is provided for the psychologist in the views of leading players, as expressed in their comments on their own games, in their articles and in their books. In analyzing this material we must make allowances for the fact that chess masters generally are not professional psychologists and therefore their use of technical terms is not always justified from the scientific point of view. Furthermore, they are none too keen to relate their experiences and
-------
-moughts. Alekhine complained withjust4ee-abeutthis: ". thiflk it would be-ifI-
the interest of millions of chess followers and also the game itself if, when annotat.ing their games, the masters spoke a little more openly about the motives impelling them to choose certain moves."
On the other hand, when a player recalls the psychological aspects of a game we can almost certainly count on hearing the true and sincere evidence of an expert. Emanuel Lasker was the first to realize that behind the moves of the chess pieces there is concealed a human being with his own character. Lasker understood that it is impossible to learn the secrets of a chess contest without the human element, without the player's psychology. his experiences during the clash, his idiosyncracies and his preferences. To Lasker chess was, above all, a struggle between two personalities, two intellects. He maintained that" It is two human beings who fight on the chess board, not the wooden pieces", and he studied the style. the weak and strong points of his opponent's play. in detail in order to apply his conclusions to actual play. Often he tried to play moves that were not, objectively, the best, but which were the most unpleasant ones for a particular opponent. n an 10 ervlew
game
s er once sal:
0
c ess IS a con est 10 w IC
a
variety of factors apply. therefore it is extremely important to know the strengths and weaknesses of the opponent. For instance Maroczy's games show that he defends cautiously and only attacks when forced to do so; the games of Janowski show that he may have a won position in his grasp ten times. but as he is reluctant to finish the game he is bound to lose it in the end. We can see that much may be obtained from the attentive study of the adversary's games.
II
Lasker skIllfully explOIted the psychologIcal pecultarnesofntc; opponents. forcing upon them the kind of game that was alien to their tastes. Lasker was the first to suggest that chess style is the reflection of personal characteristics and he
6
INTRODUCTION (1t"l1Ionstrated the validity of this hypothesis in his games. Lasker's method was nol fully understood by his contemporaries many of whom commented on his
---mnphcable-!-'good-l�hes-s-.--a-ImGst-as-i-f-h.e-.possessed hypnotic...pow.er.s.--I_"'recent years the concrete psychological approach to the study of one's opponent
___
hilS received a wider application. It is true that. even before Lasker, the French master Arnous de Riviere asserted that the character and temperament of a player may be determined itself in the st Ie of
--fr- �la}'-and
la ". However,
this casual emark was not taken up and went unnoticed. Lasker proposed a detailed c1assificiation of styles of play and indicated the following categories: (I) The classical style. A plan is not chosen at random, but intelligently, in keeping with the principles of common sense. (2) The style of the automaton. Always making stereotyped moves which are slor (.1) The solid style of building up the position and awaiting the opponent's error.
(4) The style of inviting the opponent to err. (5) T he combinative style. One can dis ute these classification s. For instance. the concept of common 't'me is rather wide
if it means mere y the correct eva uatlOn of a posHlon b:u----
intuition then the designation of such appraisal to the representatives of only onc style is hardly correct. Lasker does not use consistent principles to govern his divisions. in some cases he uses different character traits (such as the tactic of enticing or waiting for the opponent's errors), while in other cases he uses the l{uality of logical reasoning (stereotype, combinative etc.).. In spite of all these I'Ilntroversial points Lasker's attempls to systematize styles of play has not lost ii' significance even today. A1ter all, It was only
m
[925 that he firWcl'ratleng"'e"'dt---
Ihe traditional divisions of style into com binative and positional. let us consider how far the methods of assessing style (the most important ,werlure to the individual preparation for the opponent) have prog ressed to the present day. Apart from s()me success in practical application, (for example lhe �passk.y11at-malch ill 1965 and the--Spas-s-fky-GeHer--m-a-t< R , Black wins a t 25 . . . BxPch 2 6 NxB N x Bch. 25 . . . R·B6dbl ell 26 K-Q4 B-N2! 2 7 P-R4 1 f
27 N-N ! , no t 27 . . . RxKNP 28 N- K2 R- K B6 29 N-N! etc . , but 27 . . . N( K4)- Q6ch
K-R3 P-N4' 31 P- N4 (or Jl Q Q4--Bx
28 K-B4 NxB(N7)ch 29 KxN B-B6ch
32 NxR B- B6! 33 P· N4 N-BSch followed by 34 . . . BxR with a decisive m aterial adva ntage) 31 . "
P·QR4 32 PXP N · BSch 33 K-N3 NXPch 34 K - R3 N·BSdbl ch
3S K-N3 R-R6 mate . It was Nezhmetdinov ' s int uition t hat led h im to conclude that his attack would be decisive-these variations are too head spinning to
27 . . . P-B4ch 28 PXP e.p. pxp 29 B-Q3 N(K4)xBch 30 K B4 P-Q4ch 31 pxp pXPch 32 K-N5 R-Nlch 33 Resigns
allow firm calcula tio n .
We shaH assume
t hat
ascribing intuit ion
purely
to
combinations and
sacrifices is to im poverish the concept of in tu ition in chess a ltogether. On t he other hand it is not correct to equate intuition with i magination. The player's i m aginat ion or his ability to visualize future changes on t he board is not necessarily accompanied by a sudden insight into some idea. It rna c
u a IOn , or a
be a
recise
y com prehen ed logical a nalysis of t he devised pla n in all its
stages . We should also take a crit ical attitude towards Linder's opinion. If the whole ga m e is merely a definite and perceivable calcula tion to its end . then w here do i m aginatio n and exploration come in? To sum up.
we
consider chess cre a t iv it y
to b e a conscious intellectual effort , which contains , however. unconscious elements. g ----�v-t-"Cclhla t;a1 � 81ll'llalCcl1le:!lri!is;tiitic
0 c ess In ultlon .
Irst y, we must note t he
relative speed wit h which a player makes an intuit iv e decision
at chess.
Secon dly. a player displays intuition in an arbitary manner, each move is an act 46
INTUITION IN CHESS
with a definite aim -in some cases it is a ttack, in others it is defence . Thus the player can not call upon creative enlightenment at a favourable momen t , b u t is
sUiplisedi>yinspiI3Iiorr;-as-wereJ\--rchimedes and Newton. Atanygiven rnornent--- the player does not need general ideas, even though they may be quite origin a l . b u t t hose which give the solution t o the particular proble m . Hence t h e value of each of a player's ideas depends upon their a ppropria teness. Had the idea of a q ueen sacrifice su ddenly come to Kotov in his famous game with Averbakh
....cou �f.ter (Zurich L953.).---a..p1
the
lH th g-tJ e�-- J'R� ym possibility of pbl-¥
co mbi n a tio n , then very likely it would have brought only belated regrets.
Averba k h - K otov Kotov won by 30 . . . QXPch !! 3 1 KxQ R-R3ch 32 K-N4 N·B3ch 33 K-BS N -Q2 As
S tahlberg pointed out, 33 . . . N-NS ! would be even stronger, prevent i n g White's nex t move. 34 R-NS R-KBlch 35 K·N4 N-B3ch 36 K-B5 N-Nlch 37 K·N4 N-
--�8 K·BS NXQPc 39
· N 4 N-B3ch 40 K-B5 N- N l c h The tim e con t rol . 4 1 K-N4 N- B3ch 4 2 K-B5 N-Nlch 43 K-N4 BxR Threatening 44 . . . B - K 2 followed by 4S . . . N-B3ch 46 K - BS N-Q2ch 47 K - N4 R - K N l ch and mates_ If 4 4 B-K3 B K 2 4S
BxK BP px B 4 6 Nx P R - R5ch 4 7 K - N 3
R(RS)x N. 4 4 KxB R.m!
Threatening mate in two by . _ _ R-N2ch and . . . R-B). I f 4S NxP R-N2ch 46 N-
----{--N6ch-R N2-JxNch47K-BS-N-K2mate. 45�R4 R-N3ch46K-lt51tfBlFN�2-.o4""7"'Bo---- NS RxBch 48 K-R4 N-B3 49 N-N3 RxN 50 QXQP R(N6)-N3 SI Q-N8ch R·N) S2 Resigns I m agine m issing such a beautiful idea on m ove 30, and then realizing the m is take soon a fterwa rds . The effect wou l d be shattering. The player is incessantly obl iged to seek a s o l u t ion at t he board now , by applying certain voluntary effor ts. not to postpone it until l a ter. .
reates exce-pt-itmaHension-i-n the thinking processes-duJing Ihe game.
We consi der i t necessary to refute Blumenfe l d , who in the article "Of Character
47
CHESS AND PSYCHOLOGY
i n Chess Th in king" expressed the o.pinio.n that in t uit ive t h inking at the board is no.t deliber ate , that chess players t hink as their fancies t a ke t hem . By hulding
----t-fot -..,s,...uctnrviewwnmjustifiabty-disorientare-tlre-ptayer=i -yu townfnrt thr u-nee ur- strive fo.r the desired go.a l , intuitio.n will come by itself. Th irdly, a successful intuitive solutio.n is accum panied by strong pusitive emo.tiu n . Bronstein -----
a
feel ing uf creative
was
quite currect
satisfactio n .
when he sai d :
-ecombi.nation-S---to-the-a-rt---d-chess,
but
self·cunfidence
and
"Intuit iun gave
triumph .
t he pret t iest
as-1().r-the-p).OU'ed-t ay-er-S-it-�U -hem-t-O
ex perience the real happiness uf creativity . " Fuurt hl y , the pract ical , active character uf chess t hin king man ifests itself in the appearance in the player uf an intuitive sense uf tim ing . The player feels , fur exam ple. that the m ument has com e when delay will mean deat h . t h at it i s exactly n u w a n d n u t later t hat h e must begin t h e cuun ter·attack, t he a dvance u r t h e pawn sacrifice. Thi s sense u f t iming i s m anifested fu r instance in t h e feel ing
oLdanger
_____
which is
familiar to
many players Kutuv wrote' "To hal
kno.wledge uf a future danger in t i m e to. avo.id it is a guaran t ee o.f great success in chess tuurnaments. Players have called this quality a sense o.f danger . " Le t u s no.w con sider the circumst ances determining the birth o. f intuitive solu t iuns during the process o.f co.nsidering a muve. We have a lready no.ted t hat intu ition
lays an auxiliar
role in t he leamin
rocess . The int u it ive mo.ve i s
no.rm ally preceded b y a Io.gical analysis o. f the positio.n o.n the bo. ard. In this sen se, in rel ation t o. the co.nscio.us search fo.r a mo.ve . intuit io.n co.mes seco.n d . Ho.wever , it i s no.t always a ratio.nal pro.cess o. f t hinking o. r a p recise calculatio.n o.f variat io.n s t h at perm its o.ne to. m a ke the cho. i ce . Ohen t he player feels do.ubtful, he feels dissati sfied when he has co.nsidered the varia t io.ns suggested by Io.gical analysis. The l i m it ed time available reinfo.rces the impossibility o.f u t iliSing o.nly a metho.d o.f strictly lo.gical o.peratio.n s . At such m o. m en t s the i ntuitio.nal mechanism is called o.n fo.r help . The psycho.lo.gist
Ya . Po.n o.marev
wrote : "The success o.f an intuit ive so.lutio.n depen ds upon t he extent to. which o.ne has m anaged to. free o.neself from t he stereotype, beco. me co.nvinced t h at the earlier fa miliar m etho.ds are inapplicabl e . and when o.ne has thereby retained an interest in the proble m . " A combinat io.n o.f what are really upposite emo.tio.ns is ----- 0.'" servecr--fJltl1elnmitmn-fl"Olnlo-ntuitio ginoi n.
On-orre-s-fct--1f el1re--ptayer'
dissati sfied with the path t a ken by his lo.gical analysis (a negative emo.tio.n) while o.n the o.t her he ret ains his ent husiasm and interest fo.r t h e search (a po.sitive emo.tio.n ) . Let us co.nsi der examples ill ustrating t he secon dary n a t ure o. f in t u i t io.n . I n t h e game
Krogius·Geller
fro.m
the
27t h
U SS R Cham pio.nship .
the
sudden
i n spiratio.n o.f the mo.ve NxP a rose regretfully after I had beco. m e co.nvinced
------t th h-a ---
assert tha t chess is an e ffective means of com bating serious failings in attention such an absent-mindedness. Grekov wrote : " For the man who is prone to absent -mindedness or lapses in attentio n , the capacity for protracted and unabating concentration developed at the chess board is a precious acquisition. " On the basis of many years of observation I make bold to claim that several
cases of a sharp fall in absent-mindedness in chil dren and adole scents have -- �oincided--W�h--the-beginning--Of a serious attraction to chess,
and I
h�,,-___
doubt that this happened in consequence of the influence of chess on the psyche . ': This opinion is also strengthened by the experience of teaching chess courses at schools in Leningrad and other places. Des ite the co m aratively hi h level of attention in chess players, blunders
and errors occur again and again in tournaments and presu mably seem to be incompatible with the level of play of the participants. Here we can explain nothing by reference to ignorance or inattentio n , and it is simply ridiculous to speak of lack of knowledge in a master when he fails to see, for instance, a one move threat to the queen. Attempts to explain such extraordinary lapses by time pressure or fatigue are not always convincing. No doubt these two factors do play a n import ant part in the · deterioration 0
attention, but a I t e same, although they proVIde
fertile
grou nd for errors they teU us very little abou t the nature of these errors. It would be wrong, after all, to regard the causes of a crime as being a dark n ight, bad weather, a lonely spot, or other conditions which only favour the creation of an unpleasant situation for the victi m . --
-''fhe�p1mratiun behiIld-m-any blunders-and-ovelsights which at first-seem-t'ft---- be inexplicable, apparently depends upon a study of the individual pecu lia rities of the player's attention. As we shall see, these personal, and at t i m es quite typical defects in attention appear most often and with greater force in especially unfavourable conditions-such as during t ime trouble or fatigue. But before we begin to discuss t he various aspects of a ttention in chess, we must first cons ider how the word attention is understood by the science of psychology.
57
CHESS A N D PSYCHOLOGY
What is attention? A t t ent ion is t he concent rat ion of cerebral activity on a certain object . This is
----�&m·� ���· �mu�--Since
a t t en t ion
is
always
focused
in
a
particular
direction ,
it
a u t o m a tically excl u des other subjects, phenomena and thoughts about them. How often we witness a chess player completely absorbed in his game. taking no not ice of the worl d arou nd him ! At such moments it is o n ly t he chess board with
guing-P-al1eI:n-oLpieces and pawnsthatexists-io.f-b-l-l·1Jh----------ri'5' inut.LJ ---'iLL ts>-u
_ _ _ _
A ttent ion
is not .
h owever. uniformly distributed over all sect ions of the board
and over all pieces. The highest concentration of thought is focuse d , as a rule, on the m a i n , decisive area of the chess battle . While ca rrying out a n operation on the K-side a chess player is sometimes completely distracted from the position on t he other side of t he board , and for some time t h e Q-side is a forgot ten "Cinderell a " . And t his is not some mysterious peculiarity of t he hu m a n min d : it l>C_l;tu.e_Jo_tb .e3clecti"�aillI'e-Of attention, which..cllooses-fr.om-a--1al'�- -'" i s� ' s'_!.J imp
_ _ _ _
n u mber of objects only those few which are the most i m portant and exciting a t t h e moment in quest ion . An import an t practical concl usion follows: one should not aim at a un ifo rmly high concent ration of a ttention over the whole of the board and over all of the pieces at t he same t ime. One has to learn to re
late one's attention . to direct it
towards the most important point and then in one's own ti me to switch t o other object s . An overall view of t he board and t he assessmen t of a posi t io n are built up gradually by sw itching one's concentration from one section of the battle to another. It is important to note t h a t while a t tent iveness i s a key psychological con dition of an ind ivid u a l . it is also instrumental in the acquisition of knowledge. W hen we see ou r opponent ' s move and start trying t o remember the variation we have j ust worked ou t , devise a combination
or
assess the posi tio n , we a re dealing with
facts either new or known, in short, wit h a flow of chess inform a t io n , an access o f chess knowledge. This in form a tion comes in the guise of percep t io n , an im age in t he memory. or as imagination or t hough t . One might t h ink t h a t a t tention w as irrelevant here since on its own it does not provide any inform a tion ;
---- ""TIf'V1''--li.mklit disappeared, I played cal m ly and won an important g ame. Several t i mes during my t raining activities I have tried this method of studying only the losses of an opponent one fears, and the results have been favou rable . Such a method. of course , is not very good for making an objective assessment of a chess player. but sometimes it is useful to deviate from the truth a little and deprecate one's opponent s st rengt . aster . , or example. reca l led how he felt encouraged when , on the eve of his first game against a Grand master, a friend of his started tal king about the mistakes and unsuccessful play of that great chess player. Of course, in fixing the attention on one's opponent's wea knesses and shortcomings one m ust keep a sense of proportion : otherwise one can easily fall ·Russia here means RSFSR. i .e. Ihe Russian Republic-one or tht eighteen Republics fonn ing t he U SS R .
