The Philosophy of HitThePin #3: State of Mind

Hello, chess.com! I'm HitThePin, and welcome back to my blog.

Chess is a game of the mind. It is one mind against the other, and the stronger brain will triumph, or so we are told. It stands to reason, then, that the state of mind that you are in during the cerebral match will be vitally important. If you need some examples, as always, I redirect you to Waredude's blog, which can be found by happily clicking here. He has written several interesting posts and has actual game examples discussing state of mind.

Of course, we all know the basics of having a good state of mind. Having a lot of rest and sleep, playing in a quiet environment, not being hungry and thirsty: these are all obvious things that we know and try to abide by them. 

But is there a deeper meaning to it, deeper than simply following the rituals set out before us? Well, let’s take a look.

First off, why exactly does being tired, or hungry, or thirsty affect one’s gameplay? Fundamentally put, it distracts a person from the task at hand. Not all of your neurons are able to fire with the intention of moving the pieces, as you are distracted by your hunger and exhaustion. Simplicity.

What does that matter, though, in the long run? It doesn’t matter whether we know why we are tired, all that matters is whether we are or aren’t. Right?

Well, maybe. But things happen for a reason in this plane of existence. And when we understand them better, we are able to better tame their power over us and even harness them ourselves, far better than we could when we only had a rudimentary understanding. 

So much with our state of mind before we play a chess game. But wait, there’s another guy, the opponent. He has a mind, too. Well, how can we interpret our opponent’s state of mind and use it to our advantage? Is this not online chess, where we cannot even see our opponent’s face or mannerisms?

There are ways. We can still gauge our opponent’s state of mind. As a rudimentary example, let’s say you live in America and you’re playing some afternoon blitz. You boot up live chess and, what do you know, your opponent's flag is India's. What does that mean? Well, you opponent's time zone means that it's very, very early in the morning for them. That suggests that your state of mind is probably superior to their’s.

Is the guy on the other side of the “board” talking to you? That means he’s distracted, not entirely focused on the game. Gain confidence from the fact that your mental state is superior.

Did your opponent pause for an amount of time longer than necessary after you got him with a pawn fork? (That guy was me BTW.) That might suggest that he’s rattled, mad at you, and you can count your mental state as an advantage as well as your material advantage. 

Of course, there’s always some ambiguity here when we play online. Perhaps that pause does it mean your opponent is upset but had to pick up a phone call. Perhaps they have poor connection. Or perhaps they are doing laundry as they play you. (I did that once. Which means others have too). Using your own judgement is key. 

“Know your enemy, and know yourself, and you will not fear the result of a hundred battles.” -Sun Tzu

His quote is just as applicable on the modern-day chessboard as it was back then. I hope you remember that.

Thanks for reading! Sorry that this post was so long overdue: I hope it was worth the wait. See you around!