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

How do we get better at chess? There is still no consensus about it among the elite of chess Grandmasters and educators. How should we best go about it, what should we study, what study techniques would be most effective, how to make the best use of our time, these questions are still not satisfactorily answered.

For example, GM Jan Gustafsson asks in a video, "How to get better at chess?" and answers to himself with "I wish I knew. All I ever did was studying openings." For GM Alex Čolović "Calculation is the key." Chesscom suggests you should analyze your games and play more Puzzle Rush, etc. 

I started my series of posts on what I think should be the top priority in improvement in chess. In my view, it is neither calculation, nor openings. Nothing of that sort involving specific knowledge, techniques, technicalities, methods, etc. The absolute key is the mysterious, mystical, magical and superior faculty of — Intuition. Therefore, we need to educate/upgrade our Inner tutor, our Inner sense! Something that has never drawn special attention from all those echelons of chess GMs and educators, even from people who are experts in both fields, chess and cognitive science. For example, from NM Christopher Chabris, the author of The Invisible Gorilla, one of the best-known experiments in psychology discussing, well — Intuition.

Yes this is a tricky one, even for NM Chabris, A.B. in computer science and Ph.D. in psychology from Harvard. Intuition seems to have been immune to scientific inquiry. Too elusive to define and too difficult to measure, it is still a mystery to us. How can intuition, operating mostly beyond consciousness through simple mental models and patterns and images, be mapped?

Before going on with improvement the way I see it, it is absolutely necessary that we all get on the same page about what is the most important thing in chess. Intuition. 

Chess is a game of ideas and intuition, not of moves.

If we didn't agree on this, there would be no point in elaborating my position on improvement any further.

Even though it is an almost impossible task to do, to get to it, the supremacy and domination of intuition can't be questioned. And should Not be an Invisible Gorilla, or an elephant in the Chess Improvement Room.

So today, the only thing I'd like us to get a consensus on is that Intuition is the Key. Who is going to help us reach that consensus? The crème de la crème in chess, Tal, Kasparov, Kramnik, Anand, Carlsen.

I hope everybody of us would be able to get this message of truth from what follows once for all.

Let's get started.

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How do we think at chess? Carlsen doesn't calculate winning probabilities in a position the way engines do. Instead, his evaluation is profoundly intuitive, which is a truism for all expertise. Experts naturally depend on the hunches and clues generated by rich experience deeply buried in their subconscious Underworld. We call it intuition, instinct, sixth sense, our second nature, gut feeling, deep understanding, the moment of inspiration.

Our conscious thoughts are compared to icebergs, or islands in the ocean of unconscious cerebration. Recognizing and better understanding of our unconscious mind is of highest importance in advancing more effective methods for improvement, or teaching beginners.

But how do these two distinct mental worlds of thought work, and how they blend and how they interact? The polarity of logic and intuition manifests itself differently with each of us during creative process. For Bernard Shaw it is 'Ninety percent perspiration, ten percent inspiration; on the other pole is Picasso, "Je ne cherche pas, je trouve" (I do not seek — I find).

According to Beliavsky, Botvinnik possessed poor intuition. He couldn’t play “off the cuff”; he needed serious and thorough preparation and a rational understanding of his or of his opponent's moves. Yet, Botvinnik considered Capa to be the greatest player of all time exactly because of his highly intuitive play.

For Kasparov, the first assessment of the position and consequently chosen moves were often mistaken. Instead, he was reaching the correct decisions by means of enormous analytical effort (Beliavsky).

On the other hand, some players have a highly developed sense of intuition. It comes in different flavors. Tal, Velimirovic, and Planinc, for example, coupled their intuition with risky play to find the quickest and surest way for attack; all this couldn't be verified through calculation. Others have a sense of danger, they foresee and avert the smallest signs of potential threats the opponent’s plans may pose and take immediate preventive measures against it (Capa, Petrosian, Karpov). While still others anticipate quite intuitively where and how their pieces should be best placed (Fischer, Spassky, Kramnik).