64
ATTENTION 11110 a nother common nega tive sta te : over-confidence . . A cause of the slackening of atten tion d uring a game is often fear for one's p,,�ition , worry a bout the result or an exaggeration of one's opponent ' s threats. I " such situations it is useful to cheer oneself u p wit h a word of encouragemen t . We c a n do this b y addressin g ourselves silently : " I have to" , " I must " , "calmer", "I can " , " don't pan ic " a n d s o on. I n a n swering a q uestion a ire m any firsl category players admit ted the usefu lness of such " self-orders". .
ga game;-attentron call slacken 1I0t orrty-outlIiiellramhmc-ernrr
a lso because of over-confidence. especi al ly in better positions. The expression " t he hardest thing of all is to win a won game" h a s a deep significance. H avin g achieved an advantage i n a ga me w e often relax o u r vigila nce, we lul.1 ourselves with pleasan t thoughts of victory and then . . . we m ake a bad mistake . H ere again a change of mood is necessary towards a proper dispositio n . I t is important to direct the attention towards the thought that the game i s won o n ly ----hen-the-w poinl is wdtten down ill Lhe-muTmmrenr-taDntr(l1 bt� by means (If ()ral orders such as " check it once ag ai n " , "do not hurry" an d so on , in crease the attention and the responsibility of the chess player. It is very i mportant to boost an d re-inforce positive emotions when trying to overcome an unfavourable emotional conditio n . D uring some of ou r junior team hamp.ionships.Lnotic ed-m.anrinstances-cl-a�f�ching tecllniq.u�'R---- the part of Rokhlin , who was the leader of the RSFSR team. A t a suitable moment he recalled a very good combination T. h ad played, then he turned to S.
-c
and sai d : " I a m pretty confident of N ' s play-he played so marvellously in the U . S . S . R . Championship. " -in such a way that N. cou l d hear it. I cannot describe all the exa mples of this trainer's tact, but i t created an atmosphere of elation and confi dence in the team . All this influenced most favourably the play,
.i:L 3w tte tl1 :.l'1-1.titm-and-sense-oLresibl spon l ity-Of-tber he-m.em -s--of the team-du-r-i.ng-..t.lle.il'---
_ _
matches. F rom the experience of the RSFSR j unior team we can also draw conclusions on the significance of a trainer's objective a n a lysis of failures. Than ks to analysis and to the clarifying of the causes of m istakes, most of the youn g chess l ayers overcame their distress . The com m o n 0 inion that one is afraid and loses confidence when faced with the u n k n own is not groundless. The analysis of games by Rokhl i n , Nezhmedtinov and other trainers quickly led to a precise diagnosis, and the youn g players h a d the chance to convince themselves t hat there was nothing supernatural in their fail ure . .. After the game Nezhmedtinov very convincingly demonstrated my mistakes in the Siimisch variation of the King's I ndian defence. I somehow calm ed dow n . The next time that the variation was played a a i n s t m e I played with confidence and interest; I paid particular attention to the queen's side , which I had neglected on the previous occasion. The game was easy and enjoyab l e : I
65
CHESS AND PSYCH O LOGY won " -recalled one of the members of the team.
------ ��mmaro�.-----We have exami ned in de tail a n umber of typical instan ces of the in fluence of emotions on the in tensity and dyna m ics of atten tio n . We have fou n d that it is only possible to overcome the slacken i ng of attention by means of conscious. pu rposeful aci tivity. I t follows tha t the direction and concentration of attention
.u d"" ep.c;. eu n'ds-¥e��
on two faelors�hich detelillille its effectiveness: tn-e action of the will and emot ions. The psychologist I. Strakhov w rote: "The combination o f the will t o work and a con sisten t , emotion ally felt in terest. is the most favou rable psychological premise for constan t attention . " The significance of will power as a regulator of
_ _ _ _ _
the level of a ttention is especially apparent when comparing the productivity of thin king over the board with t h at of home an alysis . H ere t he difference in elli-O. mo LL t'-'io .u n u a � 1� .. sta.tes-p-1a¥&-a-g+e�e. With an eqtta-l-tim-e-consion. -ump1 thiIlkiIlg over the board p roves to be more effective . i nasmuch as t here the concrete goals are more clearly defined and a considerably greater force of emotional
_ _ _ _ _
experience is observed . A player's emotions also have a great in fluence o n h is level o f atten tio n : i t i s no secret tha t disappoi ntment. disillusionmenL.and fear hindeLConcentfatio.n- and impair the depth of analysis. On the other hand self-confidence and calmness allow the pl ayer to main tain his vigi l a nce . " Keep ing calm is no light matter; personally my brain funct ions well only when I a m relaxed. During t he tournament I partic ul a rly encouraged this quality in myself. " Botvinnik wrote in his book on the I I th U S S R Cha mpionshi p . Attention reveals itself not o n l y in the choice of a m ove, bu t also in rel a tion to other eo Ie in the abilit erye their emotionalsliU�_----
66
CHAPTER 4
Some Deficiencies of Attention
Attention is a complicated psychological process which man ifests itself in diverse ways. It is i nteresting to examine the significance of particular properties of attention in chess, to describe some typical deficiencies of atten tion and to dIscuss ways of remedymg these deficIencIes so thatthe player IS better eqUIpped for over the board combat . I have investigated the characteristics of attention through the analysis of games, observations during the course of tournaments and also by means of a series of experiments , and I succeeded in establishing some typical shortcomings in the player's development of a ttention . In
-----r;--+---p-artiet examined-in---detaiHnstaftees-ol-+apses-of-attenti6-�tnee-i--the rr-
prevention has a prime practical significance. A n attempt was also made to connect the typical deficiencies of attention which I noticed , with the individual pecu liarities of the player ' s mental activity.
The transfer of attention. We turn first to the dynamic features of attentio n . I s there anything we can y�itity_t>f--a-Hention when it is elear-th-a-t-und-a--pr-efe --cle-gree--6t---- concentration is essential to all serious menta l work? Such doubts are pointless. In chess, as in other kinds of creative activity, a ttention is not f ocused on an unchanging object, but is linked to a consta ntly changi n g situation on the board. Each concentration of thought, each attempt t(l--A�se!i!La..ltQ!iitio�or work ou t a variation. inva riab�uires us to envisage the possible rearrangement of the pieces and the appearance of new position s in the game. That is why the fact that one's attention is deep and constant does n ot mean that i t is absolutely static . It is a lively and m obile process . This statement is in fu l l accordan ce with J . P . Pavlov's ideas on the physiological n ature 6f attention . Pavlov wrote: "The sector engaged in opt i m al activity (i . e . the physiological mecha is ite the reverse it consta nt! 0 attention -N. K . is not fixe ' moves over the whole of the l arge hemispheres in a m anner which depends on
-------sa
_ _
67
CHESS A ND PSYCHOLOGY the connections exis t i n g between the cent res an d u n de r the in n uence of ex ternal stimul i . Correspondingl y , of cou rse, the a rea of l ow excitation also c h a nges . ". e
u m ty
0
t e sta 111ty and mobil ity of the attention of a human being is
pa rticul arly evident f rom his ability to switch his attention . By t he switching of atten tion we mean the fully conscious, deliberate tran sfer of the attention from one object to another. For e x ample , passing from working out one varia tion to anoth er, tran sferri n g a piece in one's m ind from one square to another, working 'ou1-captoles, estimatillg the p-o-ssm-ithl1
-----
0
a POSI Ion a n
so on .
wllc 109 t e
attent ion is very i mportant for the chess player as there are constant ch anges in the position on the board. A sufficien tly mobile a ttention help s t he chess player not only to tran sfer h is atte n t ion from one position to another when a p p ropriate, but also to devote to each position just as much atte n t ion as is necessary for choosing the next move, We shall try t o say something about some aspects of the switching of a player's
----
-acHe,ntion in theCOtlTseofplayingchessalld abouqrnrctnt-at,-dn ''''- eorefIc al ways of improving the flexibil ity of the a ttention .
The position in the foll owing diagram is from the ga me Tal- Krogius. 32nd USSR Championship . Kiev
1 964/65.
Black to move White's ch ances are preferable. He h as the two bishops and prospects of ope n i n g up the position stil\ further by means of pawn thrusts on both flanks. Black , howeve r , has n o reason t o panic just yet. He shou l d h ave thought of t ransferring his king t o K2 , After this the position of his pieces is stabi l i ze d , his k n ight on 02 is secured . and he can begin to think of preparing c ou n t e rplay 'Pavlov, "Twenty years of experience " .
68
SOME DEFICIENCIES OF ATTENTION hased on the manoeuvres . . . B-N2 and . . . p·O B4. In other words. a tense and difficult struggle for both sides lies ahead. t. -----------. . . � 27 8xN PxB-2� e game con Inue : The a dvance of the rook to the si xth was a complete surprise for me. While thinking abou t t he move 26 . . . N - N3 I n a tu rally took into accou nt t he excha nge 27 BxN , but after 27 . . . pxB I only saw the maneouvre 28 B-05 , not even considerin g 28 R-06 . How did thi s blunder happe n ?
---HIt�s<eee1ems-that-"\\'hen think-ffig-+hr--v eugMfle
.
.
W'JI-----
in its ol d place, i .e . on OB2. and consequently I thought that an invasion by the rook on 06 was impossible, since the square was covered. The fact that the accursed pawn leaves its place in consequence of the exchange and cannot guard the key square 03 , I did not take into account at a l l . I remember how I looked at the board in astoni shment and asked myself what ine xplicable thi ng was happenin g : where was the guard of 03 -the pawn on O B2 ? I could not believe yeyes: the �awtl-fr-em--GB2 was on anothersquare, in full acc�aDCe--W-ith-the
rules of chess. This example shows that one's mind continues to work on imagin ary, non existent positions i n spite of a. change in the circumstances on the board. In one's imagination an impression remains which l ags behind the actual development 0 �ts. but which is so stron that it makes a disastrous contribution to the calculation of variations an d the assessment of the position . My transference of attention in the above exam ple was obviously poor. Disregard of a change in the position led to an unrealistic, distorted apprehension of the game. This shortcoming i s a m ajor evil for the chess player. In particular it interferes with the accurate analysis of vari ations in positions which are full of tactical pos�iliiliti�_u£h_Liiil ures of transference are quite common i n practice . One such e xample, the the Tal- Rossetto game, was given in chapter 1 to illustrate the phenomenon of the retained im age (see pages 2 1 -22).
69
CHESS A N D PS YCHOLOGY I n the �ame Interzon a l (Amste rdam 1 964) another tragedy happened i n the game
Darga-Lengyel .
Black played
a
com bination involving
---- ��c:tae-cnrce_an r·fi d Dalga-iTnlTre-diITresig�rtek fi-ea-;-rmn tn g
an exchange
that he could n ot avOl
losi n g a whole rook . The players were greatly surprised when they were shown after the g ame t h at D arga cou l d have held on to his material advantage by means of a �im ple king move. The
game
continued :
40. . . R-lOch 4 1 K-82 and here Lengyel played
-----'4 .... 1�.RtK3fxNdl thinking tha-t-a-fter--41-RxR--BxR-Pch-White's-only-retreati'� s-il h rr ,-
N 2 . Darga resigned , his chain of thou ght being similar. How i s i t that neither of the opponents noticed the move 43 K - K3. ? Th e reason for this double blind spo t w a s th at both players still s a w the malign i n fl uence of the depa rted rook on K6. They thought that K3 was still covered by the rook. This is the sort of misadven t u re that happens with poor atten tion switching!
----_f.a� --Hlnff-4jt�-a-se--tll·e n_wa �attentio �f_a_somewnh�atJ-- d i fferent n a ture from t he ones quoted above. In the Tal- Krogius and Tal Rossetto games , a feature of an earlier position was i magined, but at least the piece i n q ues tion still existed on the board. In Darga-Lengyel, on the other hand,
the
m i scalculation
involved
a non-existent rook , which h a d been
sacrificed a m ove ea rlier! I n spi te of this djffer.enC.!: both kinds of mistake (due to r�ined i mages) can be expiained by a certain inertia of attention . I n order to
investiga te properties of the transfer of a ttention I have conducted a n u mber of experiments with a group of first category p l ayers. The exam inees wer� gi ven a position with abun d a nt combin ative possibi lities, but containing a forced variation . The task was as follows: to thin k the position over for fifteen to twen ty minutes without moving the pieces o n the boa r d and to z write down the v a riations a We h a d in all 200 an swers on twenty different tactical posit ion s . It is
interesting to note t h at out of a tot a l of variations
connected
with
the
dynamics
137 of
mistakes in the calculation of atten tion .
in
1 15
case s
the
m i scalculations were similar to those in the Ta l - K rogius a n d Tal- Rossetto games ( i . e. the new. changed position of a particular piece was not taken into ----o ----ca"'c""c unO-:-Only 22 cases were m Istakes SIm Ila r to that in the game D a rga Lengyel
(i.e.
a piece removed from the board co ntinued a sort of second l ife in
the m in d ) . These preli m in a ry data suggest that the change of position of
a piece
on the bo ar d is o ften not clearly registered by the chess player's attention a nd th inkin g ; as a result it is relatively h a rd to develop the ability to foresee the n umerous changes which can occur in a complex position . When a piece comes to the en d of its life this l ast moment of its ex istence ----s -..e""Y(n1')re a
particular co��ntnm
d
a
switching the attention to other objects .
70
there
IS
a consequent dlfftc u ty
ill
SOME DEF ICI ENCI ES OF ATTENTION Of course these con siderations a re far from being the l ast word . I m portant factors in expl aining a chess player's m is t a kes in the tran sfer of attention .11e
llis IIaiIs
ot--character-and-temperaIllerIt. the-eonditions-of--the--gacffl1� ' Ft----
question , tiredness, time trou b l e , his pos ition in the tourna ment and m a ny other things. In particular. I have noticed th a t in most complicated positions requiring a wide range of dynamic a tt ention , a comparatively l a rge proportion of errors a re made by those who consider chess to be a rigid scientific d iscipline.
----OOse--l who have greater faith in the texL=bnoJc(�g that if the book givesi
.
variation it m ust be correct and has to be fol lowed ) make a greater n u m ber of mistakes in connection with the switching of attent io n . For practic a l chess players and trainers i t i s very important t o k now how to fight this i n a dequacy in the switching of the atten t ion and inc ulcate a s u it a bly dyna m i c attent io n . While I was analyzing some of my own games tl"!e q uestion occurred to m e of how to remedy these fa ilings. A na'ive approach wo u l d be to analyzt-exery particlliar case and try to store it in one's-1llemory' do nQLhr-&e'-the insid ious pawn on Q 87; or remember t h e bishop on KN2-it is prepari n g to chec k o lJ R3. Such measures. howeve r . wi ll h ardl y h e l p : on another occasion the reason for the m irage m ay be another pawn or piece and anyway , it is i m possible to guard against every even t ua li t y . Nor is it necessary. It is better to find a method of more gener al applicat ion . such as that \uggested some time ago by Kotov . I t consists of t he follow in g : ta ke a compl icated. sharp posit io n and devote h a l f an hour to its ana lysis w ithout
_ _ _
movi ng the pieces on t he board. Then write dow n what you h ave t ho u ght and worked out, and compare the notes with ex isting commentaries on the position . I h ave used this metho d , working with a n umber of games by Alekhine . Tal and Larse n . f t is difficult to guarantee the result s b u t the work seems to h ave been u sefu l . In a ny case. the nu mber of omnipresent p ieces a ppeari n g . l i ke Figaro . here one m in ute and there the nex t . was reduced in m y ga mes. Koto v ' s met hod con tains a very import a n t con ditio n : the calculation is l im ited in time and the pieces are not a llowed to be moved during the cou r se of the analysis . Th is ach ieves an opt im a l sim u l ation of the tournament situat ion an d the calc ulation is h arder and more disciplined. By repeating these exercises several rimes one carnrchleve s\lrpri!>i�g-reru1rs�:--n-fsl1l 1!-ce�lrry o-n-01e--eozn-u---- m ista ke , even the most insigni ficant ones in one ' s a n a lysis . This method has been used in my work as a t rainer. The techn iq ue of c alculation a nd the t actic a l vision of a n u m ber of my trainees have i m proved considerably as a result of such exercises , Another idea w ith the same p urpose is t he rea d i n g of chess l it erature from the page, i .e. a sort of b l indfol d analy sis. I am not going to advocate here blin dfold . laysOil all astrolloillical Jlumber-of-bnards�-it-h�a�sas-been-pmved-tha-t-thtl-h -- l itt le to do with serious chess. However, the ment a l analysis of a posit ion or of
71
CHESS A N D PSYCHU LOGY an openin g without a board w ill do no h arm-quite the reverse . In the course of such an analysis one continually compares one new position with the ne xt; and
----
--HI�-pla€tngofthepieeeffi-eonst-anHy--checlce.d-and--correcred For this-pu-�
chess player cannot do without a sufficiently intense and mobile a ttention . I would like to say a few words about the role of chess composition an d . in particular. about the composition of problems in the develop ment of a mobile attention . One often hears criticism of problem composition from practical chess players on the grounds of its irrelevance to the practicalgame, to the lISJ!al positions of the endgame and middle game. This criticism is usuaUy q uite restrained in reference to studies. but as a rule it is absolutely ruthless when it comes to problems.
