Well, I just got an email that told me what kind of personality I had based upon which desert I chose between: brownies, ice cream, cheesecake, and apple pie.
It was very accurate, so I would bet my chess style would tell you all you need to know about me!
There’s something called the Barnum effect, or personal validation fallacy, it’s the idea that individuals given a vague but positive personality assessment will take it to be a accurate appraisal when told it in an individuated manner. In fact, people are more likely to accept vague unfounded statements about their personality than specific and tailored remarks. Ever notice how people hate to be pegged? On the extreme end of this, some people feel disempowered when someone else can identify their patterns of behavior and feelings.
Anyways, back to the chess – do you think you can extrapolate from a game of chess unto how people behavior in their day to day life?
chess allows chess players to get money and women
Yes Mathew,
I believe that you can draw generalized, but still somewhat accurate, characteristics about a person based on their chess playing style the majority of the time.
Keep in mind too that some people might use chess to express things that they cannot seem to formulate in their daily lives. For example, I had a friend Joe that I used to play chess with at the local coffee house. He was one of the most soft-spoken and mild mannered people I have ever met. On the chess board however, he was an aggressive monster. He would pawn storm my castling structures and blow me off the board almost every time. He also seemed to open up and talk more during games. (only about the game at hand though).
I found this Freudian analysis of chess. Chess as father son rivalry/chess as interdiction against masterbation and homosexuality/ chess as differentiation between father and son and the latters inability to become like the former.
It's by Reuben Fine, GM and psychoanalyst.
http://chess.eusa.ed.ac.uk/Chess/Trivia/psychology.html
In Jonathan Rowson's book the Seven Deadly Chess Sins, he talks about the role of emotion in deciding what move to play. If you think you are winning, you search and search looking for that killer blow even when it isn't there. Alternatively, if you think you are losing you often become despondent, and miss potential saving resources. Alex Yermolinsky also talks about how your assessment of your position affects your mood in his book. In My Great Predecessors, Kasparov often talks about whether certain had what it takes to recover their calm after devastating losses. The ability to win in a must win situation is the mark of only a truly great player, and how a player goes about this probably reveals something about their character. Chess is definitely not just "pattern recognition and analytical savvy."
On the other hand, there are examples of players who were mild-mannered in everyday life, but tigers at the board. For example, one of Karpov's hobbies is collecting postage stamps. Euwe, Spassky and Tal generally tried to keep friendly relations with their rivals, but their chess style was aggressive, and they could be remorseless if their tournament position was at stake.
Do you think you can arrive at a psychological profile from the chess style of a player? Repeating patterns of play and mistakes, attitudinal disposition, do these tell us anything about the person?
Do you think chess involves a lot of character or is it merely pattern recognition and analytical savvy?