Research from the neurosciences and behavioural sciences highlights the importance of individual differences in explaining human behaviour. Individual differences in core psychological constructs, such as intelligence or personality, account for meaningful variations in a vast range of responses and behaviours. Aspects of chess have been increasingly used in the past to evaluate a myriad of psychological theories, and several of these studies consider individual differences to be key constructs in their respective fields. This book summarizes the research surrounding the psychology of chess from an individual- differences perspective. The findings accumulated from nearly forty years' worth of research about chess and individual differences are brought together to show what is known - and still unknown - about the psychology of chess, with an emphasis on how people differ from one another.

Do you need to be a genius to be good at chess? What does it take to become a Grandmaster? Can computer programmes beat human intuition in gameplay? The Psychology of Chess is an insightful overview of the roles of intelligence, expertise, and human intuition in playing this complex and ancient game. The book explores the idea of ‘practice makes perfect’, alongside accounts of why men perform better than women in international rankings, and why chess has become synonymous with extreme intelligence as well as madness. When artificial intelligence researchers are increasingly studying chess to develop machine learning, The Psychology of Chess shows us how much it has already taught us about the human mind.

Both chess play and psychological research offer rewards to their participants in the form of intellectual satisfaction. It seems to follow that combining these two forms of activity, by carrying out research into chess play, should be a particularly engaging enterprise. In the mid-1980s enough was now known for it to be feasible to tell a reasonably satisfying story by piecing together the accumulated results of experiments on chess. There were remaining gaps in knowledge, but the structure of chess skill had at least become sufficiently evident to exhibit where the gaps lay. Originally published in 1985, this book was an attempt to summarize the progress that had been made at the time, recounting some of the components of the research process while describing how the chessplayer seems to think, imagine, and decide.

Learn to take the king like a pro with this essential, easy-to-understand guidebook for chess players everywhere no matter what your skill level! Whether you’ve played a few matches or are completely new to the game, How to Beat Anyone at Chess helps you master leading strategies for one of the hardest games out there. Each page guides you through important moves with easy-to-understand explanations and tips for staying ahead of your opponent. From utilizing the queen's power to slaying your rival’s king, you'll learn all about the traps, squeezes, and sacrifices that give players an extra edge and how you can use these techniques to beat the competition. The ultimate guide to conquering the classic game, How to Beat Anyone at Chess will show you how to become a grandmaster in no time!

Chess as art and recreation; checkmating combinations, endgame play, strategic principles, more. Full details and analysis of author's famous game with Emanuel Lasker. 94 diagrams; other illustrations. "Very enjoyable." — Cleveland Chess Bulletin.

Garry Kasparov was the highest-rated chess player in the world for over twenty years and is widely considered the greatest player that ever lived. In How Life Imitates Chess Kasparov distills the lessons he learned over a lifetime as a Grandmaster to offer a primer on successful decision-making: how to evaluate opportunities, anticipate the future, devise winning strategies. He relates in a lively, original way all the fundamentals, from the nuts and bolts of strategy, evaluation, and preparation to the subtler, more human arts of developing a personal style and using memory, intuition, imagination and even fantasy. Kasparov takes us through the great matches of his career, including legendary duels against both man (Grandmaster Anatoly Karpov) and machine (IBM chess supercomputer Deep Blue), enhancing the lessons of his many experiences with examples from politics, literature, sports and military history. With candor, wisdom, and humor, Kasparov recounts his victories and his blunders, both from his years as a world-class competitor as well as his new life as a political leader in Russia. An inspiring book that combines unique strategic insight with personal memoir, How Life Imitates Chess is a glimpse inside the mind of one of today's greatest and most innovative thinkers.

It’s a fact of chess life that if you want to win, you have to put a bit of study in. Every chess player, from near-beginner to experienced tournament player, needs to learn the openings and keep on top of current theory. But studying doesn’t have to be dull. This indispensable book contains foolproof ways to help the information go in... and stay in. Acclaimed chess author Andrew Soltis reveals the key techniques: - Why you can’t study chess the same way you study school subjects - How to acquire the most important knowledge: intuition - The role of memorizing (it’s not a bad thing, despite what people say) - How to get the most out of playing over a master’s game - Adopting a chess hero as a means of learning - How great players study - Computers as a study tool - How to train someone else

“A bravura performance…An entertaining book” (Kirkus Reviews) about the dramatic 2016 World Chess Championship between Norway’s Magnus Carlsen and Russia’s Sergey Karjakin, which mirrored the world’s geopolitical unrest and rekindled a global fascination with the sport. The first week of November 2016, hundreds of people descended on New York City’s South Street Seaport to watch the World Chess Championship between Norway’s Magnus Carlsen and Russia’s Sergey Karjakin. By the time it was over would be front-page news and thought by many the greatest finish in chess history. With both Carlsen and Karjakin just twenty-five years old, it was the first time the championship had been waged among those who grew up playing chess against computers. Originally from Crimea, Karjakin had recently repatriated to Russia under the direct assistance of Putin. Carlsen, meanwhile, had expressed admiration for Donald Trump, and the first move of the tournament he played was called a Trompowsky Attack. Then there was the Russian leader of the World Chess Federation being barred from attending due to US sanctions, and chess fanatic and Trump adviser Peter Thiel being called on to make the honorary first move in sudden death. That the tournament even required sudden death was a shock. Oddsmakers had given Carlsen, the defending champion, an eighty percent chance of winning. It would take everything he had to retain his title. Author Brin-Jonathan Butler was granted unique access to the two-and-half-week tournament and watched every move. The Grandmaster “is not the usual chronicle of a world-championship chess match….Butler offers insight into what it takes to become the best chess player on the planet...A vibrant and provocative look at chess and its metaphorical battle for territory and power” (Booklist).

Ten years of intensive effort on computer chess have produced notable progress. Although the background information and technical details that were written in 1975 for the first edition of this book are still valid in most essential points, hardware and software refinements have had a major impact on the effectiveness of these ideas. The current crop of chess machines are performing at unexpectedly high levels. The approach epitomized by the series of programs developed by David Slate and Larry Atkin at Northwestern in the middle 1970s (i. e. , a sophisticated search algorithm using very little chess knowledge) was expected to reach an asymptbtic level of performance no higher than that of a class A player (USCF rating between 1800 and 2000). This perspective was argued quite vigorously by Eliot Hearst in Chapter 8 of the first edition and was held at that time by many chess experts. Subsequent events have clearly demonstrated that the asymptotic performance level for this type of pro gram it at least as high as the master level (USCF rating between 2200 and 2400). Current discussions now focus upon whether the earlier reser vations were wrong in principle or simply underestimated the asymptote. If there is a real barrier which will prevent this type of program from attaining a world championship level of performance, it is not evident from the steady progress which has been observed during the last decade.

Former Ukrainian Champion Moskalenko, who coached Vasily Ivanchuk to stardom, presents a fundamentally new approach of getting better at chess. Covering all aspects of the game, Moskalenko develops new and easy-to-apply rules-of-thumb for amateur players who want to improve. With many examples, tests and exercises, this is the ultimate modern chess skills improvement manual. Easy to read and understand; even weaker players will benefit from Moskalenko's breakdown of the material, wrote Carsten Hansen at ChessCafe about Moskalenko's previous book 'The Flexible French'.