____
------
-----
It seem s to me that such reproaches are unconvincing . Many studies and problems are far removed. it is true. from the typical positions of the m iddle g ame and classical endings; nevertheless. they can still be of some benefit to the -t'l1:.a.ctkaLcl� le �e possible gain is the-dev-e1opmen-t..-Gf--tlt€� the attention . Whereas in the analysis of a position from a tourn ament game the course of our thoughts is influenced significantly by a general assessment an d by known strategic principles. in solving "pointless" (from the point of view of the practical player) compositions we generally cannot work with ready-made recipes. but must search for completely new and sometimes aradoxical solutions . Such a situation for a practical pl ayer is u nusual and for this reason he does not feel the dyn amics of the inter-rel ation between the pieces ; he h as to establish them for himself. A quick and precise transfer of the attention is essential here. In saying this I do not want to belittle the significance of the analysis of tournament games. but I do not thi n k that the study of compositions m a kes a useful con tribution to the development of a practical player's mastery, and in particular to the development of the dynamics of his attention . mprovem en t In the mobil ity of attention can also be assisted by five-minute g ames, as long as t hey are played within reason . Since the position in these games changes fast . the necessity to orientate quickly and. consequently to transfer the attention . is quite obvious. Five-minute games are particularly useful for chess players who have not competed for a long time and have, as it ����ss�t1thh hee'lth�y�tlmlimli,of1he-c e����r�ucrr-argument about the advantages an d disadvantages of the five-minute game. There is no doubt that an excessive addiction to lightning chess leads to an off-hand attitude to serious games and h in ders the concentrat ion and absorption needed for tourn ament conditions. One can scarely disagree with that, but I reiterate: within reason five-minute games become a sort of rehearsal for a chess player, during which he sharpens his arm aments-t hin king . perception . memory and attent ion . The
-ex-press.j�t_ITifl_reason..
IIIill
appear-obs
can we fix a reason able limit ? It does not seem possible to give an all-em bracing
72
SOM E DEFICI ENCIES OF A TTENTION form u l a . To find the right measure in this question is a matter for each individual. I wish only to adduce examples from the ex rience of re arin members of R SF S R teams . Before the match ag ainst H ungary an d the USSR Spartakiad in 1963 . the members of the team each played ten to fifteen five min ute g ames a day at training an d study sessio n s . This continued for about a week. up to five or seven days before the contest. The team members were in good form during the competitions and it is possible that the five-min ute games :tpe-ctfhem-roa better m oodfor chess. During preparation for im portant competitio n s . especially after a lon g brea k , I al ways include from thirty t o forty five-minute games in m y programme of t rainin g. I do not want to generalize . but I person ally find it helpful. After a l ike number of five-minute games I feel confident. I "see the board" better and I get in to the rhythm of the tournament bat t le more quickly. I believe I am not alone in this attitude towards five-min ute games.
ImtablDty of attention. Let us consider the fol lowing positio(l from the game Kasparian -Mazel . 7th USS R Championship, Moscow 1 93 1 .
Black's best plan may involve the advance of the pawns: . _ . P- K B4, . . . P- K4 or P-QB4_ At first Mazel ' s attention was attr acted by the natural plan with . . . P K4 and for that reason he played 1 2 KR-Kl. A fter 13 P-QN3 B-N2 14 B-N2 Black suddenly changed h is min d and , giving up the original pla n , played 14 . . . N-K5 15 Q.B2 P-KB4. Now , after the unexpected transfer of a ttention to the execution of the new plan with . . . P- K B4. it became clear that 12 . . . R- K l was mogical. There followed 16 N·Kl N(Q2)-B3 17 P-B3 N·N4 18 N-Q3 P-B4l? Still another surprise. Black again changes plans without completing the earlier one. . . .
...
73
C HESS AND PSYCHOLOGY Black has changed his plan t hree times in the last six moves without any reasonable j ustific ation , switching his attention from one section of the board to -
wi-tttotlt-en-t-3ttf-fici motivatmn .
o 01 t H' h te e f_' r -a afl �
As a Ies011 'tV..iIe achteve-ct-al"a"'g"'e llrdvlm -
after 19 N·B2 and l a ter on played the break P- K4 .
I1yin -Zhenevsky describes a sim ilar episode from h is own experience : "It sometimes happens that there is a choice between two different pl ans of p l ay. In
SlIch casesthere is notb.ing--wo�han trying tocarry out both plans at once, the
i deas become m i xed up and neither plan is carried out successfully.
"This position is from the ga me lIyin -Zhenevsky-Grigoryev, Moscow 1 9 1 9 . ' Here I had two pl a ns. One - to exploit the poor pvsition of the black rook and play 1 B- B I R- RS and now 2 Q- K2 with the threat of Q-NS or 2 B-Q3 threaten ing B-B2 or Q- K2 . In thi s case Black's Q·side awns are in an unenviable pOSition . The other plan was to exploit the weakness of the pawn at Black's Q4 by means of 1 P- B4 P- KN3 2 P· N4 and then P- BS . For me both of these plans mingled i � to one a nd I played 1 P-R3? Thi s . m ove is no good a t all since the bishop can never go to KN5 because of BxQP. 1 . . . P-QN4 2 p. B4 Having lost an important tempo I chose the other pla n , but it is too late. 2 P-N5 3 PX P PXP 4 ---- -lBIt.."BI1)-AA-1n-a-l'rerecoffleTIlJeil rst plan . o r rather a feeble Imlialto n . 4. . .pxU5 BxR QXB 6 PXP Bx P and after a few m oves I had to resig n . " To these words w e add-in adequate atte n t ion upon each o f t h e two plans and an unncessarily rapid transfer from one back to t he other. a l l led to dispersal and fragmen tation in the course of the thin king process . Th us, inst abil ity of atten tion manifests itself in the hasty transference or attention from one aspect of the po sition to another. The length of deliberation that is necessary to achieve --a-produetive-decision is lacking. alld this lesutts-in--e-vr -fu otatirrtJ"""or-tngrcm sequence in p l ay ; p l ans and ideas are mixed and non e are b'rough t to their logical conclusion . .••
----
74
SOM E DEFICIE NCI ES OF A lTENTION I nsta bility of attention is also characterized by the refusal to search for hidde n , original possi bilities in t he position . The pl ayer often relies upon t he
- �inimrr;-arrimes-superfici-at;-appraisal or-catettJ-atiorning-ap r--aml--e pears to -
him to be clear and simple . Thus, instability of a ttention often com bines wi th such character traits as excessive self-confiden ce . It is also connected with defin ite features of thinking . The player pl aces more trU'it in an intuit ive general eval uation or an instan t revel ation of vari ation s . to the detriment of a th orough . logical ana-l¥s�uch a manner-oLp-Lay. it is true IlsuaJl¥-avoids time lI:ou.hL"'-'but it also substantially reduces t he player's crea live capacities. How can .one rid oneself of this defec t ? Quite possib l y . its ultimate cause is concealed in the individual quali ties of the player's character. Hard work is required in order to develop determination an d decisiveness in choosi ng a move . In this context Bronstein 's words sprin g to mind: " A l most always the determined execution of a pl an , even one that is not entirely correct , will more often lead to sllclIL ce5£.1h an.Jnade.qu.a..tcl).' mot ivated sha switch at the h a lf way stage." One can also attempt to .outline special chess recommen datiDns for developing a lon g attentiQn span . In our view. useful ex ercises include reading chess literature and solving studies without the use .of a board , as well as playing blin dfold training games. (These recQmmenda tiDns can also help cure defects in the switching .of attentiQn-pages 67-73 . ) . Blindfold play rncreases tile nee tQ concentrate attention not only on t he positions of the pieces on the board . but also on each possible plan . The men tal im age is weaker t han the visual perception , hence cQntrol over the selection of a move will be increased and a special care a nd accuracy in thinking is required. On the basis of my own experience I can advise you to discipline yourself during the game by mentally posing the questiQn -" H ave I appraised t he position /pla n/Idea too hastily? Did I stQP examlDlDg thiS vanahQn too soon ?'-''''�-- Kotov's recQmmendation that a pl ayer should analyze a complex position without moving the pieces an d with a limited t ime span (twenty to thirty minutes), is alsQ .of value (see page 7 1 ).
_ _ _
The distribution of attentlOil. The expression "breadth of attent i o n " encompa sses the two properties .of volume and distributio n . The volume of attentiQn is measured by the n umber .of objects which are taken in sim ulta neously. For example, one can register a certain n umber of letters at a single glance. Distribution is a more complex property t h an vol ume . It is through the
sl� y'---- - _tbat a human being is-ab-Ie to cope simul-t-aDsou� tentitm_ -o f-the-at s�tririihb -- ----r1dn.iutionwith two or mQre activit ies (for example . listen in g t o something a n d writing it
7S
CHESS A ND PS YCHOLOGY down ). The distribution o f attention also manifests it self in the ability to perceive different facets of a single object. ------
HH���� �·�·�w·��� �����
consi derable significance. This is because of the exceptio nal variety of the possible variations as well as the need for a constant watch on one's opponen t's thinking processes. The distribution of attention is closely connected with the tran sfer of attention , since the dynamics of the chess situation are e x ce pt ion a lly hi h . In their book 'The Ps chology of Playing Chess' Diakov. Petrovsky an d Rudik wrote : "At every move the general const ruction changes. The section s of the paths along which the pieces move make up the content of the thoughts and th e elements of the world in which the chess player lives. This description is a schematization of the action of the game which animates our view of chess positions by regarding them as collection s of points. each of which is the in itial point of a certa in trajectory of motion. The chess player's brain is thus presented with a com letely s cia l world of dyn a m ic relations . . Alekhine, Botvinnik and other chess authorities have pointed out that a pl ayer is incapable of comprehending all the complex inter-relationships of the pieces on the board s imultaneo us ly Mentally the player isolates a secto r of the board, a g roup of pieces, a particular variation or plan , as bein g the m ain object of deliberation . Botvinnik wrote: "The player pays no a t tention to some pieces. From a total n u mber of 25-30 pIeces between three and SI X figure 10 hI S calculation s . " Thus the need for a special fonn of narrowing one's atten t ion , the men tal division of the board into principal an d subsidiary , is both psychologically comprehensible a nd explicaBle. The distribution of a chess player's attention depends he avily on a high level of flexibility, for in m any cases the direction of attention towards two objects sim ultaneously is, it seems, nothing other than a swift tran sfer of concentration frofflOrreobje cl 10 ano er a n an equa y SWI t return to the first object and so on. With a sufficiently high transferability o f attention which i s un der conscious cont rol , this feature of atten tion no longer operates as a defect. in that there is noth ing incongruous between the effort of im mer sing oneself in though t about ---- �{};me-variation in th€--£GR"tl£+wa-y-amI--t-fle-f-eam.atIDfI-&f-tfle;te€��y of a timely tran sference of attention to another object. However , q uite often the player is carried away by a certain idea and is literally unable to break away from it . I nsufficien t self control gives rise to a persistently narrow direction of attentio n , which l i m i ts the scope o f o n e ' s thought a n d leads to a subjective evaluation of the position and hence to errors. We shall look a t some concrete examples of the characteristics of the . "
.
-----
distribution ofa chessplayer'sattentioD-in-tnhnR:-.�e�cuouul':rsii1:e�o;nfc-u,,-,--,-,,-,,, --
_ _ _
And tiredness i ncreases. Perhaps one should sometimes use one ' s opponenfs m ove time for rest an d for relaxing the intensity of the attention somew h a t . Whether or not one shou l d s it at t he board the whole ti me i s a question o f long standi ng . I t i s well known that Botv inn i k in man
tourn a me nt s he
la e d in, remained gl ued to his chair
fo r the w hole five hours , t h i n k i ng about his o ppo nent's possible varia tio n s . This l e d t rainers a n d mentors t o s a y t o t he ir charges: " Look a t Botvin n i k ' s ex ampl e : do not wal k arou n d w h i l e your oppo nent is t h i n kin g , b ut t h i n k yoursel f . " Late i n h i s career Botvinn i k . to t he a m azement o f chess trainers , st arted walking up and dow n the tourna ment hall . However, the watchword " sit and play" has not lo st its followers. What comment c a n be m a de here? Ever
chess pia er has hi s idiosync racies
of tempe ra ment , attent ion and other psycho-physiological qual ities , so it woul d be wrong to g i ve one general prescri p t i on . N evertheless I would l i ke to p o i n t o u t s o m e con s i derat ions . Someti mes , of course. it is essential to t hi n k w hi l e it is one's op ponent 's m ove , and not divert one's attention . This is natural d u r i n g time trouble, during forced contin uations ,
iran-i
ea
su
en y
stn es
one
a ou
an
u ex pect>"'e- --
continu ation , and so on , but more often , di straction from the game an d some rel a xation are q uite j ustified , and w alking is an active form of rel axat i o n . Chess players h a v e differin g w ays of divert ing t heir t houghts f r o m the g a m e . For ex a mp l e . Li sitsin goes to the corner of the s tage and looks i nto the a U dience, Smy slov energetica l ly paces along between the t ab l es and Tal and Ta i m a nov m an a ge to "run " several m i l es d uri ng a ro u n d . Despite these differences in behaviour, chess player's ways of res t m g have plenty In com mon . Ftrstly , rei axation is relative: there is only a sl i ght decrease in the stre n g t h of the attention and one's thoughts conti nually return to one's own position . A t such m om e nts a player c an start a conversation with a fellow-com petitor, but he does not
p ar ticularly
like
listeni n g
to
hi m ,
especi ally if i t
involves
maki ng
a
---- c�o�r.rtm� � ��--Here we enco unter the diffic u l ty of the d i s tribution of attention between cog itating about one question and listening to a discourse on anothe r . Generally it is only the m ai n i deas of the s p eaker ' s t ho u ghts w hich are regis t ere d , and even these only i n a fragmentary way . D uring these periods of diversion strong o utsi de irri tants can pl ay an adverse role. A ques tion from a journ a l i st , en q u i ries from a persistent fan or just loud talki n g c a n provoke-s-ocn-comptettioli e-di-stnrc that the--process-otre=esta-bti-shlng�--
9S
CHESS AND PSYCHOLOGY one's concentration after the ,o pponent 's move is very difficult and demands great will power.
-------;;)lffl · �e's--atkntioo_has__aised__er____lew ___to__b �red_w_i_th___ve _e ry_____mo'le iR alternation , it is important to think about the moment at which one swi tches b ack on. I believe that at the point of transition from rel ative rel axation to great effort (that is, when the opponent makes his move) t he practice of writing down the full chess notation (instead of the abbreviated form) i s quite justified. * The extra two or three seconds one uses for this notation ensure a gra dation in the course of the inc rease of the intensity of attention and also help to get rid of any i rrelevant t houghts which have appeared during the wait for the opponent ' s move.
INDIVIDUAL CHARACfERlSTICS AFFECI1NG AtTENTION In t he i nvestigation into the special characteristics of attenti on in chess activit , an allowance should be made for the selective na ture of attent ion , which is
dependent
upon
a
player's
knowledge ,
his
experien ce ,
his
aesthetic
preferences and so on . Indivdual features of a player's character, his tastes and interests, influence the direction of attent ion considerably.
The edent to which attention i. dependent upon the player'. theoretic" w e exper ence. Under the infl uence of knowledge and experience, attention is often drawn to certain elements in a position or transferred to other element'S. Perhaps this is because the player has discovered the position on t he board to be sitpilar to already known
positions
which he
has encountered before and because
experience plays the part of a special sort of traffic light for a pl ayer 's attention. The green light is associated with agreeable memories , w hereas red signifies
lfflcU ties.
nger 10 assocI a
•
Krogius is recommending the use of.
for example.
NgI ·f3,
96
rather than simply NO- Editor
SOME DEFICIENCIES OF ATTENTION
As an exam ple l et us consider the opening in the game game Wi nter Capablanca Hastings 1 9 19 . ___
--
C... --'ap pablanca's-attentjon was attracted by the idea of forcing_�whi�.� h� is� h,", o¥ p____
from the theatre of war by means of
8
.
.
. P- K R3 and
.
.
.
P-KN4.
