Objectivity

In my slanted opinion, remaining objective is clearly a key to being
successful in games and other ventures. It is hard to improve if you
are not objective, because you may assign wrong reasons to your losses
and fail to learn from mistakes. On the other hand, if you are
objective, many lessons can be learned from games won and lost, making
improvement almost inevitable.

Being objective is very important in games like chess or go, where
positions must be analyzed and judgments made about the final
position of said analysis.

Judgment is related to all this. Experience and mathematical analysis
can help you make an objective decision. The difference between judgment and being
objective is
that to have "good judgment" we must remain objective and use the data
we have correctly.

How do we remain objective? How can we have any clue if we are being
objective or not?

1. Remain unattached to a particular course of action until it
is determined by you to be the best course. Often people will make the
first move they see, even if they start to see or suspect problems with
it.

2. Remain somewhat unemotional; otherwise, emotions rather than
rational thought may cause many bad plays.

3. If you can use analysis or math to solve a problem then do
so; hunches can be very important but cannot override facts.

4. If you can devise a point count system for hard positions or, again,
use math to solve a problem, why not do it? Chess computers are programmed
this way: first they look for a forced win and if they cannot find one,
they weigh all aspects of the position, assigning points to things such
as control of the center, king weakness, piece activity, pawns about to queen, etc.

5. Know when math is of no help and when using hunches and other clues is best.
If the odds are equal for two courses of actions, and you have some
clue as to the likely course of action for your opponent, use this
information; it could tip the balance in your favor.

6. Knowledge is key. If you know nothing, then you will be guessing
anyway in many situations. The more you know and the more you use the
knowledge you possess, the better you will be, you will see.

7. Results. If you have good results or poor results, this is a clue to
how you are doing. In many games you can look at the game later and
see where you went right and where you went wrong.
Now look at why you went wrong: Was it a mistake? Or was it a case of
being unobjective or making an assumption that could not be
supported by analysis? Maybe you like to sacrifice material in chess and therefore sacked
even though you could tell your opponent had a good defense. Maybe you
bluffed in poker against someone you knew would always call, but you
hoped and convinced yourself that they would not.

8. Assumptions clearly can be helpful when correct, but are often just
a dangerous shortcut to actual analysis.

9. Use history. While this is a form of assuming, if a
certain position wins in master practice over and over again, then it
would be desirable to be on the winning side of it. In chess there are
opening books and databases which state the historical averages of
certain positions. If a grandmaster cannot win from a certain position
in a hundred tries, it is unlikely that against decent competition you
will able to either, so avoid known "bad positions" and strive for
"good positions." It took me a while to figure out why many of these
positions were bad, or why people always said not to play weak hands
out of position in poker or not to double into a game unless absolutely
certain of defeating a contract in bridge, etc.
If you have time and money to spare, feel free to reinvent the wheel.
Otherwise, I advise in important situations, and where you don't have
a very good reason to deviate, to accept what is known.

Immersing into a game

Immersing yourself into a game like a fish does into the ocean, the waves start to
embrace you, envelope you, the currents, titillate you, encourage you.

See fish is not only a term for a weak chess player, or other weak player, it is also an endearing term which describes the average player, swimming in the sea of games. Without whom the master would not even exist.



Learning anything difficult to mastery is tough and many people choose not do it well. Languages are a good example, most people who speak a foreign language fluently have either gone to the country where the language is spoken or taken an immersion class. The army has a school in Monterey where you will spend 50 weeks learning one language and doing practically nothing else, when you join the program.

By immersing yourself physically and mentally your mind starts to develop the muscles and memories needed to really excel at something. Of course many of us do not have the time to spend 50 weeks learning say Go and nothing but Go. No worries, we can still immerse ourselves, take a weekend and play a tournament, stay up late playing and then studying a game. When we are playing, let everything else fade away and concentrate on the task at hand, or as the Buddhist say "enjoy the moment"

Enjoy, Immerse!!

Study on Expectations (Keep yours high)

This is reprinted from an article, expect more on this subject shortly.

