Beginner Chess Endgame Psychology: Be Stubborn

The Stubborn Legend - Sammy Reshevsky

This is one of the most overlooked principles in chess. It’s easy to stress the importance of aggressive chess psychology, however the world is not a perfect place and never will be. No human chess player in the history of the game has been able to play a perfectly 100% of the time, which means even the greatest chess players have been forced to defend difficult positions. And the strength of your chess psychology will dictate how you perform in these critical moments. If you are mentally unprepared and weak, there is a very good chance you will fall apart and lose as soon as things start looking bad. Chess tournaments should not be played according to grandiose goals or expectations – they should be broken down into the smallest individual segments possible, basing your decisions on a game-game and then more specifically on a move-move basis. If the big picture tournament scenario is pessimistic, this should have no bearing on your play in one individual game. Breaking down a chess tournament into a single game, and then into a single move will enable you to focus exclusively on the only thing that actually matters – the position directly in front of you. 7-time US Chess Champion GM Samuel Reshevsky described his own style as:

My strength consists of a fighting spirit, a great desire to win, and a stubborn defense whenever in trouble. I rarely become discouraged in an inferior situation, and I fear no one”

It’s Not Over Until You Shake On It!

GM Pal Benko Played Fighting Chess

The sheer power of the stubborn defense in chess never ceases to amaze me. I’ve witnessed countless games where a player had worked extremely hard in the opening and middlegame to achieve a very big advantage, only to see the game equalized in a very short sequence of moves thanks to his opponent’s hard-headed and attentive defense. Being able to keep your cool under pressure is a key ingredient to becoming a better chess player, as even the world’s greatest chess players find themselves in worse positions. Past mistakes mean nothing, the only thing to focus on is the position in front of you and how you are going to push your opponent back to achieve some counterplay. The moment you give up on a position and condemn yourself, you might as well shake hands and leave because the game is over. Maintaining an impenetrable mental resistance in a tough position is the mark of the veteran chess player, impervious to previous mistakes and only focused on minimizing the damage.

When you defend, try not to worry or become upset. Keep your cool and trust your position – it’s all you’ve got” – Pal Benko

A Half Point is A Lot Better Than NO Point!

This seems like common sense, although this very basic piece of wisdom is easy to forget when you’ve been playing a 4-hour game and you’re facing another hour or two of difficult defense. The easy way out of this situation is to give up in your head, make a few bad moves, lose the game, and tell all your friends how lucky your opponent got. That you had him on the ropes, and he is the luckiest guy to ever touch the pieces. But let’s keep it real. If you had dug deep in that critical time – if you had looked your opponent in the eye and thought “I’m going to make you earn every inch” you know deep down that you could very well have drawn that game. Difficult positions are never fun to play, but they do happen a lot. So get used to it, and try to make the most of a bad situation. And in any round, a half point is a lot better than nothing.

However hopeless the situation appears to be there yet always exists the possibility of putting up a stubborn resistance” – GM Paul Keres

Chess Psychology: Play the Board, Not the Opponent!

Akiba Rubinstein

It is very easy to pay too much attention to the pairings, and specifically your opponent’s rating. Over-emphasizing your opponent’s rating is one of the most common mistakes a beginner chess player can make, potentially resulting in a lack of confidence, feelings of anxiety and hopelessness, and generally bad play. It’s OK to check the pairings and try to get a head start by trying to prepare against an opponent if you’ve played them before and are familiar with their style, but you never want to get too caught up in pre-game preparation – as it will be very easy for your opponent to diverge from your last-minute preparation. Getting anxious about playing a much higher-rated opponent is never going to help your game, so in many of my online chess classes I recommend my students a simple solution: when you look at the pairings, only check what board you’re playing on and completely ignore your opponent’s rating. This temporary solution will also help you avoid another dangerous beginner chess pitfall – underestimating your opponent.

Don’t Gamble, Play the Best Move!

From my brief experience in casinos, I know first-hand that the house always wins! The same principle applies in chess, in that the player who gambles by playing very loose moves against a lower-rated opponent and hoping his opponent doesn’t find the flaws is sure to get busted badly. It’s easy to look at the pairings and get nervous about playing against a higher-rated opponent, but it can be even easier to become over-confident about playing a lower-rated opponent – and even more dangerous. Playing sub-optimal moves against lower-rated opposition opens the door to embarrassing defeats and should not be taken lightly. The best chess players in the history of the game have maintained the ability to play the highest level of chess against all opponents, never permitting even the slightest chance of losing to an inferior rival.

Question to Rubinstein: “Who is your opponent tonight?” Answer: “Tonight I am playing against the black pieces.” – Akiba Rubinstein

Winning Chess Psychology: The Out-Gangster Effect

Building Character Isn't Easy

For one reason or another, a mysterious aura of excellence seems to exist around all advanced chess players. Beginner and intermediate chess players regard the advanced player with an incredible degree of respect, often resulting in an overestimation of abilities. I’m sure the following scene will be quite familiar to any chess player who’s attended a handful of serious tournaments – It’s a huge Swiss tournament and in the early rounds a young/rising 1700 player is facing off against the local Fide Master. The young player has prepared well for his experienced opponent, emerging from the opening with a strong initiative and a dangerous attack. The FM is able to push back the attack and the position becomes roughly equal, although both players are low on time after the complicated opening and middlegame – but there is still a lot of chess left to play. A crowd gathers around the board and even though the position is completely equal, everyone is whispering how the FM has got the kid on the ropes and how “He’s going to close this out just like always.” The FM senses a critical moment and plays more determined than ever. Looking at the body language of the two players, you can tell that the experienced FM feels very comfortable in this situation and is thriving on the nervous energy/anxiety of the young 1700. Soon enough, the nerves get to him and the kid starts making passive/defensive moves. The FM becomes even more determined to win, and just like that – the kid makes a few small errors that lead to sudden defeat. Now why does this always seem to happen?

