Torr on Survey |
| [The survey form] [1. The Mission] [2. Use a Database !] [3.
Devote Yourself !] [4. Sour Losers] [5. Flexible concentration] [6. Holistic Chess] [7. Why move at all ?]
[8. The Tutorr's 15 Guidelines]
[9. Feedback page] [10. Downloads] Calculation and Intuition What decides which move to make ? This was tested by the survey question 36 - the results are given in Table 36. The data clearly demonstrate that for all players, weak and strong alike, thorough calculation and intuition decides which move to make. So it appears that it's not the process of decision that separates weak and strong players. One could speculate, however, that the experts hold a many-fold higher calculation power (ply-depth) than the weaker players. This was also implied in our chess-fractal theory. Similarly, it's tempting to imagine that an experts' intuition is significantly different from that of a weaker players, probably based on larger knowledge (e.g. aquired through the hard study of theory), bigger experience, higher creativity and - talent ? Who knows, really ? Most chessplayers, all strengths alike, find it at least quite important to find the best move in a position. This is inferred from the data in Table 38. Feelings and Intuition We have previously discovered, in article 4, that chess brings up steamy feelings. The survey question 37 measured, to some extent, what makes a player feel good about a certain move. The results are given in Table 37. A majority of the players in all rating categories base their feelings upon intuition (the other options were 'thorough calculation' and 'pattern recognition'). The experts tend to favorize intuition even more than the pack of the players - indeed, there is a positive correlation between rating and preference for intuition-based feelings. I'm not exactly sure what this finding may imply - what does it imply to you ? - but at least it may suggest that intuition is important in chess. The results presented above suggest that intuition is involved both in the process of deciding chess moves and in the process of feeling chess moves. But what is intuition ? To some folks intuition is knowledge that stems from a nonthinking state of mind. Intuition could be conceived as our unconscious search engine in our subconsciousness. Clearly, intuition makes a great range of information available to us (from our subconsciousness) and is consequently a highly desirable human resource. To appreciate this you should behold the fact that our conscious mind can handle 7 ± 2 chunks of information per second as compared to 4 billion by our unconscious mind ! Thus, you may improve your chess if you develop your chess intuition. To quote the world-famous American hypnotherapist Milton Erickson:
Trust your
unconscious mind ! |
Q36. What decides which move to make:
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...he-he....and
the common beliefs...
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Who do you think
you are ? A New Age phrase goes "The consequences of how we think is faithfully mirrored back by the outside world. The universe is a perfect feedback device". What you you think about that ? Well, the survey question 39 measured whether a player considers himself/herself to be strong or weak. The results are given in Table 39. Very interestingly, there is a clear positive correlation between rating and holding the belief "I'm a strong person". As many as 63 % of the experts (rated above 2400) consider themselves strong, in comparison to only 22 % of the players rated below 1600. The trend Table 39 is unmistakable. Hence, our experts' habit no. 14 states: Increase your self-appreciation - and trust your capabilities more ! If you want to make your own version of this habit, please go ahead. Remember, the habit merely stresses that an essential part of being successful is having positive beliefs that allow you to be successful. Psychologically, positive beliefs are permissions that turn on our capabilities - that which we think is what we act on. Positive beliefs create results and success. The later could be summed up as commitment, belief and flexibility. Not convinced ? Just look around in the world and spot the successful people ! Consider, what they must believe about themselves and their capabilities in order to achieve what they do (inter alia, we saw in article 3 that successful people work hard). Consider, if it makes a difference to tell yourself in your self-talk "I'm a good chessplayer - and I can easily improve my chess even more" as compared to "I can't play chess - and I never will". That's right, it does make a difference, doesn't it ?  Energy in Chess Energy in Chess is very important I don't know whether you associate to energetic
moves, or to taking the initiative, or to endurance, or to high
self-esteem, or to will-power, or to physical strength, or to creativity,
or to something else on the words energy in chess, but I have an idea
that you might consider Energy in Chess even more important in the
future. Will you, now ? Chess Idols
The next and last article |
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Disclaimer The data presented here and in the following articles can be analyzed and concluded upon in many ways (remember that the survey was scored on-line, and that the data may not be representative of all chessplayers alike). The conclusions presented here are mine entirely. Feel free to disagree, to have your own interpretations and to impove your chess in the manner that suits you. The full material of data will be published in the last article of this series. If you have questions prior to this, or other comments, feel free to mail me on torr@privat.dk
Copyright The contents on this page (graphical, textual) may not be reproduced without permission from the author. On citations or similar use, please credit the author Dr. Tor Rønnow, Denmark (mail: torr@privat.dk).