Mental Attitude and Outlook of Chess Players

Psychological Aspect of Chess

Psychology is basically an internal element of chess. Strong mental attitude and psychological sense along with a strong concept of chess is necessary to win and game or a match. Every chess player can definitely recall the moments of recovering from a terrible loss or a draw. Also there can be moments when the player kept on losing points or was very much surprised by any sudden twist of the game and the player could do nothing to adjust or recover from the situation. The chess players pay a special attention to psychological preparation besides the regular practice which is inevitable.

Important Aspects of Chess Psychology

Any chess player who wants to improve should not only study and practice but also work a lot on his psychology. Here we can consider the two important aspects of chess psychology:

1)      The player’s state of mind during the match or the tournament in general.

2)      The player’s state of mind during a certain game.

A regular tournament implies a game or two each day without and rest days in between. Thus if the player loses or fails to convert a totally won position and keeps bugging oneself for it, there arises a high chance that the player ends up in trouble again and waste a lot of nervous energy all along the way. This particular emotional discomfort may have a negative impact in different ways in the future. For example if a player wants to strike back at any cost after a loss, the player may easily forget about the objective evaluation of the position and start playing with the motive only to win. Thus it becomes extremely important to know how to deal with losses. Getting over with the loss as soon as possible and getting oneself prepared for the next game is the mental attitude of a good chess player. Taking each loss as a lesson will make it easier to handle defeats. Properly analyzing the previous games and identifying one’s point of weakness is highly beneficial for the future operations which in turn is absolutely critical for one’s chess improvement.

Application of Strategies

Firstly one should be absolutely confident at the board. Secondly one should never blame oneself for blunders and thirdly it is a great idea to lure your opponent into uncomfortable positions. Thus it is very important to know the psychology of chess besides mastering the game.