Strong Chess Psychology Will Win You Games!

When the game is equal and dynamically balanced as you approach the later stages, the mental fiber of the chess player will be tested. Your objective playing strength becomes less important, as your psychological strength becomes the guiding factor to success. Understanding the importance of aggressive chess psychology can take your game to the next level, although you should be careful not to let previous defeats lead to continued feelings of anxiety/nervousness in such situations. Instead, you should feed off of these painful past experiences and learn from them. As my grandma told me when I was growing up and something really sucked “This is a great character-building experience.”

Scene from Batman Begins: "Why do we fall, Bruce? So we can learn and pick ourselves back up."

How to Be on the Giving End of the Out-Gangster Spectrum

Personally, I hate losing more than just about anything else. This happens to be a great motivating tool… to win! Learning from previous defeats should not include perpetuating the same maladaptive behavior. Giving due respect to a strong opponent is one thing, but overestimating him and constantly thinking in the back of your head that you know how bad he’s going to beat you in the end is quite another. Playing 75% of a game well does not mean anything – the most important phase is the 4th quarter. So the next time you’re entering the final phase of an important game and the stress is building to a maximum – this is the exact moment when you need to buckle down and become extremely stubborn in your mission to win this game at all costs, no matter who the opponent is.

Maintaining Equilibrium: Chess Psychology for Beginners

Garry Kasparov

 Garry Kasparov and Bobby Fischer are two of the best chess players ever. Kasparov’s main strength was in the opening, where his incredibly deep level of preparation in the sharpest lines of his time enabled him to obtain dangerous initiatives very early in the game. Bobby Fischer‘s opening preparation was also fantastic, permitting him to challenge the soviet regime in the middle of the 20th century with unparalleled success. Fischer also happened to play the endgame with computer-like precision, capable of making even the most experienced grandmaster’s defense look flimsy and disorganized. Ridiculously deep and sharp opening preparation is great. Near-perfect precision in the endgame is definitely a good thing as well. But what really what really distinguished these two world chess champions from their contemporaries was their ability to recover from surprises and losses – taking everything in stride and patiently regrouping to regain their balance and play at an optimal level.

Chess is a unique cognitive nexus, a place where art and science come together in the human mind and are refined and improved by experience” – Garry Kasparov

It’s not a bad idea to take a few pointers from Fischer and Kasparov – if you take a good look at their careers you will undoubtedly notice that they almost never lost two games in a row. Now I’m pretty sure that’s not a coincidence. In fact, they were much more likely to comeback from a loss with a win in their next game. This is a great example of how a strong chess psychology and mental fiber can take your game to the next level. So just how can you start pointing your game in the right direction?

Baby Steps

The most basic element of mental balance is to focus on the position immediately in front of you. You must train yourself to ignore all external factors such as the tournament standing, whether you drew or lost a game in the previous round that you should have won, etc.. The only thing that matters is the next move that you need to make. You also don’t want to let high-pressure situations throw you off your normal game and style of play. Make sure you stand up in these tense moments and stick to the openings and types of positions you know best – play to your strengths. So the next time the road gets a little rocky and it starts becoming difficult to think straight, make yourself step away, calm down, and focus on the position in front of you and the next move you need to make. Clear your head and ignore all distractions, because a balanced equilibrium is sure to guarantee optimal results.

Chess Psychology: Developing Resourcefulness

Vladimir Kramnik

Chess Psychology: The Benefits of Flexibility

Magnus Carlsen

This topic seems much easier to understand than it actually is. A stubborn, unyielding mentality is a strong characteristic of any good chess player – so how are you supposed to combine that with a flexible mindset? After you play your 1st move, you should immediately start working on a general plan for the optimal placement of your pieces with respect to your opponent’s moves. Playing the opening with an inclination towards flexibility will enable you to meet a variety of different plans from your opponent. Magnus Carlsen is the best example of this in modern chess, as Carlsen plays the most straightforward plans nearly all of the time. He has the self-control not to get too carried away with ridiculous and unlikely variations – instead he focuses his time and energy on employing lines that are solid and lead to slight, enduring advantages from the opening. Carlsen is so effective at the most elite levels of chess because he very rarely gets bad positions out of the opening. It’s not that his preparation is incredibly deep and sharp (ex. Kasparov) – it’s because he naturally chooses direct, straightforward plans that are less-committal. The result of this strategy is that his opponents are much less likely to be able to confuse the position with dazzling tactics against a loose position/strategy.

Flexibility Doesn’t End in the Opening!

While the most logical and aggressive plan in the opening will get you far, it will still generally represent only part of the big picture. An ideal opening strategy will be highly flexible, ready to meet and adapt to the changing demands of the position according to your opponent’s play. This attitude should continue throughout all phases of the game, because if you begin playing extremely committal moves when your position is not actually ready for it – that’s precisely when you allow your opponent to launch an attack. It’s very similar to a cautious hedge-fund strategy seen in financial investing, in that you risk little by “investing” your time and moves in plans that are more generally applicable to the position – as opposed to playing for a wild attack even though this is not dictated from the demands of an equal position. You should still play as aggressively as possible, just make sure you’re not over-extending yourself and playing too loosely. It’s very difficult to determine the most effective combination of aggression and patience, but the best place to start is by emphasizing the flexibility of your plans and individual moves to continuously strengthen your position without incurring too much risk.