There fol lowed
P-KR3 9 B-R4? P-B4 10. N-Q5? P-KN4 II NxNch QxN 12 B-N3 B-N5 13 P-KR3 BxN 14 QXB QxQ 15 PxQ P·K B3 "A single glance is enough to be . . .
convinced that White is practically a bishop down " wrote Capabl anc a . Possibly the Cuban's attention was also attracted to the action on the K-side because of associations with i deas seen in earlier games in w hich he had chased away his opponent's bishop in a similar way. It is quite sufficient to look at t he openin g moves i n his game with Morri son (White), played i n New York a year earlier: 1
P-K4 P-K4 2 N -K B3 N-QB3 3 B-NS P-Q3 ·4 N - B3 B-Q2 5 P-Q4 pxp 6 NxP P KN3 7 N B3 B-N2 8 B-NS N-B3 9 Q-Q2 P- KR3 10 B- KR4? 0-0 1 1 0-0-0 R- Kl 1 2 KR- KI P-N4 1 13 B-N3 N- KR4 1 4 N-QS P-R3, and the bishop on KN3 i s not -
involved in the arne. Knowledge defi nitely regulates the direction of a player's attention t o a certai n extent , however, it is necessary to qualify this wi th the observation that k nowledge is aU the more effective in reg u l ating attention t he better assim ilated it is . Needless to say this indicates that great be nefit is derived from analyzing one 's own games, that is to say a detailed, critical analysis in w hich both the key factors anathe mistakes III the game are revealed. Korchnoy once rna e an instructi� remark about the requirements for the effective analysis of one 's own games. He pointed ou t that the attitude towards this work shou l d be the same as that adopted when each game is destined for publication. Unfortunately, m any players fail to take the view that their games are their own vital concern ; at best t heir game scores gather dust on a shelf and are never t urned to for critical examination . e expenence a other players shOUld, of course , be understood In depth. In this respect the picture is apparently more favou rabIe, the theoretical articles and the games of famo us pl ayers are studied . However, here too one need not go far for examples of tournament books being rea d with the speed of bl itz games . with a l ack of serious analysis . One would im agi ne that the exponents of suc�
speed methods-woutd-t-natready--a--big step forward in the development of a player ' s positional judgement.
97
CHESS AND PSYCH OLOGY Of co urse, I am not trying to deny the si gnificance of visual im ages i n assimilating pas t experience. I t i s merely m y wish t o say that a player's visu a l
-'"m "'"' em Ll oJ:¥--.Sbollld lU be develope�'!Oison with his concrete memory
_ _ _ _
In
regard to
the role of visual ima ges in effectively holding attent ion , I can speak from my experiences with a group of ten players of can didate m aster or first category st rength. The subjects were asked to eva l ua te a position in a well- known variation of the King 's Indian Defence and to outline a plan of action . The n , what m i ght seem t o b e a trivi al new det ai l w as i nt roduced i n to the famil i ar position on the board ; the pieces and pawns kept the ir pl aces bu t the col(JUrs were reversed . Although the sense of the position rem ained unchanged the results of the experiment were unexpected-the majority of the subjects failed to arrive at a clear un derst anding of the i dentity of the two positions d uring the whole period of the experiment ( 1 5 m i nu tes) and they proposed rather u nusual and ra ther bad plans. On the whole they convincingly demonst rated o nce again that in chess creativity the act of i nstilling meaning i nto a position is an organ ic p art of the act of visual underst andi ng of the position . The extent to which attention is dependent upon fashions In chess.
Every pl ayer possesses his own individ ual characteristics . It is possible to sing e ou groups W I simi ar c arac eriShcs of creauvl1y and flle se groups we call styles , and yet m any players of various styles fall un der the spell of the current creative trends in chess . Thus , in their time , the teachings of Steinitz, the views of Tarrasch , the i deas of Capablanca and a n u m ber of other great masters, have exerted an infl uence upon the ope ni ng repertoi re and the methods of technique applied by m any of their contemporaries of varyi ng styles . Today a s im i lar pi cture ca n be observed when the King 's I ndian and the Sicilian dommate 1ft the openI ngs . but In the mIddle-game the m ost popular pusihti7io" are those with dynamic tension in the centre and a pawn storm against an enemy ki ng fortress which contains a fianchettoed bishop . Therefore, in o ur observations of the present phase of chess development . various posi tions rem ain outside the notice of m any pl ayers of various types and char acters . For
---- -i-n-flmfl---- ----f -.O variations..Jnt�ean and unclea�s intuitive;--it--is--a-e past experience , going on a number
of
minute , sometimes barely discern able
and intangible, factors.
If the intuit ion were more highly developed o n e woul d immediately discard not ten , but , say, seventeen continuations out of twenty. When on l y three possible co ntin uations are left the conflict involved in takin
a decision is less
arithmetic ally speaking . Grounds for uncertainty and other adverse emotions will therefore diminish . The develop ment o f chess intuition is
determined by a chess player's
experience an d, perhaps more importantly, by his skill in generalizing from that experience. Generalization of the flow of chess inform ation is precisely wh at we mean by the ability to assess positions. Consequently, the development of abstract and logical thinking is a real hel
in overcomin
time trouble .
I would like t o s ay a good word for such excellent books a s " M y System" by Nimzowitsch , " The Problems o f Contemporary Chess Theory " by Lipnitsky and the works of Botvinnik, Capablanca and Alekhine , which provide valuable help in developing the ability to understand positions.
We must conclude our discussion o f opening preparation an d intuition in
--
cUrtrrg-time trouble
wrrn-asobe�u
e c ess wor
as
nown m any
brilliant theoreticians and seen the rich intuition of many great players, but it has also very often seen them in acute time trouble. There are plenty of examples. Who does not know of the encyclopaedic knowledge of Grandmaster Bronstein , his m arve1ious intuition- and his almost invariable time trouble? Going back to what I said earlier I must reiterat e : time trouble is not merely a matter of chess; it concerns the human being him self, about whom psychology -- hh�as-toht-urtarte-ss-ttr:rn-n-an1reo ry a bOut the COpIOUS vanatton s ofthe Queen's Gambit. Inadequate practical preparation, the absence of training.
A lengthy lay-off usually lowers the efficiency of a player's mental activity , therefore-t-he--eonclusions-drawll flOlII the expeliem:-e-of trainers, whictnrsserr----
--
that after a long gap severa! trainin g games are ne cessary before a tourn ament begins, are co rrect. These g ames create beneficial con ditions for a player's successful adjustment to the conditions o f tournament play and help to engender a dynamic pattern of play. In cases of lack of t raining Botvinnik ' s advice quoted above may help in avoiding time troubl e . Blitz game training m ay also h ave a positive effect. In
-t-lmse---ea-ses where there has-been-n-o
preparatory-training
the
playet finds
himself given to time trouble to a considerably greater degree than is normal , especially at the beginning of the tourn amen t . It should be noted th at when a
111
CHESS A ND PSYCHOLOGY player is out of training his capacity for a general intuitive assessment of a position is not reduced . However. those automatic components of thought and ----e ---the-spe ial inteUeetual-b -ha its-which--substantially reduce the time taken f� calculation and for the solution of concrete tactical problems are reduced. Ob,leetlYe eomplexlty of a situation. Complicated situations which are dynamic and as yet unresolved. need to be considered more thoroughly andin greater detatl; a deeper search IS nece�l-o find a plan. Positions which have undergone sudden and substantial change also require similar consideration. Botvinnik's sentiment quoted on page 107 contains the important belief that there is a direct proportional relationship between the objective complexity of a position and the time taken for seeking the best moves in that posit ion. Thus, the attempts made by some players to expend, let us say, a maximum of thirty min utes on the openmg. or to diVide tile remammg time exactly-by-tlfe-number of moves to arrive at an average time for the consideration of each move, seem to be naive. We should therefore approach Spielmann's advice critically. He suggests leaving a compulsory five minutes as a reserve for the final move. A mental --- --1'I''f'>e1duetion-of-tbe--ftme available--&Y-fi.ve minutes-has-a-certain significance in developing self-control. but the attempt to carry out Spielmann's advice literally may lead to time being expended on moves other than those that actually need it. in direct contravention of our plan. It is more often the case that if one side is in a difficult position then the complexity of choice leads to time trouble. The player who has the advantage will examine his plans with particular accuracy and the defender will look for a
o·f-his-6iffic--ult-iJositionwith m()re.caret" ha &;n l1-<J lI� sl... la ", I ,---
o.u u t_ t � w � ·a a lV y_f'l
-
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Consdous entry Into dme trouble.
-----
Casesof time trouble are also observed when a player , who is dissatisfied with the course of the game, enters time trouble with the idea of exploiting it as a form of psychological wanare.11tn t ttem-pno-drawthe-e-is-oft 0Ppollent's-f1r en successful: the opponent . hoping to gain a quick victory during the other side's time trouble. becomes excited and loses the necessary critical approach . The objective nature of his thinking is replaced by impetuous actions. The result is a loss of detachment in controlling one's emotions which leads to serious errors, and thus the intentional use of time trouble is often justified. The reader should note the increased likelihood of making mistakes during ...,.h�ls oppollenrnirI'wtrouble. since his-critical-attit�s- plans is reduced and his capacity for a deep understanding of the position is weakened . 112
WHAT IS TIME TROUBLE?
It has been said that Reshevsky often invites time trouble quite deliberately. In this respect the Korchnoy · Suetin game, which decided first place in the 27th
USSR
Championship (Lenitlgrad----l%er,-rueti -is----i-n ve;--Suet1n-ob-tai-ned---an--
advantage in the opening and steadily increased the pressure in the middle game. Korchnoy only succeeded in diverting Suetin from his measured t em po of play by provoking his own t ime trouble . Suetin incorrectly believed that he had the chance of an early win , he began to hurry, comm itted some serious errors
and lost thegame Thus, thanks in partto a well·timed lapseJnt��tr.Qubl.., e,�
_ _ _
Korchnoy gained an important victory. Deliberately getting into time trouble should be employed only after a detailed assessment of a number of considerations. The objective one - the complexity of the posit ion, and the subjective ones - a
co nsi deration
of the opponent 's
character, the likelihood of errors on his part and so on. We have classified the condit ions for the appearance of deliberate time t rouble in the group of objective
canses of time trouble, since we reg.ard the determining feature aLbe.�... an �
_ _ _
entirely objective criterion - namely an unsatisfactory position. Time trouble also arises from SUbjective causes, as the m anifestation of definite individual qualities of thinking , and the volition and emotional frame of mind of the player. The psychologist B. Teplov has emphasized the particular
-------importance of the unit-y-of-inreUect and will---PO-�r---an--effectiv.e-activi",tYruin�-- practical
thinking.
This
situation
may be completely attributed to the
competitive side of chess creativity. The viol ation of the unity of t he content of thought and its strict aims within the framework of a tense chess battle is one of the main causes of t ime trouble. In p ractice this violation manifests it self in a systematic refusal to ntake decisions, a distrust of one's own judgements and in attempts to postpone the unavoidable choice of a move.
----� ---I.IIn-so clin.ation--andJn�bilit}'-to-make a
decision in good
time becomes a habit . Bronstein often thinks for a long time, even over the opening moves. In the 28th USSR Championship he thought for twenty minutes about the first move in his game against Stein, and
a lt h ough
he reached a
promising position in the middle game all his efforts were l ater neg ated by t ime trouble . After he committed some errors he lost the game . Averbakh says that Bronstein once thought for forty minutes over his first move! Panov has also recalled similar inst ances of prolonged deliberation over the opening moves which occurred in Grigoriev's games.
p
In these exam les we o bserve an uneconomical ex pen d iture of time on deliberation, which is not evoked by any serious objective reaSOns .
Ope ning
systems, especially in the initial moves, are sufficiently wen known to any com
tent
layer. Moreover, in these
articular games neither Bronstein nor
Grigoriev invented anything out of the ordin ary in the opening ph ase, but restricted themselves to the choice of long familiar systems. Presum ably their
113
CHESS A N D PSYCHOLOGY
deliber atio n s can be explained by subjective factors : on the one h an d they were solvi ng the problem of which opening system would be more agreeable or more
---., u "' II "' a cttt-r 1i"" a""' cH ti" v'e-to--the-opponent;-thereb --outlini� �th"'e�
-
psychological battle , while on the other hand they were conquering their own
sta te o f over-excitement and i n decision . preparing themselves for the most efficient working frame of min d . I t could be said that the majo rity o f pl ayers
deliberately
achieve
a
reorientation of theirthQu.g�and feelin gubouLilie5j)JD�iltl.k --Quite early. even before the start of the g ame . The long pause at the beginning of Bro nstei n ' s and Grigoriev ' s g a m es m ust obviously be explained b y individual peculia rities of the psyche . They could only concentrate upon the game
an d overcome
distractions once the battle had already begu n , because of an in adequate self co ntrol befo re the round . A clear case of the l ack of the un ity of intellect an d will power of which we spoke earlier . A s an ana logy we recall Napoleon ' s remark
about his marsh.aLMa.£seIlil>--.Wh�Qyld.e.Jl.ev r work out
a pl an for the coming
battle before it started , but only demonstrated his abilities as a commander after, as N apoleon put it " the cannons had started to fire" . We have now satisfied ourselves as to the existence of definite subjective factors whi ch evoke an in creased expenditure of t im e on deliberatio n . thereby furthering the appearance of time trouble. As we have already note d . these factors manifest themselves in the form of a refu s al to t a e decisions and are acco mpanied by u ncert ainty and indecision . These negative character t raits are created by doubts of d iffering sorts and by vacillation s : therefore . in defini n g the various subjective cau ses facilitating the appearance of time trouble we shall analyze various types of doubt in order to discover the nature of these cause s .
Doubts concerning-.analy"" s� isLL '
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
These appear in persistent searches in almost every position for the single . unique , best move . He nce a perfectly reaso nable variation will seem not qu ite strong enough , the player wants to find someth ing even more e ffective . As a result , time passes, the se arch continues, but the player' s raging doubts do not allow him to make a choice. An illusory chase after the absolute truth takes place. Spielmann wrote : "From the very start such a player is devoted to a d i sastrous method of exaggerated con scientiousness. In every position he will search for. the objectively best move, bu t soon he will lose all chance of orie nta tion amongst the chaos of all the possible advant ages and di s advantages. Valuable time i s lost forever and ultimately, in the m ajority of cases, he will have to decide upon a move s uggested by intuition rather th a n by mathematical calc ulation , but by this stage hi s im agin ation has been poisoned by thousands of doubts and a poor move will suggest itself to him . " Although picturesque . Spielmann ' s description o f those p l ayers who are always
1 14
W H AT I S TIME TROU BLE? inclined to search for the absolute best method or solution m ay also be too catego rical . It should be noted that this tendency is theoretically i m possible.
-- -+ Th ll<e e'(afiety--6--\'j f--pos si-bHities--ma-lres-efiess-r--p- aetieaHy--inexfiausH-ble,-henee-the----
attempt to encompass the infinite is, as a m att er of principle, unrealistic in the majority of positions . Of course m aster players are not so extreme in their aspirations, but in practice they often try to resolve the special features of a complicated position . When it becomes clear that this is impossible then doubts
ar..rn:..Jh�eLYilc..il�_clul lall:s....!n'_er..1b ilc_e....oLh s......m!l..... e....and..Jime..Jro..\lble...._..dD es....Dot._
_ _ _
_ _
t ake long to appear. From our own observations , the games of Borisenko , Kotkov an d Udovcic will serve as examples o f similar doubts about one's own analysi s . As Botvinnik h a s emphasized o n e m u s t try to f i n d a sensible ratio be tween t h e breadth o f search a n d the existing t i m e l i m it - at times deliberately choosing lower quality moves. Thus the well known chess adage "it is better to h ave a bad plan than no plan at aU" is of signLf-kJrnc_eJILaYOidingiim..e..1mu..ble. Of course, we are not contradicting Alekhine's opinion that it is d angerous to t rust first impressipns
and
intuitive judgements
without verification
and
that it is
necessary to find the best move, but this attempt to fin d the best an d strongest contin uation should not be regarded as somethi n g that is absolute, but should be measured against what is feasible. Spielmann gives some suitable practical a dvice on this subject : " Do not play too quickly . Examine every move, however natural it may look. Do not day· dream. After brief t hought if you are sati sfied t h at your intended move is not bad then p l ay it . If you have to choose from several moves that look equally good , do not become involved in endless comp arison s. Do not fo rget that in most positions there are several good moves, but that you have to choose only one of them or else it will soon be too l ate. Do not always search for the --� o oJechve Y st move ecause requently there is no such move. n most cases it is a m atter of taste - simply look for a good move ! " It should be kept i n min d that i n chasing after the unattainable the pl ayer tries to analyze a comparatively large number of v ari ations, which he tries to calculate as far as possible. Such a player sho w s an unwillingness to abandon
calculation 01 to--ma-lce-a-critcal judgement about th�itioils atisillg ill h' c alcul ation . Doubts Hnked
to an exallerated importance of'the opponent's individual
style. These doubts are evoked by a subjective characterization of the opponent. which recognizes only the strong aspects of his play. Such doubts lead to an underestlmation of one's own poss iblITHe s , to passive thinking an d to the appe arance of a network of negative emotional states - fear, apathy or i m pul'
1 15
CHess AND PSYCHOLOGY siveness, u ncertainty and constraint . In this case disting ui sh e d -----
_ _
by
lengthy calculations nor
by
plans are
gen erally not
a wide range of variations. The
flHHUftm1-ls b')fe�r�o�ft__cpes ib-il-itfe.s---wmclt--a-re-cempafed-in analysis is relalively few and concrete analysis is not carried as far as usual. At the selection of a fi n al deci sion the po ssibilitie s that arise are examined and re-examined m any times and only after an over thorough check , which necessitates an increased expenditure o f time, is the move made. s man of TaJ's 0 et into time trouble because of the unnecessary accuracy and increased responsi bili ty with which they examined the rea] , and at times not so real , tactical opportunities of their opponent . The impression is created that Tal's opponents looked for and found danger where it had no objective existence , their uncertainty, doubts and manifold repeated calculations were all evoked by a subjective fear of Tal's combinative abilities. In the game Lein·A . Zaitsev , Sochi 1967, Zaitsev, who normally played --'"IukklY-.-toYnd himself in time trouble. The cause la in doubts about his own calculations, brought about by the fact that all their previous encounters had ended in Zaitsev's defeat . This was also the reason for Bilek's time trouble in his game against Taimanov , Budapest 1 965 ; during the game the Hungarian Grandmaster calculated many of the sharpest variations open to his opponent . After the game was over it became apparent that Bilek's fears were groundless; according to Taim anov he had not even t oug t 0 mVltmg comp Ic a Ions u had intended to limit himself to a small posit ional advantage. An excessive faith in the strength of the opponent an d perhaps an exaggeration of his opportunities a re characteristic of Bronstein 's play. He has said that he often rejects the most in tere st ing continuations because in t h em he has seen hidden resOU rces of defence for his op pon ent . In the end Bronstein avoids t he o bjectivel y strongest possibil ities and m akes an o bviously weaker move , after which his oppo n en t can search for a defence With greater ea: . Bronstein's searches for concealed opportu nit ies and his doubts - will the opponent discover a defence? - lead him to use up time, and the only person to see these deep schemes fin ds himself in time trouble .