We still know little about these unconscious processes and how they influence the direction of conscious thought and what concrete mechanism stands behind it.

Yet some things are pretty much very clear. As I have repeatedly stressed on this blog, intuition is superior to logic/calculation. Success can't be created through calculation alone. Without intuition, analysis alone can't produce results. The unconscious processes at the periphery actually define the context, the purpose and meaning of our "aware and awake" thought and action (that is our move selection at the board) that stem from it.

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TAL

"Sasha, you calculate variations excellently, but you really must work on your intuition," the magician from Riga advised Beliavsky, the 1974 USSR ch co-winner, with Tal. This came from a man in whose games we often don't hear the voice of reason. For Tal, the main argument for choosing a move habitually was, "Я так чувствую, это хорошо!" (This is good, I feel it.)

an I. Sokolov cartoon

In Secrets of Chess Intuition, Beliavsky admits he didn't take Tal's remark seriously and thought it was far too deeply philosophical in nature. It was only later, when he began to think about the main problem in chess, choosing the right move that he returned to it.

"In my memory, Tal was the only player who didn’t calculate long variations; instead, he simply saw the resulting positions." (Kasparov)

After each game, Tal would pour out variations, which he had presumably calculated during the game. Rafael Vagnian once joked that these were all variations thought up by Tal after the game had finished, since they simply supported the evaluation of each resulting position, which he had indeed seen. (Beliavsky, Secrets of Chess Intuition)

Here's just one instance of how Tal put intuition in action. 

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KASPAROV

"It's intuition first, then calculation," Garry Kasparov discusses the importance of intuition in his How Life Imitates Chess. According to him, first intuition gives the player a candidate move, and then calculations are used to verify the soundness of the intuition.

an Oliver Schopf cartoon

"We should learn how to trust our gut - intuition. In most of the stories I looked at and in most of the quotes I collected, I didn't see people picking up intuition as a crucial element of success. While in my profession in chess, intuition is virtually everything. Chess is mathematically infinite game. The number of moves in the game of chess, all moves, contains 120 zeros which is more than the number of seconds since the Big Bang...

"So how can you find your way in this ocean of possibilities? And of course, how a man can fight machine that could calculate tens and tens of millions of positions per second? Intuition, because it's all about decision making process and we never employ calculation as the main tool. It's one percent of calculation or less and 99 percent of our understanding, of our ability to find intuitive ways to compare the incompatible. Material versus Quality. Time versus Material. So intuition plays a key role. And we have to trust our intuition, our instincts. Because in life also, we have many opportunities where we cannot foresee all the consequences. There's only one choice, to trust your gut." (Kasparov in the "Achieving Your Potential" video).

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ANAND

Vishy, the Tiger from Madras, defines intuition as the "first move he sees in the position.” He calls himself an intuitive player.

A Russian cartoon

Chessbase: "Would it be fair to say that you are a very intuitive player? The moment you see a position, an idea comes to you in a flash."

Anand: "Very strongly. I think it was accentuated by what I did in the Tal Chess Club, playing those blitz games. You are what you are. The Tal Club definitely accentuated it and made the effect stronger. Since I grew up with that, I continued... I continue to remain an intuitive player." [The Tal Chess Club was one of the premier chess clubs in Madras/Chennai in the 70s and produced numerous youngsters who evolved into GMs]

Here's an example of how intuition plays role in games of Masters. Beliavsky gives this game in the Intuition and Risk chapter of his book while discussing intuitive searches for counterplay. There are positions when ordinary play would lead to a clear advantage for the opponent. In these situations it is important to change the course of game which is often undesirable for the other side.

