Carlsen Mainly Relies on Intuition: Do We Patzers Do, Too?

A Heterodox Way to Chess Improvement

Do we average chess players really rely on that funny magical and mystical feeling, too?

We all do. Our habits and intuition are always operating for us (they say 95 percent of our decisions are made on auto-pilot). It's our brain's way of increasing its efficiency. Intuition is a result of evolution which has always been about survival of the species. 

The tricky thing is, it may be both heaven and hell. Carlsen's finely-tuned intuition is blessing. The intuition of the rest of us could be better described as bad thinking habits.

So what is intuition, really, an absurd mystery to ignore and reject, or the highest form of intelligence, transcending all individual abilities and skills?

There's an overarching lesson I have learned from the work of Kahneman & Tversky who pioneered the modern study of judgment and decision-making: Don't trust your intuition. It's such an important lesson that it wound up in the subtitle of my book [The Invisible Gorilla: And Other Ways Our Intuitions Deceive Us], —Prof PhD Christopher Chabris, American research psychologist, cognitive scientist and National Master in chess.

The only real valuable thing is intuition, —Albert Einstein

The primary driving force behind thousands of decisions that take us forward (or backward) daily, lies in our subconscious mind. This is an untapped well of mysterious guidance, for good or bad, comprised of habits, biases, beliefs, patterns, mental shortcuts (=heuristics), understanding, intuition, and other untouchable faculties of brain (check reference ¹ below on the unconscious vs rational duality). Its location is in the brain's R-complex which is also known as the primitive, reptilian, or lizard brain, the oldest and closest to the "brain hardware" part of our triune brain, together with the emotional and rational additions developed during evolution later on.

A Jovan Prokopljević cartoon

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How do chess habits and intuition develop?

When practiced sufficiently, our brain turns daily thoughts and actions, as well as any kind of knowledge we are gaining, into habits, thus cultivating intuition. This in turn enables brain to react swiftly, instinctively and effectively when presented to similar situations again. 

This brain's strategy, a byproduct of millions of years of evolution, saves time and energy. It also allows us to function better. Just imagine if we are to ponder every single task. We would be doing nothing else but think. The way brain is operating, using intuition as a fully acknowledged sixth sense, frees its brainpower for other more important tasks. 

Your (chess) life is to a large extent the sum of all your habits – good or bad.

Our thought process and decision making are thus heavily influenced by the content, structure and drives of our unconscious mind. Once developed, it is as difficult to direct and control it as (someone said), a six-ton elephant. Once they are in place, habits are tough to replace (actually, they never truly disappear, they can only be overpowered by other habits).

This demonstrates the importance of experience and the way What and How we learn. Clearly, intuition doesn't come by itself. Experience and knowledge are necessary for intuition to grow.

Every man knows that in his work he does best and accomplishes most when he has attained a proficiency that enables him to work intuitively. —Albert Einstein

But not all knowledge helps. Its acquisition should be conducive to developing successful mental habits and intuition. It must lead to attaining some proficiency for our intuition to speak on a higher plane, to whisper reliably to us. Otherwise, bad habits set in which can 'doom' our chess, limit our understanding and the level of enjoyment in the game. Sadly, it's been the case for the majority of us.

We know pretty well that the overwhelming majority of chess players slowly climb to a certain (mostly rather low) level and stay there. We hit an invisible, but very painful wall. The learning curve flattens, and we are typically unable to make any further progress and improvement. Why? Because, even though we may possess a lot of chess knowledge, our thinking process at the board is impaired and ineffective, lacking support of an educated intuition.  

This is where GM Kramnik's Soup Theory gets in. 

Kramniks' Soup Theory

The soup is our thinking pattern. Each and every one of us think differently. We all have our own recipe on how to make the soup. And we need to continuously keep refining the recipe to make the best soup possible. 

It is also quite obvious that the soup could be healthy and nutritious, and taste better, only with high-quality ingredients. Kramnik lists these ingredients, "tactical ability, positional acumen, decision making skills, endgame knowledge, ability to control your nerves." And we are to keep on working on all of them in order to create an excellent final product. To ensure the ingredients are of high quality, "it is critical," Kramnik adds, that "we make use of good books, good software and in general high quality material. Because if we use lower quality ingredients, it is for sure that our soup will turn out to be of an inferior quality."

Conclusion

My question now to all of you is, how come and what influenced this inferior quality with most of us. Where are its origins?

The answer comes from our understanding of what kind of ingredients our chess mind is fed with from the very beginning, from Chess Square One onward, all throughout our development stage that ensues, as well as during our (typically unsuccessful) attempts to improve once we hit that invisible wall.

The orchestra, by Jovan Prokopljević

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Most of the knowledge they teach us and advise upon (for improvement for instance) involves specific knowledge (openings, standard endgame procedures, typical tactical patterns, calculation methods, etc.). What our chess mind really needs is not that much this specific knowledge. Indispensable it is, of course, yet it alone provides the lowest level of learning outcomes.

Much, much more important, and in fact critical, are the learning material and practices that can empower that untapped well of habits and intuition to form concepts and develop intimacy with the general, universal chess ideas and some highest principles of chess. The ones that should become part of our thinking pattern every game, every move. Acquiring these universal chess ideas have best potential to help us improve in chess by upgrading the way we think! This is what all authorities on how to teach beginners, or how improve in chess seem to be missing.

Only concepts and ideas deeply ingrained in our subconscious Underworld can bring in comprehension and understanding in chess. Which in turn refines the mental models we use for decision-making at the board. And cultivates our intuition. Make it effective in applying and putting into action all that (specific) knowledge we have accumulated over time.

This is the point. Intuition doesn't give us always ready solution(s). But it tells the thinking mind where to look next! And what item(s) from our knowledge base should be retrieved and used to solve the problem at hand. 

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So chess folks, the question is not about whether we all use it, it ultimately comes down to this,

Will our intuition be our heaven or hell? A triumph or travesty? Delicious or unpalatable soup?

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Further reading:

Today's piece is part of the series on improvement and the (neglected, and not yet fully recognized) role and importance of intuition in it.

Already posted,

1. Chess Lyricists vs Chess Physicists: Which One is in the Driver's Seat: Intuition or Calculation? 

2. The Holy Grail of Chess Improvement

3. Intuition: What Even GMs Don't Get About It. Never Mind NMs

4. Carlsen, Tal, Kasparov, Kramnik, Anand, All in Unison: Chess is About Intuition

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