------
DoabbUnk���pofta���nm�---Some games have a special compe titive significance . One must win in order to win the tournament, or draw to complete the master's norm , or to get into the next round of an elimination
contest. Often
these competitive considerations
c reate excessive nervousness and a feeling of unnecessary responsibility that lead to constraint.
The
importance of each move is increased since a single m istake
can affect a player s overall tourn ament result. Not m an y people retain their '
sel -possession a
suc
mes;
he resotr-o-rttre-game,uay exert-a-primary--
i nfluence on the course of one's thoughts and may determ ine the choice of this or
1 16
W HAT I S TIME TROUBLE? that move. The doubts which cause time t rouble in these situations are most often cOl1liected-with a somewhat lowered opillion-otrt ttre-mets-o-rmre->S-ow r qms.hon
and an ex aggeration of the opponent's possibilities. For instance in the game Danov- Sakha rov , Irkutsk 1 9 66 , victory would have given Sakharov the right to a place in the finals of the USSR Ch ampionship . In the m i d dle game
he
succeeded in obtaining an advant age by winning a pawn. It is most likely that IInder normal copdiU-OnS-Sakhat--tW-WO\l-ld�'Ic
chos&l-l-he-s�t-f
reinfo rcing his position and winning the point gradually, but under the pressure of the importance of the resul t he doubted that he could win by steady manoeuvrin g , so he hastened to force events and mi ssed a win in time trouble .
Doubts linked to events in the game
in progress.
- These-ap-pear--When--ihe-pla-yet'--l'ea�-made-a--mis-take or mwilSsSfse�dl-----
_ _
an opportunity. Panov wrote: "A great failing in many players is the tend ency -to
regret, during the game. opportunities missed a few moves earlier and noticed only after the even t . This fruitless contemplation of variations that m igh t have been, not only consumes precious time but also disperses one's atte nt ion and reduces the will to fi ht . " W e would like to add someth ing to Panov ' s accurate description - that doubts created by recollections of earlier mistakes i n the game i n progress, often lead to time trouble. [n the game Ivashin- Krogius, Yaroslavl 1 949, Black had the advantage. A t one time he could force a p retty win, but having overlooked this possibility , Black lost the advantage a nd the game entered an even and fairly simple ending. Black's thoughts in this simple e n di ng were, however, disturbed by recollections of his missed 0
ortuni
; these doubts were constantl
mixed
with the process of thinking about the next move a nd m ade it difficult to m ake a choice. The resul t , n aturally enough , w a s time trouble, an d Black di d not even see the flag drop in a completely drawn positio n . There was only one move left before the time control .
A more recent example which I witnessed was the g ame Shamkovich-Ujtelky, --
So-ctr"�Ot;-Black could have obtamed an overwhelmmg advantage In the mid dle game with a pretty tactical blow. Noticing this possibility a move too
j
l ate, U telky was put out. In his own words, his thoughts constantly returned to this disappointing mistake, time trouble intervened and the game , which had been well-played until the u nfortun ate mistake, e n de d i n Ujtelky ' s loss. I t is not hard to quote many similar examples. I n the above cases doubts linked to an earlier error in the g ame not only led to ---"a"romr "ur-a-ddit tloss of hme , but also created negative emohonal states, which
sharply reduced the efficiency of mental activity . Thus it became necessary to spe n d more time solving the simplest of problems than before the error h a d been
117
CHESS AND PSYCHOLOGY notice d . This 50rt of doubt has much in common with situations in d aily life when people grumble " why did it happen to me ? " Advice about what one should
---- --..-.,.,�ctL�appLOldman JeJy�enJJ�itio.n.J ex re el difficult positions methods of simplification are generally not applied, since this would normally ease the possibility for the opponent to cash in on his advantage. Often the attempt to simplify is incorrect objectively, but is dictated by the negative emotional feeling of doubt which arises in players during time trouble. _ _ _ _
Benko- Keres Concerning Benko's offer to exchange q ueens in his game with Keres. Candidates' Tournament 1 959 , Ragozin wrote: " White has obtained a great positional advantage by placing his pieces well. Black is squeezed in the centre an d l ac ks any kind of cou nterplay. The pressure could have been reinforced by
23 N-B4, but Benko-unexpectedfy-made-a-paradoricat-decision-=-toexchange queens (23 Q-Q2) . Probably this decision was induced by the approach of time trouble . " Bronstein wrote i n a similar manner about the reason s for simplification : "There was no time left to calculate variations, so it is understandable that 1 30
EFFECTS AND CURES OF T I M E TROUBLE
int�-&m-t-h ta-ti6n-;-'-'---l -Reshevs-ky--ehose---a-im-pler--eont e--game---- --s Simagin-Udovcic, examined on page 1 27 . Simagin also rem arked that in time trouble he decided to force simplification and thereby missed a win. However, there are ins tances when the objective requirements of the position and the peculiarities of the conditions of time trouble do not contradict each other in the p layer's attempt to simplify the battle. Usually these cases are positions with a m aterial preponderance or which contain definite strategic adva��.------
This position is taken from the game Ragozin-Taim anov . Leningrad 1965. White is in severe time trouble and gladly agrees to some simplification, even returning part of his material advantage: 34 R·B8 N·B5ch 35 RxN RxR and White soon won . The tendency to simplify is closely linked with the effort to avoid making complex , committal decisions. I n practice it appears as a tendency to confine oneself to delaying tactics during time trouble , which is observed in players who consider their position to be favourable. In positions which they con sider to be hopeless however, they are ready to indulge in all manner of complexities in the search for an escape rou te . Concerning one of his games from the 1 948 World Championship Match Tournament , Keres wrote: 'The last moves were m ade in severe time trouble. Both opponents chose the most neutral moves possible, in order not to spoil the position by some chance, weak move" . Here Keres emphasizes that in time
�FOuble, unless it is absolttHy--neeessar-y-;-i-t-is-psyeh6lt>gieaHy diffieult-to-matJI\(oee-ilal---- committal move, because it cannot be given adequate consideration and its assessment will depend upon accidental factors to a greater degree than usual . Bronstein also wrote i n the same vein when he analyzed a complicated and daring variation from the game Stahlberg-Boleslavsky. Zurich Candidates'
131
CHESS A N D PSYCHOLOGY
------�T � OUf���ne�stnot ch oo� �����on�r �� � I � e� ..---
Smyslov's games from the 1 95 3 Zurich Candidates' Tournament against Euwe , Geller and Petrosian are instructive for an underst anding of the peculiarities of thinking in time trouble. Smyslov played a whole series of repetitive moves in these g a mes without a ltering the strategic elements of the posit ion s , in order t o postpone making a decision until he had escaped t ime trouble. Here is an excerpt from one of these games.
Geller·Smyslov
-9TA.he-game--continued-31...Q-N4H-P;N3--tr-RB3-K-.-B�-Q--Ql 34 Q.R5-R.KN� 35 Q·K2 R·Q2 36 Q·RS Q·N4 37 Q · K8 Q-K2 38 QXQch RxQ 39 B·R2 R·Q2 40 K-K2 B-N2 The time scramble was now over and Smyslov proceeded to realize his a dva ntage: 41 B·Nl K·N1 42 P·N4 pxp 43 RxPch R-N2 44 R· R4 R-N8 4S K· Q2 K-N2 46 B. Q3 B-B6 47 R-B4 B-R4 48 N· K2 R·N7 49 K-K3 R- N4 50 P- KR4 RxPch 51 K-Q2 N-N6ch S2 K-Ql R·K6 S3 K-B2 P-K4 S4 R-B2 P- KS 55 White lost on time.
----
In the examples we have reviewed we observed a reduction of m ental activity and even indecision. One must bear in mind that the attempt to introduce a waiting character into the game also depends upon the opponen t w ho tries to prevent this from happening. In pract ice we frequently encounter so called
Jme..t-r-ouble..checks" SIICh checks are..mosLoiten..explainW....noLb}'..so.me..w.e
._l . �
--
thought out plan , but by an effort to delay the appearance of the opponen f s cou nter plans , if only for another move, t hereby postponing t h e necessity of mak ing a decision. Frequent ly such checks turn out t o be errors and mat eri a l ly harm one's position . 1 32
EFFECTS A NO CURES OF TIME TROUBLE
This is a position from the ga me Winter-Capabl anca, Nottingham 1 93 6 . After 37 Q.B4 the position would be lost for Black, but in order to ga in time Winte r decided t o give check and only then, after t he time co ntrol, t o contemplate the situatio n . There followed
37 Q-R7ch
a nd White had to resign as the black king
unexpectedly found a safe haven on NS wh ile his white counterpart wa s helpless in the face of m ating threats. (After 3 7 . . . K-NS , if 38 P- R3ch KxP 39 R- KNlch then J9...Qx�d...Jm�at«:e:-ln�e:-llx>-l-t.IJm�o�v�e�),---In his desire to defer making a decision , if on ly for a move, U dovcic let victory slip away from him because of a time trouble check. in h i s game against Gel ler from the 1 961 Yugoslavia-USSR Match in Belgrade.
Black ' s advantage is obvious - not only is he a pawn up but his pieces are very actively placed. In fact he can force the win of material by 40 . . . RxBch 4 1 KxR NXBch 42 RxN B-Q4ch and 43 . . . Rx R , but wishing to defer the decision about 1 33
CHESS AND PSYCHOLOGY
___
�bklLpiece to capture first. U dovcic played 4O . . . B B4ch' This m ove completes the first time control , but after 41 K·Rl BxR 42 B·Q5ch K·N2 43 B-KSch K·N3 44 BxR B- R3 45 B·Q5 , Black was unable to convert his extra pawn into a win . ·
The mental tendencies towards sim p lification , delaying tactics and the avoidance of complex, responsible decisions. which we have examined, lead to fragmen tation in thin king and a lack of consistency in p lay . The logical bond between separate moves is violated. future plans conflict with past pl ans and there is a resulting confusion of ideas. Frequently. play during t ime trouble consists of unconnected one-move plans. In the game Kan-Ragozin . Moscow 1936. Black won a paw n . but thereafter. instead of logically repulsing his opponent's weak threats, he busied himself with rook manoeuvres along the route Q B I - K B I -Q B I and K B2-KB4- K B2- KB6. --- --r� a� cflO: ese manoeuvres was assocla WI a one move aun 0 e ence or attack. but was not a link in the chain of a consolidated plan . As a result Black soon lost what had been the better position .
A similar situation may be observed in the finish of the game Benko-Keres. Candidates' Tournament 1959 .
39 p B6cfri{xp Now one would expect 40 B·R3. sillce-this is the point- behind the pawn sacrifice. Before completing this idea, however, Benko aban doned it a nd his thoughts transferred to a new idea. He played 40 Q·101 and after 40 . . . P·N7 he lost . A total dissonance of ideas. The g ames Olafsson-Tal and Gl igoric·Smyslov from the same tournament nsistenqumdk grnentation of thin kin� --e--ma�mpJ s of tbeJaclLouna in time trouble. I feel that the inconsistent play in all these examples d i d not arise accidentally; the emphasis on solving particular problems drives strategic plann ing out of the game an d b inds the separate particular tactics into on e. As a ·
134
EFFECTS AND CU RES OF TIM E TROUBLE result with increasin time trouble the 10 ical se uence of events is violated and a logical basis for strategic decisions becomes impossible .
Other reatures 01. critical thought In dme trouble.
We have already discussed the tendency of players in time trouble to avoid far reaching decisions, t heir urge to simplify and their emphasis on t he permanent, static factors in the position. A comparative reduction in the critical thinking of t he player in t ime trouble is d irectly linked to these t raits and t his feature appears on the one hand in an excessive passivity in regard to one's own plans, a lack of belief in one's act ive possibilities and an avoidance of attempts to draw up and defend one ' s own treatment of the positio n . On t he other hand, the strength of t he opponent's act ive plans is exaggerated. Thus, an uncritical attitude arises towards the opponent's possibilities as well as one's own . In time -rrouble-a----pt1yel'�s-u_n-critrc_a;tthinXtngi�ofteln lCOlTrrectelt"tevss erttrete IIIallY ctress-pi-ayerstie k playing-five--mimt-s te-e -:-k-B-di#ie'tl H+t It H t :e o--- explain this addiction if we look only at the adverse side of blitz. Why, then , is
five-minute chess so attract ive? I think that above a l l i t is the rapid altern a tion of emotiona l s t a tes. While a serious game of chess raises the tension of one's nervous sta te , the b l i tz game is more of a rel axa tion . Of a ll the kin d s of chess activity-tourn amen t s . studies a n d so o n . five m inute chess is most l i ke a pure game. the elements of science a nd a rt rece ding intothebackgro The com b in ation of blitz games an d serious chess. as a rule, is h armful. Blitz games, however. have their use in training a nd chess s tudy . With the help of these games one can sharpen one ' s speed of reaction to changes in posi tion , and this improves one's capacity to transfer one's a ttentio n . pa rticularly in time trouble
Eurther.IIlOLe....J
c
r ai
e tent one can check u
one's
0
en i n s , a n d
a chess pl ayer who has n o t played i n serious tourn amen t s for a long time can refresh the working condition of his chess thin kin g, re-establish his chess habits and strengthen his technique.
141
CHESS AND PSYCHOLOGY We have noted both the connection between time trou ble and the experience of the course of the given game, and the grea t significance of this experience for play
----dmurin-g-tinn�lrolrbin le.BdoTe_enm in-g_ttre_roIe-oTtmpon hlOSep1lTate--oo lmts-orthinking u nder conditions of time trouble a general remark should be made, that all of them reveal a greater efficiency the closer the connection between the time trouble con di tions and the earlier stages of the game. Many examples of excellen t play by players in time trouble could be mentioned, however a n
----ana.I¥s. si ....ofsuch-g.a.mes..re¥ea.I..a..co-lllmon...tr-au-=-the-highest..quaJit¥-oLplay. when the time t rouble position arises in reasonable consistency with the rest of the game and there are no sudden cha nges in the natural course of the game.
The logical components of IhInklaa. During time trouble it is diffic ult to assess a position by way of conclusions based on intellectual though t . I n the cases w here assessments from the phases
� foxe time trouhle --'-he
_ _ _
are no..longet"-Appticahle,....the.Jo.gical assessment
of tbe
position often manifests itself in a mixture of individual judgements ( there is an ex tra pawn on the Q-side; on the other hand there is a strong knight on Q4; but also a threat of P- K B4, etc . ) such j u dgements are not un ited in an overall assessmen t . Generall , the ability for makin
a
eneral, 10 ical assess ment of a position is
considerably reduced during t i me trouble. Korchnoy emphasized this poin t: "The importan t , but most difficult t hin g to decide is where the pieces will stand best and to which regrouping should t he opponent be provoked? I n other words to make a s trategic assessmen t of the positions which arise in the variations under calcula tion . " In
general
the
calculation
of
variations
shows
signs
o f considerable
curtailment. Long continuations a re not calculated, only the short ones are examined -the two or three mov� variations (the oppon en t's direct t hreats and the obvious possibilities of one's own position). The n umber of variations which fall within the scope of one's attention is also red uced , sometimes to only two or three alternatives. Therefore it is frequently the case that a mechanical reaction is made in an swer to an unanticipate9 move by t he opponent an d one makes a '---
m .-r o "" v ... e.... t... hat...ha "S""been-prepaTeltior a differenttin ton uatiorr:-A1hhe same, despiIe
the limi tations and brevity of an alysis during time trouble, i t remains one of the player's basic tools of thought. since it is here that the general ideas retreat into second place and t he solving of p a rtic ula r problems becomes the main concern.
intuition. I n tuition e merges quite distinctly in positions t hat are similar to t hose ---
-.:si1it"rruatlOlls which-itave--ben e -the-subject-c>f analysis ill the earlier phases of th
game .
