Psychology: Importance of tactical, positional and general chess knowledge

Reference: Holding, D. H. (1985). The psychology of chess skill. Hillsdale, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

_______________________________

-

The book cited above is not a chess book per se; rather, it discusses different psychological aspects of the chess player, such as his cognitive abilities.

-

According to one study, the main things a chess player should work on is his tactical abilities, as well as his positional judgement. Pfau (1983, cited in Holding, 1985) administered tests to nearly 60 chess players. There was a 75-item multiple-choice test, which covered the different areas of a chess game, namely the opening, the middlegame and the endgame. For instance, Holding (1985) cite the following question that was used by Pfau (1983): The Staunton Gambit is employed by [white] in the [Dutch Defense]. Seventy-four other questions were thus used.

-

The participants were also given a series of diagrams of gamelike situations, and were asked to find the best moves. Some of these diagrams were aimed at testing the tactical level of the player, while the rest of the diagrams were aimed at testing positional judgement.

-

Results. There was a very strong positive correlation between tactical skill and rating (.76); between positional judgement and rating (.72); and between results at the knowledge test and rating (.69). There was also a moderate/strong positive correlation between memory for positions and rating (.44), but that's nothing compared to the enormous correlation observed in the first three mentioned cases.

-

Note that the correlation between the knowledge test and the participants' Elo ratings was observed both for general chessic questions in the questionnaire, as well as for specific questions (regarding openings, the middlegame and endgames).

-

Also note that there was a small insignificant correlation between time spent studying and rating (.10). This suggests that what is learnt is much more important than how much time you spend studying it. In other words, learning techniques used by the players while studying is of major importance. This could also suggest that those who learn fast could be at advantage here.