Sep

2

Circus PonyThe process of chess mastery involves continual broadening of one's style and developing objectivity. One of the things I most often recommend to students is that they study what their opponents might do to them. All too often they consider only happy outcomes, which works some of the time but all too often ends in tears.

Some players, knowing that White wins around 55% of games at IM/GM level, expand on this belief to adopt the sharpest possible style with White and indeed score heavily against weak opponents. But against stronger ones, in poor positions and with Black their one trick ponyism will result in many disasters and highly inconsistent results.

Fixed beliefs are every bit as vulnerable as fixed systems, the belief leading to a selected use of examples (i.e. favorable ones) and a lack of enthusiasm in finding the refutations. Of course cunning opponents will use these things against the believers with highly destructive effect.


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