However,
any attempt
d u ring time trouble
142
at
checkin g int uitive
EFFECTS AND CURES OF TI M E TROUBLE
suggestions by the use of logical analysis will prove inadequate. In those positions where the logical sequence of events has been violated. intuitive ----e-cc;;,o"n"J"'e"'ctur s lto norn-< -., s"'ay ". --- endurance as regards difficulties in life and one's reactions to those difficu lties. As 1. P. Pavlov has pointed out, life's difficulties often produce either over-exci tement or depression . The objective problems of time trouble belong to the realm of life's surmountable difficulties . These problems may be overco me -- -tw , ---f� f r-aeter---+r-ai-ts-resfl-ie.Hc-e.��l-of-4v�---- excitement or depression . A lack of these traits facilitates the appearance of time trouble , with or withou t the presence of the objective a nd subiective causes. There is a connection between the psychological state that leads to time trouble and other situ ations in life where there is a systematic refu sal to make decisions . such as "stor ming " � in production . or the student's refusal to revise for an examination u n til the final n ight , etc. -AA�kng nG'o'\\"·,lW e_oUhe_peculi�mies-of----time-tr-OUble in chess may have some significance for the formula tion of concrete tasks in character training. Not i n vain is it said that t h e correct diagnosis o f a chara cter defect is h alf the battle i n overcoming i t .
---
'storming-the pouring i n o f more a n d more
workers to overcome
149
difficulties i n productio n .
CHAPTER 7 ToumamentTac cs
Arguments abou t the na ture of chess are going on even today. What is it? Is it a sport, a science or an art? We are not going to enter polemics jus t now , bu t i t i s i mportan t to note th a t the creative content o f chess is closely bound u p with the result: a point, half a point or a zero in the tournament table. One cannot escape from this factI For this reason , in any contest, each "interested" party usually has a goal . The challenger dreams of getting twelve and a half points and becoming champion whereas the first category player is aiming at getting a Candidate Master norm. -- -
-
Every chess player, whatever his strength, has his sporting plans and hopes .
hese plans have quite a concrete and defin i te relation to each game. Games,
usually towards the finish of a tournament in which one has to get, say , two points out of two in order to become a master, are of particular significance. Such an attitude has created the notions of "playing for a draw" and "playing for a win . " I must admit that I nearly wrote down "etc . " , bu t remembering in
----u_ -1tmiJmIlrPe-tltar-"etc'�ul onlyJnelln-a----tus-r1pura-futJsto_p_;_trrou�witlrounoo much confidence . The reader will understand my anxiety when he reads the next few pages . Quite often the brave campaign to "play for a win at all costs" turns in reality into playing for a loss. I shall explain these notions in detail.
I w... • draw! Before the last rou nd of the ---
1 2th U SSR Championship (Moscow 1940) the
--.sttitrtumatiou-wa3iense-;-Bondarevskywasiea-ding;ua ne-poinTaire -cr-oftitienttr.rt-amt Smyslov. Lilienthal was to play Bond arevsky in the last round . Let us see how this exciting duel developed. Lilienthal's com mentary on the g ame is interesting. He wrote: "As is well know n , this game, played in the nineteenth and last round , was to decide the
w. firs � t+' place Bondarevs)qr-was a point aheadof me and iO-01'4er--to-Qtch-Up-l--had-
_
_ _ _
to win at aU costs. Knowing that pl aying desperately to win more often than not leads to defeat, I decided on a complicated, closed, m anoeuvring position , avoiding the tactical positions which favou r Bondarevsky's sharply combinative style . "
150
TOU RNAMENT TACTICS --- We-will add to I ilienthal's words
that his op.punenL.ha�<J-'""...,. ", r_ .
_ _ _ _
task-to achieve a draw. Bondarevsky planned to achieve the desired result bloodlessly. an d so his choice of the passive Burn Variation of the French Defence is quite understandable . This type of struggle did not accord with Bondarevsky's style of play in those years and Lilien thal's fears of tactical compl ications proved to be groundless. Bondarevsky chose to play this game in exactly the spirit for which his opponent was so eager. How successful the
prepsration was on the twosides is shown b�--&am'-'
"I-,, consciousness and add their tithe to the muddle . Excessive excitement is manifested on the chess board in hazardous play of the "va banque" style , when the attack is carried out with complete recklessness . Act ivity of such a nature is usually of no great value. The attac k , which usually does n o t have sufficient positional foundation , quickly suffoca tes , and the "insidious" opponent destroys the over-extended enemy army without
_ _ _ _ _
I have already given t he example of my disaster against Lisitsin in the chapter on attention (page 60) . The lesson of this game was so valuable that I shoul d like to rem ind the reader of it, and to explain, in more detail, my thoughts at the time, Lisitsln·
• utch Defence 1 N-KB3 P-KB4 2 P-Q3 N- KB3 2 . . . P-Q3 would have been better. 3 P-K4 PXP 4 PXP NxP 5 B-Q3 N-KB3 S .. ,p, Q4 would have been more stubborn . 6 N-NS P KN3 7 P·KR4 P-Q3 8 P-RS PXP 9 BxP NxB 10 QXRPch K-Q2 1 1 N-B7 N-N4
and Black Reslgns_
I recall how , during the game , I could not concentrate . Thoughts of victory ---rnst racted me from calculatin g the va nations anapreventectm e--tr�!1lenRros-s-;-, ' n:r---- myself in the game, "I wish it was over"-a strange inner voice was sound ing, inducing me to let fly with impulsive moves. A fter 5 B-Q3 I could have chosen the varia tion: 5 . . . P- Q4 6 BxN pxB 7 QxQch KxQ 8 N - NS K - K l 9 NxKP, but I rejected t his possibility quickly because it led to an endgame with some a dvan-
-- -tt�age_t�itsin . Exchanges will make-m)' positioll--llnprom-ismg. I thOUgUh'---- perhaps it is better to keep on as many pieces as possible so that I 'll have a chance of confusing my opponent . Instead of putting up resistance in a worse , but tolerable position . I bravely stepped into the lion's mouth. This lighthearted "perhaps I 'll m anage to mix him up" influenced my reaction to the little-known move 2 P- Q3 and to the further course of the game. A lamentable . but predictable outcome! I witnessed a similar occurrence fifteen years later in the game
1964 Intewa.tional.-
--f"''lhk-:T;z�a' .
_ _ _
Tou rnament in Sochi . Nezhmedtinov had a chance of getting the Grandmaster norm. so it was very important for him to win the game . From the first m oves Nezhmedtinov pl ayed Sharply in an attempt to win . After Black 's tenth move the diagrammed position arose.
ISS
CHESS
PSYCHOLOGY
AND
11 BNezhmedtinov is preparing to castle lon g . But why not 1 1 B- K3 . ? This has the same i dea but in a nu mber of variations it creates a threat to the paw n on 03_ After this move Black ' s position in the ce n t re would remain passive and he could '
not even h ave dreamed of counterplay by means of . . . P-Q4 . The m aster from Kazan , however. thinking tha t every exchange w ould reduce ( ! ?) his winning chances , puts h is
bishop o n
an
awkw ard
square .
It
is int eresti ng
Immedia tely a ter t e ga me Nezhmedtinov pointed out that
that
1 1 B - K3 was
s t ro ng e r . That i s how exciteme n t infl uences the game even of such experienced players .
1 1 . . . B-Q2 1 2 P-KN4 Ever onward !
12_ . .P·KR413 P>Jan.kiLfJ�m the New York Tournament of 1927 Alekhine wrote :
_ _
"Because of my poor play the value of this game as chess is nil. It did , however, have a tremendous psychological significance , though for the general public rather tha n for the loser. There is no doubt that it was because of this game that 950/0 of so-called expert commentators tried to convince the whole chess · world (an d p artially succeeded therein ) that there woul d be no fight in Buenos Aires [i.e . in the forthcoming World Championship match-N. K. j , merely a walk-over. H ad these gentlemen taken the trouble to compare this game with any number of average tournament games of mine from recent years they would have had a somewhat different opinion . " Believing that a chess player's style of play depended on his character, Alekhine was very sceptical abou t the possibility of a sudden cha nge in the creative dis osition of a mature master. About Nimzowitsch he said: " . . . it is hard to credit the fact that after a 25-year-Iong career he could succeed in radically cha nging the character of his play . " The m ain concrete method Alekhine used t o study his opponents w a s the analysis of games. For example, before his match against Euwe in 1937 he included in his preparatory tasks " to carry out a thorough analysis of all games played by Euwe in the period between our two matches . " Before his match agains t Capablanca he said that among the obj ects of his study were practically all games played by his opponent starting from the Capablanca-Marshall m a tch of 1909 . He paid particular attention to recent games . Alekhine indicated some of the stages of his analytical work. First he m ade a general characterization of each of Capablanca's ga mes, du ring which he aimed at discovering the turning points of the struggle and the critical position of the game. In this way he determined the causes of the result. Here is his description of the third Capablanca -Spielmann game from New York, 1 927: " In the course of home analysis Capablanca found a strengthening of a variatiort which had been played between the same opponents in the first round , and in consequence of his opponent's indifferent play he reached a won position as early as the opening. Tne-
nn
qwte
sImp e ,
was
precise y
calcula ted ." It is essential to poi nt out that in determining the reasons for the outcome of a game, Alekhine did not as a rule just stop at analyzing the game itself, but tried
179
CHESS AND PSYCHOLOGY to connect it with individual traits of the la er's characters . Here is how Alekhine summed up the games between Spielmann and Capablanca from New York , 1927 : "Spielmann was the only one who played against Capablanca at his usual level of strength. His mistakes were of a psychological nature : he j ust could not believe that it was possible to defeat the 'un beatable' Capablanca, even after he had gained the better position ." At this stage of the analysis Alekhine drew some preliminary conclusions. He noted Capabl anca's highly developed intuition and observed a failing, consisting of a comparatively low level of cri tical thinking , which was particularly eviden t in favou rable positions . In the second stage , analysis was carried out according to the ph ases of the game: opening , middle game and ending. In this the earlier conclusions received a firmer foundation or were changed . This an alysis allowed Alekhine to crystallize his hypot eses an pay attention to some a dltlonal, lmportant sides of Capablanca's style of play. For example , he claimed that, contrary to widespread opinion , Capablanca 's opening repertoire was notable for thorough home preparation . In other words , during the second stage of analysis Alekhine drew his m ain conclusions about Capablanca's pl ay . These considerations determined his concrete plans for preparing for the match . Here are the main conclusions of his analysis. (1)
The opening. I found that Capablanca had a highly developed intuition for
the choice of sound and practically effective continuations. This induced him to aim at simplification. He showed grea t ingenuity in dealing with opening
------- ss�u�rp�
(2)
The middle game. He relies m ainly on a quick intuitive assessm ent of the
position. This leads to speed and ease in conducting the game, together with an obvious inadequacy in critical thinking.
Be�ause of his excessive faith in
Alekhine . he cannot be trusted in the middle game: each of his tactical ideas
in tuitive assess ment mistakes in calculation are not uncom m on .
concludes : .
.
needs ca reful checking, for he is liable to error. -
fJl--I-h�g ame�'7'-hich--lechni�41--mastery--4t-h -t is-stage-g.f-the-game..-bul.JtY, iR I-
positions of a dynamic character requ iring a deep concrete calculation of the possibilities for both players over a nu m ber of moves he plays relatively weakly.
Alekhine further compared the games his opponent had pl ayed in the periods 19 1 1 - 14 , 1918·21 and 1922-27 . This work helped him to spot tendencies in the
development of Capablanca's style as well as providing more soh groun s or his psychological conclusions. Alekh ine said: " . . . over the years one observes in Capablanca's games ever less depth in working out deta Us: the reason for this is his unshaken confidence in 1 80
THE STUDY OF ONE'S OPPONENT , aUjbjllt)'...oihisj�.lu itio.n. II wasunfortunate forCapahlancathathi�m- e,-,i"nf -,t",h,-" of operating with " good " moves almost invaribly proved sufficient , since in most cases he was opposed by weapons which were , in a positional respect, hopeless. Because the playing of second best moves has gone unpunished he has lost the h abit of that concentration of thought during the game which alone can guarantee against rudimentary oversights, while at the same time his selfconfidence has grown beyond measure , almost to the point of self-deificat io n . "
_ _ _ _
_ _
--- -i\.:IeMlf-d fie ee-s-nekay--m-ueh-a-be-u-H»her-metheds-oht-utlyi-ng-one's opponent-.---
However, hi s scattered remarks on the subject provide interesting material . We are told. for e xample, that he m ade a special investigation of those positions in which CapabJ anca came up against particul ar difficulties (an innovation in the opening , a preponderance of the combinative element in the position). This research was ap-WlIe- mly the firsLin chess histo.r¥--1o be accompanied hy a recording of the time spe nt on thinking over each move . This study proved most useful . For example, Alekhine came to the conclusion that it was poi ntless to try to embarass Capabla nca with a surprise in the opening. U nlike Lasker, Alekhine told us about the use he made of his observations of his opponent's behaviour. In the course of observing hi s opponent over the board Alekhi ne noted Capablanca's growing uncertainty in the face of stubborn --- r-esistance. "This-w-as-a-mest importil-Jl-kli.see ev ry--fur-t�t.>. ------Alekhi ne also studied literary sources . He looked at Capablanca 's books, his comments on games and hi s interviews . It was not without justification that Alekhine complained that masters did not willingly speak of the reasons for particular moves in their games . Nevertheless, Alekhine valued highly the information he der:i-1led--from-c�.re Before the retum-m�t----- Euwe in 1937 he considered it essential to look through "his articles and annotations to his own and other games . " From studying Capablanca's publications A lekhine discovered hi s opponent 's views on opening prepara tion , his attitude to his own success and his beliefs on other questions . Particul ar mention shoul d be made of Capablanca's article in an A rgentinian newspaper in which he said that in order to become World Champion one needed a miracle to happen, and his inteMew-on--th�l'awing-ath ee " of ehes�-e-tl,r----- less suggested tha t he was invincible. Alekhine was the first to turn to a statistical analysis of chess information . Of Capablanca's mistakes in conducting tactical operations he wrote: . . . . . one m ust not consider these sporadic manifestations of that weakness as rare ocurrences, for the overall number of tournament games p-layed hJ'-C.a.p-ablanca in recent years is fairly small in comparsion with that of other masters, and so the number of hi s blunders is proportionately the more significant , " Alekhine continued and developed Lasker's ideas o n the study of one's opponent . His research is notable for the use of a wide range of methods in 181
CHESS AND PSYCH OLOGY
---4Combin-aMhn-Wit -logical--ami-o -psycll logical--assesmen s ts-of-his-opponent-s. We should also note Alekhine 's attempt at obj ectivity in his research and at an unprej udiced check of his results by means of comparative analysis. Speaking of certain of Capablanca 's failings , for exam pie, he pointed out tha t they were of a relative nature. He st ated that Capablanca w as an excellent player , and that research into his play must in no way lead to an underestim ation of him as an oppone nt.
--- �S--l-:said��o time A�--tOO--g-e.f-t-imin gam es.---s -Thl practice gained further j ustification in the work of the Soviet master and psychologist Blumenfeld. He pointed out that the time used for thinking was an obj ective , quantitative parameter of the creative process . A comparsion of the time spent On a move with the obj ective complexity of a position allows us to ___
-"'dr"-a"'-w, inLerences about the subJ-ective diffic ulty for a )Lart�lllBLpl ayer ilLl� choice of hi s move, and bears a certa in witness to the nature of the thinking and will of tha t player. "As far as possible such an an alysis should be supplemented by questioning the players or by self·observation. U nfortunately, nowadays it is not realized what extraordin ary interest the timing of moves can h ave, both for general readers and , still more , for research," Blum enfeld wrote
as
long ago as 1937.
----lRc-l'ent-yeaJ eC n 'S--t� 4atiOOS_ha¥e__been__PUt_intO__pr-actice, mainly thanks to the effor ts of Bronstein, bu t no results of the use of timing for research purposes have been published so far. At the present time the successful exploitation of the study of opponents is
of B otvinn ik. I n a number of articles he has given a epar-atio -f�He had rnade-extensive ----<det-ai1ed-desc ription-of--his-pr-n mainly linked with the name
use of Alekhine's expe rience : he once wrote : "From Alekhi ne one can learn the psychological approach to chess . . When I h ad to prepare for the 1948 World . Champ ionship Tournament the first thing I did was to go through Alekhi ne 's introduction to the collection of games from the New York Tournament of 1927 . In this article A lekhine gave a deep analysis of Capablanca's pl ay and shared his thou ghts and plans with the reader."
-----I�Ore-his-mateh agai-n-st--Reht'in 1933BotvinniksethimseU-the-t-ask-ofgoing through as many of Flohr's games as possible. From an analysis of these games inferences could be drawn about his opponent's style, technique, favourite schemes of development and most frequent ope nings . It was essential to find ou t how strong he was on the psychological side, whether he was easily influened by ce was and so on . ·--"·m..,�r.ongJ .
