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Chess & Intelligence Variations Calculation BF - Why Different BF - Interpretation A person will not make a fine player unless he/she is keen on the subtleties of the debut, middle-game, and endgame theory and familiar with the basics of chess strategy and tactics. In other words, a good chessplayer must know a lot. However, erudition alone is not enough; the human factor, so to speak, is also highly essential. Indeed, in order to be successful a chessplayer has got to be able to do a lot on the chessboard, and you cannot do much, can you, if you haven't been blessed with certain abilities. Chess abilities are required not just to easily take in fundamental chess information; you need them to play - and to win! It is not infrequent that a player who possesses encyclopedic chess knowledge and is virtually always capable of quoting passages from outstanding chess personalities on how to act in any standard position starts feeling uneasy as soon as he finds himself in an unfamiliar situation. A wrong decision or miscalculation follows and the eventual result is defeat. Well, what is it that the player misses? Most likely, he has no pronounced chess abilities after all... To go on with the discussion we must outline the specific faculties that shape a chessplayer's gift (talent). Chess literature mentions factors such as determination to win, purposefulness, persistence, readiness to run risks, and the ability to calculate variations and correctly estimate the resulting positions. Thus, two groups of individual abilities can be singled out, one of which deals with "personal characteristics" and the other with "intellectual power." Both are equally important for success in chess and yet neither of them is directly linked to chess erudition. In view of the above one cannot help asking this question: is it altogether possible to train chess faculties? Beyond any doubt - yes! It should only be borne in mind that training can improve different abilities to a varying degree: some skills are more amenable to exercise than others. The series "Chess and Intelligence" has been designed in the first place to develop chessplayers' intellectual power. However, in the process of the specific training some of the personal characteristics (will-power for example) can also be positively influenced.
Article © 1998
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