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KRAMNIK

Vladimir Kramnik relies on intuition when playing chess. “Intuition is the immediate awareness of the position, but this is difficult to explain logically. Intuition in a sense depends on knowledge; the more you accumulate, the better your intuition becomes... Simply speaking, you may like some positions, and dislike others. Some positions you have faith in, whereas other you do not trust at all – this is what constitutes intuitive judgement. In a favorable position, intuition plays a less significant role, whereas in blitz, it is the most important thing. I myself am an intuitive player; my whole game is based on intuition. I simply reject certain variations or do not calculate them to the end, because I sense that they are incorrect.”

An Oliver Schopf cartoon

Spiegel Online: But you still say that man are superior to the computer?
Kramnik: Because man has intuition. He has this untouchable moment within himself. We may call it understanding.

If there should still be any doubting Thomas in the chess community reluctant to believe that Intuition is far superior over Logic and Calculation, here is the world champion.

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CARLSEN

"According to Kasparov, Carlsen has a knack for sensing the potential energy in each move, even if its ultimate effect is too far away for anyone — even a computer — to calculate. In the grand-master commentary room, where chess’s clerisy gather to analyze play, the experts did not even consider several of Carlsen’s moves during his game with Kramnik until they saw them and realized they were perfect. 'It’s hard to explain,' Carlsen says. 'Sometimes a move just feels right.'" (The Time)

A Michael Cummings cartoon

Here's more from Magnus,

“Really, chess is mainly about intuition instincts. So when you play classical chess, at least for me, my intuition usually tells me something. It gives me an idea of what I want to play. Then I’ll have plenty of time to verify that and to calculate it in different variations, to see if I’m right. In blitz, we don’t have that luxury. So [you] have to go with what your intuition tells you, so that’s basically what’s going on. There’s not so much thinking. Of course, I’m calculating some variations, but usually I do what comes to my mind first.

"Of course, analysis can sometimes give more accurate results than intuition but usually it’s just a lot of work. I normally do what my intuition tells me to do. Most of the time spent thinking [that is, calculating, -RP] is just to double-check."

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Let's see how Carlsen's intuition works. McShane- Carlsen, London 2012. White calculated the insanely complicated line before playing 26. Ne5 having spent too much time on it.

After the game, the commentators asked both players how they felt about some moves in critical situations of the game. On McShane's explanation regarding the long calculation he did, Carlsen simply replied: "I just thought Qb5 b3 was sufficient [to evaluate the resulting position]."

Here's WIM Iryna Zenyuk's @energia commentary from her excellent piece on intuition.

"In fact according to Houdini ...b3 led only to equality after Bxf6. Here we see an example where Carlsen chose the superior Qd6 move but his explanation of why does not look too convincing. Qd6 feels like a stronger move since it keeps the queen closer to the king and potentially prepares for the queen trade. I think Qd6 was intuitive move and he didn't bother to dwell into the details of Qb5 move as McShane did - ending up in a terrible time-trouble."

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Asked about Kotov's "Think Like a Grandmaster," Magnus replied: "I've never really read that book at all. That's why I've never really been structured in the way I think. It's just some thoughts coming to my head. Never thought in terms of candidate moves and so on."

"Seems an important quote. Think Like A World Champion is rubbishing Kotov!" was the Twitter comment of Paul Barasi, a chess educator from London, when I shared Carlsen's thoughts on Kotov's theory of candidates that is so in high esteem in the chess community. Once again, we see how intuition beats so "logical," so "scientifically-looking" theory of Kotov.

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Chess folks, are we all on the same page now, once for all, about supremacy of Intuition in everything we do in chess?

Intuitive decisions... is the most important thing which we must never forget. — Valeri Beim, The Enigma of Chess Intuition: Can You Mobilize Hidden Forces in Your Chess?

If so, then any improvement in chess must start off with it. It should be a point of departure down the road for improvement. And we are to focus on it and possibly get it to work for us. Forget (don't get me literally here, just saying specific knowledge alone without robust intuition won't get you far) openings, technicalities, techniques, particulars, details, trivialities... Again, chess is about ideas and intuition, not of moves.  

But, there's a seeming paradox, how to touch the untochable?

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