____
Botvinnik conducted his analysis very purposefully. H e made a short
description of each of Flohr's games (remember Alekhine's first stage), then he compared Flohr's games over a period of s everal years and lastly he dealt with crisis situations, the analysis of which revealed an insufficient psychological
182
THE STUDY OF ONE'S OPPONENT ----�st�a�bi�li��' s part. The ����nRHn��«rbct6ft��nill�----- proved correct du ring its course . In more recent lectures Botvinnik h as described what is basically the same method of prepara tion , but with one important difference. He has spoken of the analytical and l ogical sides of preparation and scarcely touched on the question of the connection between the logical components of chess and the individual and psychological ch aracteristics of the opponent . A typical pronouncement for
80tvinnik is: "In wha-Hlees--the-art-Qf a ehess-maste�iea+ly-it--is--the------- faculty of analysis of chess positions" Compare also his belief in training games as a universal remedy for shortcomings. This mig ht give the impression that Botvinnik h as abandoned psychological analysis in practice . This has had some effect on a number of strong players.
They
have
conscientiously de\Loted-themselves to
pure
chesS-anal¥Si� $-� ' 'a l-' -J, 14 u-----
Botvinnik" and at best m ade a few general observations about their opponent's psychologies. I believe tha t this attitude has im poverishe d their chess.
I can justifiably claim that Botvinnik's stand has been misunderstood. It is true he has not spoken much about the psychological side of preparation, but there can be no doubt that he has continued to devote himself to this aspect seriously and successfully. To prove thi s statement here is his description of one p awn---and-Euw'f'!e--lll1-:ta:l(dt---- ·f-his games-agai-nst-�-Euwe accepted the sacrifice (as he likl's to do) , though it would perhaps have been better to decl ine it . I gradually became calmer: it seemed that the conclusion I
-----6o
had come to about Euwe before the m atch were correct. Euwe was deep in thought; Black's position was not easy: White had attac king chances. If Black went into a!l�l�ediatel}'it�ear that his position would be bad; however, I thought that if he developed his bishop to K3 then I h ad no tangib le advantage . At last Euwe moved: he offered the immediate exchange of queens! My excitement left me-my assessment of Euwe was correct ! He usually feared an attack on his king, and thi s time was no exception : once again he could not face the prospect . He could not wait even a single move for the exchange of queens. " Botvinnik has spoken abonLdetailed characterizations of Keres, Reshevsky and other players which he made in the course of a wide ranging study of their play. He made use of direct observation of his opponent's behaviour. His recollections of his games against Tal (1961) and Alekhi ne (1937) bear witness to this fact. Information obtained in diverse ways was systematized and generali zed . Botvinnik said in one interview that whenever possible he made use of the methods of rna thematical statistics in elaborating his data.
There has been considerable progress in recent years in the art of understanding the style and character of one 's opponent . However, there remains a great deal more to be done on this fascinating aspect of chess.
1 83
CHAPTER 10
Know Thyself Nowadays in chess literature one is quite often referred to psychology . The
is fashionable in the every day language fn-e-
expression "a psychological app roach"
----.o "' f..experterrced1rail1�flrr_ ev_en
of juniors wtw1tave newly stepped onto
slippery field of chess. Everyone seems to pay tribute to this science nowadays, but in connection with chess the word " psychology" is used in a rather special sen se . O n e sometimes gets the impression that branches o f t h e tree o f psychological knowledge are constantly being lopped merc iless ly off in order to give a better view of the trunk; and in consequence we are left with a bare remnant which
---kbearrjusnrlitt teresemblance to
the science of psychology as doe s a
whlftled
pole to a live tree .
I would like to discuss in detail one example of this surgical approach. As we all koow, chess has no "close season " . On every d ay of the year thousands of chesspl ayers are competing in tournaments which are held in
--�almest-ry -eve earner of-�ery-partieipant-in--tflese--bat
most diverse standards and signi ficance is dreaming of winning the next game ,
of surprising and baffling his opponent . Who, in thinking over his plans for the forthcoming battle, has not been advised by a well-wisher along the fol lowing line s : "You are playing A, aren't you ? Don't forget that he attacks well, but he is not nearly as good in the endgame:
excha nge
pieces,
com e
down
to
an
ending
and
success
is
--�g�ulllaril� l'aR-tee Sueh--a-reiee pe. either ceming-frem-a-friend-or-reaehed-a�nl1 own conclusion , sweetly lulls the consciousness. One see m s to have the key in one 's hand , and the rest looks easy : some simple manoeuvri ng , a couple of exchanges sometime after the opening and that's it-a point in the tournament table. ___
--"Ill.n.....,e.ality�h>-Ug�eJmwihe hjLis�(LSimple. gical � "Open Sesam
..
doesn't work and ins tead o f the planned pressure o n the opponent one is unexpectedly o n the rack oneself, and moreover one's opponent (who is meant to be "weak in the endgame " ) confidently wins the ending.
So here is a psychological approach leading to catastrophe !
184
K NOW THYSELF
---
�Ti-\o}---Ube�f�.ia 1"-,-however, this-has--nothing----O� O--O-wi h___J>Sycil�-lt-iS---�e-th, --
chessplayer who is to blame for paying attention only to one side of the prepara tion-the study of the opponent's style-and completely ignoring his own preferences, knowledge and habits in the art of che ss . To try and build one's plans exclusively on the opponent's peculi arities ends in fiasco more often than not . Alekhine once said that for a chessplayer to be successful he m ust first of all understand his own strengths and weaknesses and --�only----se£oodly---*1l9W about those---ef---hls opponent.-Regrettably tms ,
majO lf F
-
-
principle of preparation is often forgotten . The training of even quite strong players very often consists only of a critical analysis of the opponent's play. I remember gatherings of the Russian Federation team, for which I have been play ing for more tha n ten years . How often our trainers have urged us : " Y our ----e --I.o'IJP�pvonent----is--w ak-in-OOfence. so
do not hesitate to attaek�s-s--'ff€0tf'r"'Wraa:l'r6d----
vigorously and you are sure to win . " That some of
us
are even weaker in attack
and not very zealous in taking the offensive was forgotten in the flood of encouraging phrases . And following the advice of our trainers we bravely pushed our pieces onward , ever onward . . . and then realized with horror how far we had exceeded the frontiers of good sense . One day our m en tor said triumphantly to one of our masters: "I h ave found
----e---1tmh -wa -best y--of--handling your opponent. He absolutely call1lot-stalld the S,C'(T·i-n---- attack in the Sicili an defence . " "Yes , but I don 't play P- K4," timidly answered the master. "That does n't matter, we will prepare it" was the authoritative reply. After an hour's cramming the poor m aestro set off to play P-K4 for the first
------in---1tffimmee e--hi&--too nt--c-at'OOl.'----l'O--f}Dili O shmen-t-eame--swiftly. His--ep>llf)O>9RnelenR1tE--- "surprisingly " played 1 . . .P-K3 and with little knowledge of French positions our ill·fated " hunter" suffered defeat and the team lost an important point . It is said th at experience is the best' teacher and in recent years in RSFSR team has changed the style of its training. Nevertheless , the conception of psychological preparation as consisting of the study of the characteristics of one's opponent's play is still quite com mon. -However,-t-sh-atlrrordispmesuch vtews merely on tne---oasis of genera consideration s . Let us see some examples from tou rnament experience. My first intern ational tournament was in
1957.
It was in a Rumanian
tow n- Ploesti . A participant who particularly attracted me was Ion Balanel from Bucharest . He gave the impression of a widely educated, sociable and at ----1fe-same fl -time-aeeptioBally-taetful--and-mOOt-nl1lfr.--We spent quite a few hours together, analyzing the most varied position s , and
the Rumanian master never m ade an attempt to bludgeon me into his way of thinking but always tried to prove his point of view convincingly , asking "Wh at do you think should be done in this position ?"
185
CHESS A ND PSYCHOWGY Balanel pl ayed
outstandingly in
the
tournament-logi cally. firmly and
soundly. (I was sad to discover l ater th at a serious illness had made h i m give up chess altogether soon afterwa rds . ) W e met in the fourth round . A t this point Balanel h ad three points and I h ad two and a half. I wanted to pu t up a real fight against the tou rnament leader and in preparing for the game I took i nto account the fact that he was drawn to a positional style of game. Witho u t much hesitation I chose a gambit line in the Ru
Lo ez the Schliemann variation . In
t.bJU!lteni !l�LaclLs.a.crifkes...oo.e..J
two pawns for a quick attac k . I thought th at a struggle of that type would be unwelcome to my oppone nt. A t the ti m e the Schliemann variation was popular, and I was st ill under the influence of the successful use of this variat ion by Tolush in the recent 24th U SSR Championshi p . And s o , before the gam e , I w a s content w i t h my choice : the forthcoming risky b u s iness did not look dangerous in the least and the pawn sacrifices gl ittered in front of me like cheering fireworks. However, taking a more serious and detached view of my preparation , it is easy to see that the all-or-nothing system favoured by Tolush did not suit my style of play at all . I did not thi nk o f this at the time, for I believed in the motto: "What is unpleasant for your opponent is good for you . " I n the ga me, though, the venom of the variation acted on me rather than my opponent. I could not orientate properly
as
the battle was quite fore ign to me in character, and I was
deservedly defeate d . L e t u s have a look a t the game .
BalaneI-KroghUi
Ru Lo ez
1 P-K4 P-K4 2 N-KB3 N-QB3 3 B-N5 P-B4 4 N-B3 N-Q5 Ignoring the threats to his pawns on K4 a n d KB4 Black aims to castle
as
soon
as possible and launch an attack in the centre and on the K - side .
5 B-R4! Preventing the QP from a dvancing for t he ti me being. If 5 B-B4 then 5 . . P-Q3 .
6 P-Q3 N - KB3 7 0 · 0 NXNch 8 QXN P-B4 is possible, with good chances for B1a 5 " .N-KB3 6 0-0 This is much stronger than 6 pxp B-B4 7 P-Q 3 0-0 8 0·0 P-Q 4 , with good prospects
for
Blac k ,
as
in
the
game
Boleslavsky-Tol ush ,
24th
U S SR
Championship, M oscow 195 7 . 6
. .
. B-B4 7 NxP P- N4
Here I began regretting my opening experim ent . since 7 . . . PXP is b a d beca use of 8 N x K P , and castling is no b etter because of 8 N-B3 and P- KS , I could not think of anything but . . . P- QN4. And this was not surprising: I did not know anything about the position except for three or four games by Tolush . I had a
186
KNOW THYSELF
----'s..., ,,'I-" perliciaLkno.wledg.e-oicertain mO¥e�--did-noi-r-eally--Understand-the-i,u-.\ril-:>---- behind the defence. So, not surprisingly, o n seeing the unfamiliar cont in uation 6 0-0 I began to cou nt the pawns and think of abstract positional principles, which are generally useful but were com pletely inappropriate to this position where everythin g is determine d by speed and the t i me factor. Black 's seventh move was j us t an admission of failure ; his position is slowly but surely crumbling. I t w as still not
----utoJUoolate,...h �o.r...x.e treme...meawres...-ex.am ...An p.le-iS-to-be-found--in--t�a:me---- Lehmann-Spassky, Vienna 1957 which went as fol lows: 7 . . . O- O ! ?
8 N -Q3
PXP 9
N xB P-Q4. Black sacrificed a piece . but he had an advantage in development and some chances on the K-side . I n spite of its questionable nature Spassky's idea is logically connected with the preceding play , and breathed new life i nto a pos ition which in my ga me aga i nst Balanel was killed by the comprom ising move 7 . . . P- Q N4 . There followe d :
8 NxNP pxp 9 P-QW NxN 1 0 OXN 0-0 1 1 P-Q4 PXPe.p. 1 2 QxP Q-K2 13 B K3 B-Q3 1 4 P-KB4 B-N2 IS QR-Kl BxN 16 PxB QxP White returns his extra pawn and in exchange gets a decisive positional advantage in the strength of the two bishops.
17 B-Q4 Q-N4 18 B-B4ch! P-Q4 19 B-N3 N-Q2 20 B-B2 P-N3 21 Q-R3 RxRch n�XR--w.u-ll3--u:Br(f.R''-l4Q-=-K3--u:�rS�--O-=-R6(f-Q2 26 P-KR3 B-R3 27 B-QR4! Q-B2 28 B-B6 R-Q l 29 R-B2 R.Q3 30 B-KS RxB 31 RxQ KxR 32 OXP Resigns Towards the end of 1962 the 30th U SSR Championship w as held in Erev an .
---'fT'heh""e-npa>Sions-ot1h -southeTrrtm�ere1Ttg�lbly"a-s11i-gIT-anhose-of�fO-c5rbal-t---- fans . Their favourite was M ikhail T al . His style of play-exciting, hazardous an d rich in the unexpecte d-was very much in accordance with the temperament of the Erevan a udience . The main struggle for the lead was between Tal and Korchnoy . Towards the m i ddle of the tournament I had to pl ay against Tal with black. N aturally. I was very worried before this game. To pl ay Tal, and moreover. to
--
-l.-:ave-btacx-:rgm-Trsrhinrt-Eve-rylmayKt'IOWstlraCwitlrw1ritehe-ply a s with -a ouo"'e.---- the energy and strength . I was well aw are that I faced a life-and-death struggl e . I i m agined the packed h all with everybody watching and admiring my opponent's every m ove as if enchanted; I also imagined the Ex-World Champion hi mself, boosted by the attention of his fans and confi dent of his will and combinative
--- �f�-��---I gradually came to the conclusion that it was essential to snatch the in i tiative from T al at all costs and to m ake him defend . placing him in an unaccusto me d situation . where it was not he who dictated the te rms of the ba ttle. As the reader well understands there is a great difference between a general
187
CHESS AND PSYCHOLOGY
conclusion and concrete mQ¥eS-Qll-sa-i-f ---the--boa-r-d-,ared--a-Hew,
but now-we
defined question : What opening should I choose? I recalled a recent discussion with Tal's trainer A. Koblentz, who had happened to mention that before his game against the Hungarian Grandmaster Szabo, Tal hesitated for a long time because he was afraid of the Marshall Attack in the Ruy Lopez. I therefore resolved to try this system . Theory at the ti me asserted that the Marshall Attack was not quite correct (since Black sacri fices a pawn), but it was a complicated ---�and-relatively little studied variatio�ad-to--faee--a--pr attack in return for his extra paw n . I had pl ayed the Marshall Attack a few times and after refreshing my memory of some points of the line I calmly went to bed . The decision was taken ! And he re is how events transpired the following day.
Tal-Krogius
Ruy Lopez
I P· K4 P·K4 2 N·KB3 N.QB3 3 B-N5 P·QR3 4 B-R4 N-B3 5 0-0 B-K2 6 R·KI P.QN4 7 B·N3 0·0 8 P·B3 P.Q4 Here my opponent plunged into thought and I felt I could read displeasure in his f ace . Tal m ade the following ten moves comparatively slowly, closely
--'s .... tl .... Lld¥ing---the-posiiion-tReo-o -beard and he--steped--u � -le£
-
during my moves.