The most important finding from this research is that TEACHER EXPECTATIONS CAN AND DO AFFECT STUDENTS' ACHIEVEMENT AND ATTITUDES. Among the research materials supporting this paper, all that address this topic found relationships between expectations and student outcomes.

How do teacher expectations affect student outcomes? Most researchers accept Good and Brophy's (1980) description of the process:

1. Early in the school year, teachers form differential expectations for student behavior and achievement.
2. Consistent with these differential expectations, teachers behave differently toward various students.
3. This treatment tells students something about how they are expected to behave in the classroom and perform on academic tasks.
4. If the teacher treatment is consistent over time and if students do not actively resist or change it, it will likely affect their self-concepts, achievement motivation, levels of aspiration, classroom conduct, and interactions with the teacher.
5. These effects generally will complement and reinforce the teacher's expectations, so that students will come to conform to these expectations more than they might have otherwise.
6. Ultimately, this will affect student achievement and other outcomes. High-expectation students will be led to achieve at or near their potential, but lowexpectation students will not gain as much as they could have gained if taught differently (Restated in Good 1987, p. 33).

While this is a useful model for describing the way that expectations can affect student outcomes, researchers offer several cautions about its usefulness for describing what occurs in classrooms. For one thing, they point out that full-blown SELF-FULFILLING PROPHECY EFFECTS can occur only when all the elements in the model are present. While this can and sometimes does occur, most researchers have concluded that teacher expectations are not generally formed on the basis of "false conceptions" at all. Rather, they are based on the best information available about the students (Brophy 1983; Brophy and Good 1970; Clifton 1981; Cooper 1983, 1984; Good 1987, 1982; Good and Brophy, 1984; Meyer 1985; Raudenbush 1984; and Wineburg 1987).

However, even though the initial expectations formed by teachers may be realistic and appropriate, researchers have found that SUSTAINING EXPECTATION EFFECTS can occur and can also limit students' learning and selfconcept development. As noted by Good (1987):

For sustaining expectations to occur, it is only necessary that teachers engage in behaviors that maintain students' and teachers' previously formed low expectations (e.g., by giving low-expectation students only drill work, easy questions, etc.

Whimsical

Convincing myself may be harder than telling you that games should be fun.
Playing funny moves is one good way to keep things whimsical. I find this practice helps my skills by causing me to play situations and positions that would not otherwise be familiar. Playing whimsically can also help keep your play unpredictable which is very helpful in many games.

Love the way a talented New York park chess hustler can rap out a line of talk, better even than the moves they are playing-- this is partly why people keep coming back, wallets open.
Professional game players should consider developing their social skills and humor to make things funner for themselves and opponents. Of course if you a pro bridge player this will not be allowed in tournament situations.
Social players who want games to be more entertaining can also choose some whimsical games to start with, Apples to Apples, Pictionary, Twister and and Liars Poker, are just a few of the fun games. If this all fails just add the word "strip" to any game and whimsy will be had by all.

Some quick tips

Here are a couple of quick tips, may they serve you well.

1. Listen! In partner games always give your partner a chance to speak, they might have something important to say. In games where your opponents talk listen, they could be unwittingly giving you a clue about what they are planning or what they hold.


2. React! When the position cannot be saved at any cost, try tipping the board and all the pieces over until they tumble down onto the floor.
Chances are your opponent will not remember the exact position and you will get a reprieve from certain defeat.

Ask The Chess Master is Live

We have started a new website: Ask the Chessmaster
Now you can ask questions about chess, look up chess slang, solve problems and even view funny chess videos.

Ideas, suggestions, and questions are encouraged.

Peace.

Kenneth

Shapes in Chess

In chess, shapes and geometry play a big part in the game. In the following position, white can win a pawn by force starting with the next move. I will put the answer below the diagram so you can try to solve it; keep in mind that the word "triangle" is the clue.

In other chess news, Vladimir Kramnik won the world championship against Veselin Topalov. This match was soiled by the accusations of cheating leveled against Kramnik by Topalov after Kramnik went to the bathroom 60 times in one game. We will look at a game in a future column. To see the entire match, you can go to www.askthechessmaster.com.






The answer is Qa5+. The black queen attacks the white king and the pawn at e5.