9 PXP NXP 10 NxP NxN 11 RxN P.QB3 12 P·Q4 B·Q3 13 R·KI Q.R5 14 P·N3 Q·R6 IS B·K3 B·KN5 16 Q.Q3 QR.KI 17 N .Q2 R·K3 18 B>lIl shall
just look at a few p a rt icular points which a re important for teaching metho d . Here i s one o f the m . I n many respect s chess i s a bookish kind o f occtlpat ion . A significant part of a chessplayer's training is occupi ed by an independent study
Nl
CHESS A N D PSYCHOLOGY
---(tf-te-xt--boo�mament bulletim-;-,ittttrnats-ted-and---ot-her--pri-nm-ater-i-a-l-;therefore very important to be able to read chess literature efficiently. In reality , however, it often h appens that on receiving the latest issue of a chess pUblic ation a master briefly sk i m s through the contents or at best plays through the games at lightning tem po . Agai n st this practice one m ight quote the weIl-known saying: " it is better to do little, bu t well." I believe tha t reading through chess literature c an be a starting point for training but under no . tlmstances the finishing on . Psychology recognizes two kinds of attenti on-emotional and vol untary : in the first case con centration occurs because of the in terest invol ved in the subject, its outward appearance and novelty ; while i n the second , one 's thought is concentrated and works at a h i gh level because of a goal one sets oneself
beforehand
The best
resul.Lis-ohtained when both kinds of attention inlerac
and reinforce each other. This m e an s that a general s urvey of games in a new book is not the concluding part of one's serious work , but the beginning . After the process of acquainting oneself with the book it is essential to p ut aside for detailed analysis the games that are m ost important for �the-gam -lh.H·I1-aH e-han�be-tht'ead.--but-i l1-m.ost cases the thread proves to be quite strong . Let us . however . return to the tou rn ament in Tbil isi . Nemmedtinov's pieces
206
KNOW THYSELF were ready for the siege : his rooks were occupying the central files and his lon g range bishops had begun firing over the whole board . N everthel ess, hidden CIelensive resou rces were ou n
move a ter move.
ime a ter time t
hand of Korchnoy erected new obstacles on the path of White's attac k . Nezhmedtinov slowed down somewhere and
10
and behol d ! his opponent's
strength was gathered and ready for the counter-attac k . Nezhmedtinov, however, w as still un der the im pression that h e h a d the
advantage;-The-photugy-o syc t-such a lIloodis-obvious. it is very difficult to Ie
j us t in the m i ddle of the battle and catch that moment when the ti de has turned against you . He was still trying to find active pl ay in a pos ition where he should have been think ing about defe nce . The deno uement came qu ickly. A s i f by magic the black pieces sprang into life and rou ted the enemy : Korchnoy won . If the chess content of such a met hod of pI ay is reliance on the counter-at tac k , the psychological idea behind this enticement i s as follows: the opponent gradually loses Irisc.itical estimate"""ohhe-p-ositiuIramt-gmrrdednes"sis-swamp\ffi---- by euphoria, so that the process of obj ective thinking is disrupted. Of course enticement does not al ways lead to a fatal breach of the opponent's objectivity. Whe ther this happens
or
not depends on the individual traits of the
personal ity and the strength of character of the pl ayer concerne d . ----bel'-h --'On-the-ot -and-the-spring-cantlOt�n-definit(lly; it caR bFe--aK,,---- This method of enticement has a l imited field of appl ication , since in each position there is a cert ain boun dary beyond which it is impossible to retre at withou t inevitable defea t . For the player who uses this method it i s important t o see clearly how far he can afford to give w ay without riski ng loss . The sense of d anger which allows one to foresee the hidden possibilities of a position serves thi s pUl:pose . A sense of --
---\Jd�ang.e.. is based on-t-he-abUit¥---tO--assess-a-POS-i-t-i�t+eC-tI_Y__&nd-t-O-r-eoogn-i-Z(lr----- small, almost imperceptible intui tive psychol ogical factors. A chessplayer who favours the method of enticement m ust search in every position for exceptions to the ge neral rules rather than re lying on the principles of strategy . A successful counter -attack or a surprising coup often m aterializ.e thanks to the ori i nali
and unusualness of a
207
sition on the board.
CHESS A ND PSYCHOLOGY
This position is from the game Lisitsin-Tol ush , semi-final of the l i th U SSR Championship, Leningrad 1938. Here I S what Rom anovsky wrote about thi s g ame: " Lisitsin shared his ro sy hopes with me : ' I cannot unders tand the play of my opponent: he has given me the cen t re and now he is goi ng to lose a pawn , b eca use i f h e t ries t o defend h i s l i ttle pawn o n QB2 I shall surprise him with Q K NS'_
oo1t(fct-aT4°otuep1y-abr m�who-was-de �ai-flor .-compassion
B u t when I looked at the position a few moves later, alas! It was Tol ush who was s miling , having won the exchange . " Here is what happene d :
lS
. . .
P-KR3! 1 9 QxBP N-B4 20 P· KRJ I f 20 R - K2 . then 20 . . .N-NS . 2O
...
N-N6
and White lost his rook in exchange for the kni ght , because if 21 R - B2 then 2 1 . . . N -N5. Lisitsin 's optimism before Black's eighteenth move was based on a routine �em-ohh�rr:-the ceutre, pressureon theQ sitle-;--tfle-t-Fieky--positioo of the black knights which stood ready to storm the white king 's palace . The method of enticement can give rise to fireworks in games where both players need a win. Two days before the end of the 22nd USSR Championshi p , Moscow 1955 , I Iivitsky and I were di scussing t he chances of the partici pants.
The situatien-w-as-as-f()U()Ws:
IlivitS-krneeded to heat SmyslruLaruLEwJruuLW
_ _
order to get into the I nterzonal . His opponents were also desperate for victory : Smyslov in order to win the ch am pionship and Furm an to get into the Interzonal instead of IIivitsky . Ilivitsky was in quite
an
opti mistic m oo d : he very m uch hoped for the bes t . I
expressed doubts, saying that it was dangerous to play for win against opponents like Smyslov and Furm an , it being a di fficult task at the best of times . I got a
---
--tH'pf-isi-ng-a-nswer: "My-c-Aa�e-pfec-i-sly e -in the fact that the¥-w.anLt�Lbe.� me more tha n
I
want to beat the m . "
Paradox ical, isn't it?
208
KNOW THYSELF
I did not t a ke Ilivitsky's words serio usly, of co urse , so you can imagine my su rprise w he n everything went accordi ng to his scenario. Both Smyslov and Furman over- estim ate
t elT poslhons,
p aye
agg ressive y
WI
ou
muc
j us tification and both los t . And the cunni ng master from Sverdlovsk set off for Sweden to play in the I nterzon al Tournament with the st rongest pl ayers of the world. What inference can we draw f rom this episode? Should one want to w in less in
--oTc:tert{YWln!lh�swerJs-;-ot,-coulse no. One can and must wallt-to--ac"hhffie�.ee---- victory . The success of the master from the Urals is explicable not by the fact th at his drive for victory was less , but that he m an aged to preserve objectivity and calmness all the w ay through, unlike his opponents . He h ad also noticed that some participants of the tournament underestimated his real strength and as a res ult played recklessly ag ainst him. That is how Keres suffered , for example: he
�rleo-to---wi1r1rUrawn-position. I1ivitsky made good use of-these-circumstan-reJ; e :.,,----__ --�h n;ar-mless-o sharp and aggressive play is used to create a psychological state in which the opponent thin ks he h as no time for such trifles as weak points or s q u ares , after which the game is cunningly s teered into calm and sober channels, where microscopic advantages can be exploited. Another variation on this theme is to make a demonstration on one flank to distract one 's opponent's attent ion while the main strength of one's forces actually enters the battle at another part of the board . Cl assic examples of the successful use of camoufl age are to be found in many of Emanuel Lasker's games . A mong the mos t notable is hi s victory over Capablanca in the I ntern ational Tournament in St . Petersburg in
1 9 1 4.
Lasker,
who was 1� points behind the leader and who might have been expected to try a sha
line in an attem t to win
chose the h armless Exchan e Variation of the
Ruy Lopez. Lulled by his opp onent's apparently peaceable disposition and assuming that he h ad reconciled himself to abandoning the struggle for first
209
CHESS AND PSYCHOLOGY place. Capablanca pl ayed passively and through carelessness found hi mself in a difficult position. Lasker turned his advantage to victory w ith relentless accuracy: it was not only a chess victory , bu t a psychological one as well. I n the game Ivkov-Smyslov from the Capablanca Memorial Tournament . Havana 1965 . the opening di d not suggest a tense struggle. Here are the first few moves: 1 P- Q4 p. Q4 41 p.QB4 p.QB3 3 pxp PXP 4 N·QB3 N·QB3 5 N·B3 N·m 6 B·B"P·K3 7 P-K3 B·Q31r8>'cs-Qx&-1r�014tO�O B-Q2 lIR=Bt-QR·Bl 12 P-QR3 P· QR3 13 B·NI The Exchange Variation played by White is not very promising and is often a sign of the desire to negotiate a peace treaty. That is how Smyslov seems to have un derstood it. Feel ing that perhaps he ou ght to make a few more moves before agreeing the draw , he carried ou t the firs t manoeuvre that came into hi s head. 1 3 . . .N·QR4? 14 N ·K5 N ·B5 15 NxN RxN 16 P·K4! t transpIres that 16. .px�Rl81\ilXmnpxrt-19 Q-N4c1rtea.-drtoall advantage for White. 16 . . . Q.B5 17 P·KN3 Q.N5 18 p.B3 Q.R4 19 p.K5 N·KI 20 B-Q3 R·BI 21 p. B4 QXQ 22 R(KBI)xQ N·B2 23 K· B2 White has obvious positiona l advantage . Just look how the position has ----ech-anv-kev.!. ged-i-n-the--l-ast-five-er-si-lt-fn6VeS-!-I-se s eming Iistles-sru:-ss-h-as-aU,-co:ufc.;ail- s u dden disappeared . By taking advantage of his opponent's good will he has managed to obtain good winning chances . On the 59th move the game finished in a win for the Yugoslav Grandmaster. It is not difficult to see that there is a good deal in common between enticement and camouflage. One cannot , however, pu t an equality sign between the two. In the first method one draws fire on oneself, provoking one 's opponent ---"'i:rtit·o---tfle-aHaelt- n-t�...ecess of hi-s---ac--ti4)n will make-hlm-le:oss-ce;-- balance, whereas in the secon d method drawish play is used to lull one's opponent's aggressive intentions . The straight forward nat u re of the g ame makes him forget his vigilance in a sweet dream of well-being. In consequence the correctness and accuracy of his thinking are blunted for a certain period , he h s are immediatel ex loited makes a few indifferent second best mQXj by his underhand. wide-awake opponent . .
2 10
CHAPTER 1 1
Emotions in Chess
"Chess is a quiet occupation; it is not like working in a factory ," -an engineer once said to me . As w as soon evident , my interlocutor was not very familiar w ith chess; still , it is wor th while discussing his opinion. It is difficult sometimes for an outsider to imagine the stonn of emotions which goes on in a chessplayer while he is at the board. True, there are some things which are visible to the naked eye: M ark Taimanov, for instance, moves
--
quickly about the stage, making short paces, while his face shows a whole scale of emotions: expectation , distrust, resolution and sometimes fear. At the same time we hear Suetin coughi ng ; medicine , however , will not help in his case-everybody knows : there is a particul arly tense moment in the -'G""-r-:a'-n-d' m aster s game. ometimes one can judge a pl ayer's position better from his facial expression and gesticulations than by looking at the demonstration board. All records of excitability were beaten by one Moscow pl ayer. In normal conditions he is a lively person , full of control over his behaviour. Among his colleagues at the Institute where he works he has a reputation for precision an d self-control . A t the chess board , however, he is unrecognizable! Once during a time scramble he became so excited when his opponent made an unexpected move that he started shouting : "Control ler, come here, quickly-tell me which colour am I playing ? " I c a n hear tile reader objecting. I t i s true what you say , but you have not mentioned Keres, Spassky or Portisch. However hard one looks one cannot
-- "'j""u.+dge-havioul -from-tlreirbe whether they like therr-positions ornutlhts-opinionc---- is also justified. There is no contradiction in these cases. Differences in the extern al expression of emotions can be expl ained by individual idiosyncracies of character and temperament . For chessplayers are of all sorts , and they transfer their everyday manner of behaviour and habits to chess. Even the most imperturbable looking , however, also express their excitement . At one of the Candidates' Tournam ents, ill Switzerh{m:tinJ9S�m;plroTogt'apher--med In vam for worth-while snaps of the more sedate players and he would probably h ave gone empty-handed had he not accidentally looked under the tables. The outcome of his glance was a series
21 1
C H ESS A N D PSYC HOLOGY of snaps p ublished under the title: "What do the legs do when the head is at work? " It trans ired that chess players' legs were doing surprising things: some slowly swayed from side to side, while some s u ddenly tensed up in expect at ion , as if preparing for a decisive j u mp-anything but calm . So, e xcitement is a constant companion of chess battles. Is it good or bad? I t is impossible t o give a simple answer. Just thi nk
of
the effect of a successful start
to a tou rn am ent , the joy of the first victory or even a good positio n-such . - s uccesses are very encouragmg and make one feel confident and deterrtllne ="Good and cheerful moods inspire that h i ghest concentration of strength whic h evokes "battle ecst asy" and a strong manifestation of crea tive energy . On the other h and, one c an h ardly forget the number of games lost because of the fear of one's opponent , c onfusion and J ack of confidence. Tou rnament annals record many a tragic history where a chessplayer h as completely changed after a loss and his pl ay has become unrecognizable. ----
iliere are t us
fTerent orms
0
exci ement .
e range
0
uman emo IOns IS
wide. Som e are friends and helpers and assist us to overcome diffi cul ties and increase our energy and ability to w or k ; others , whom psychologists h ave christene d , with good reason "adverse emotions" , are fierce enemies of activity. This black list contains fea r, l ac k of confidence. sorrow , apathy and so on .
When there is a lack of information. I t has been known for a long time that learning is l ight and i gnorance is' darkness [ R ussian proverb -Translator) . This is applied to chess when people adv ocate the ne cessity of regular planned study before compe titions . Nevertheless , knowledge obtained in the period of general prepar ation does not provide a sufficient amount of "light" on its own . WhJle p arhclp afing
m
tournaments II IS I m porlan' ( .. to � k"' ee "p '"' a'c . lo nc t "' se oc""' w at " c � h on-
one's opponents and make a note of the new ope nings they play, the quality of their preparation and their for m . I t is useful to make a note of the fash ionable openings of the tou rnament , because it of ten happens that a pa rticular variation recurs in the games of pl ayers one wo uld not h ave suspected of being partial to -
-that-opening-;---T-he--presence---nere-of-eo te--inJOfma-ti6n--ab6�6nent d uring the period of the com petition m a kes the struggle against him easier, helps one to attack a fighting spi rit and gives one more of that bpti mism and confi dence which is so necessary for the tense battle ahead. Such intelligence ac tivity can enable one to play an ope ni ng novelty
or
a surprising variation in the
ope ning stages of the game to great effect . The absence of information about one's opponent in a competition makes
---
-..p""rellID'llthm1rardenrndieads to the appearance of dotlbtsand hesitatiot H-:. --- At a number of tourn ament s. especially team tournamen t s . at the very
begining when the game has just started , one can often see a trainer walking up
212
EMOTIONS IN CHESS and down between the tables with a notepad. He is taking notes of the development of other players' g ames, fulfilling in this case the quite justified role of the scout In the enemy's camp. The point of this activity is in gathering information which will help to answer the question : "What can one expect from one's opponent ?" Knowledge of what is to come even if it is only approximate, helps a chess player to become more businesslike and collect his thoughts. Rokhlin h as some very interesting recollections of the Lasker-Capablanca � g4 a.... me ..,. p ! iayedinthe-3ui-in-ternaeewtionai-Mas -tottmament in 193-6:'------
_ _ _
"I accompanied Capa back to his hotel and we h ad the following c onversation : 'You're playing Lasker tomorrow , aren ' t you ? ' -'Yes, I am Black . It will be a draw of course. ' ' I think it's a pi ty you ' re declining to make a
fight of it .' " Rokhlin then proceeds to relate how Capabl anca discussed the choice of the opening with hi m . He qUickly rejected the moves I . . . P-K4 and 1 . . . P-K3, which
d--u bl"ou.g.ht--oothi.ng-but trouble in his previelts-g-a-mes--agalmt-poelr-.-l::;ask --- � bLial"e-nn:nTto� period . a s t h e latter could n o t b e applied t o present -day players. F o r the per i d befnre t h e ,' rea tion
r
intern ation al tournament or defeating in a m atch somebody who h a d al eady a t t ained a Grandmaster res u lt .
240
THE LI N K BETWEEN AGE A N D SUCCESS
Group
I Name
StartllUl age
Morphy Zukertort Soielmann
10 7 5 8
1
Group
Fint I..enal GM rault 29
11 22
2S
20
21
18 17 15 21
Alekhine
7
Euwe
Smyslov
5 4 9 5 9 6
Geller
7
Benko
,8
I vkov
8
ursen
-7
11
7
13 9 14 16 1 6.3
Capab lanca
Reshevsky Bondarevsky Keres Bolesl avsky
4
20
18 16 17 14 20
22 14 14
Hort
7
Bal�ov
5 5
21 18 15 21 21 19
6.5
22 .8
Tal Spassky Fischer
Karpov A verages
5 6
Flnt GM reault
Intenal
Blackbume
29
Chigorin
33 24 26 23 24 26 23 22 2S 26 22 28 23 2S 18 26 24
12 17 12 11 7 10 11 9 10 10 12 10 16 11 12 15 14 12
25.3
1 1 .7
Startimr age
Name
17 16 Em. Lasker 1 2 Maroczy 15 Pill sbury 16 14 Rubins tein 15 Vidmar Flohr 14 12 Botvinnik Lilienthal 15 14 Kotov 12 Fine Gligoric 12 Petrosian 12 13 Korchnoy 13 Vasy UkOV Pol ugayevsky 12 Portisch 12
26 21 22 26 24 27 21 26 2() 27 30 22
N irnzow itsch
14
2
14
13.6
This table does show a significant difference: it took players of the second 7 years l ater on avera ge ) 4 .6 years fewer to attain a
group (who started
G r andm aster result
than
those of the first
gro up ,
so
6.andJl(asterswhentheywererough1ytwoanda11atf»el -
th at
they became
How should we interpret these findings ? [t is conceivable that the duration o f the optimal period does not depend in a necessary way on starting age , but that improved methods of training in adolescence would restore the l ater starters to parity with their more precoc ious col1eagues. To decide this important point and to try to cl arify how profitable an early ac quaintance with chess is,
we
need to
investigate the characteristics of a chess player' s thinking in childhood. . ent autitOisexpressdiametricalo ly pposectview�...t r1my""' s.... ta no rt ·M7
