Does Luck Come into Chess?

Does luck come into chess? Of course, and it's especially noticable in the lower level <1600.

why you say chess is random?

What is categorized as "luck" is the effect that subconscious programming has on decision making.  You make a conscious decision or think something, this affects your unconscious forever.  So your choices or response to something are a combination of past decisions and your current choices.  When a person plays a game or sport training effects are clearly seen.  There is no luck involved anywhere other than statistical probability about what may happen.  If you choose to do "a" you will receive "a" type of response so many times, and "b" type of response so many times.  The key is to choose those options most likely to elicit the response you want.  And in chess what this entails is trying to do multiple things for each move, with your opponent seeing all your plans and is forced to choose one among the many options you present them.  In its optimum this strategy overloads the opponent with multiple options, each bad for them, yet complete freedom of what horrible decision to make.

One very important area where luck influences the result is whether you draw White or Black against your most dangerous opponents.

Yes because if your opponent sees your threat or not is luck.

With any luck at all...

"Yes because if your opponent sees your threat or not is luck."  Zsofia_D

At the highest levels you must choose to have your opponent see all your options and is forced to choose one, each option bad for them.  Some options are bad, some are horrible, either way, they lose.  If you play with the assumption they do not see what you are doing, this is bad, because you are using deception.  There is something about having all options available, yet there is nothing they can do that is wonderful.

Sure. Anytime I lose, my opponent was lucky.

Mine cheated!

Then you were unlucky. You should find one of those threads where a member demands his ratings points back!

Chess is 100% luck except where skill overtakes it.  Start by imagining two computers playing chess.  Both computers are designed to find all legal moves in each position and choose a completely random move from the full list to make.  The winner of this game would be totally based on chance.  You might say this is the definition of a player with 0 skill at the game.

As you increase the skill of each player, the luck involved decreases by the same amount.  Now if you imagine two players that know a little about the game, by chance their moves might be good, but a lot of it might still be determined by chance.

Imagine this all the way to the best possible chess player, which would be a theoretical 32-man tablebase.  For this player, there would be 0 chance.

Of course, the universe has some chance elements inherent in it, and chess games take place within the universe.  Therefore, some of the universe's chance sometimes bleeds over (think: about to be mated, torndao blows board away type things--even opponent's indigestion caused him to calculate superficially and he missed an easy win).

Luck factors into chess when your opponent wasn't able to sleep last night for some unforseen reason. 

Or when the shrimp they had for lunch was slightly bad.

Otherwise, no.

I think luck in chess is more prevalent the lower the skill of the players. In every indecisive position there is one or more very strong moves that the gm would play. Weaker players like us may happen to play such a move for some superficial reason, and that is indeed luck. This becomes less and less common as the skill level increases, as players play the right moves for the right reasons.

How about that Carlsen! Isnt he lucky?

lol...yeah, a few, Mr B...

I think the OP didnt reference to luck as in "I was lucky that he was distracted because he didnt have any sleep last night due to a break up with his girl". Instead he means luck as in -as he explains and udnerstood by most- having a piece on the right place although it was never intended for that purpose.

And now that he mentions it... this happens to me quite alot! Im trying different lines in the Analyze and suddenly I find one that works because the pieces are on the right spot. I didnt intend them to stand there for that specific line when I placed them, but now all of a sudden they are just perfect there!

On the other hand: in opening and midgame I try to follow principles and place my pieces accordingly because eventually I will see tactics that I have practiced. So it's not 100% luck that succesfull lines come up, but I didn't really plan them.

Haha, I like post #21. Chess is perhaps not 100% pure skill -- it doesn't always proportionally reward the most skillful moves (maybe not easy to define, but certainly a good move played for the wrong reasons is not as skillful as one played for the right reasons) -- but I would say it is verry close to pure skill. There are so many bad scenarios you can prevent with good moves, certainly many more than in poker

When we look for good moves we not only calculate precise variations; we also use intuition and play moves that strengthen our position. Why do we do that? Because we know good opportunities come from a good position. So making educated guesses is a part of good chess too. It's part of the game to decide whether if you go pawn grabbing with your queen do you calculate to see if there is a way to make it work, or do you use your intuition and assume that although you can't quite see your queen getting trapped, there "must be a trap somewhere?"

Making educated guesses and having good intentions behind your moves (even if they turn out to be flawed) is a big part of good chess, even if it may lead to opportunities that you didn't calculate. Since it's impossible to calculate everything in chess it makes sense to use general principles to help your efficiency -- that can be considered a practical, strategic decision in itself -- if it turns out you're wrong, it simply means your general principle didn't apply; I still don't really think of that as luck. Besides, we all have moments where the opponent has a good move he didn't plan for -- and times where we are the ones with such "luck." Considering it happens to everybody, and that we are given full control of preventing such "bad beats" provided we play well enough, it is just bitter to complain about luck in chess in my opinion. If you didn't like an opportunity you gave your opponent, you could have simply prevented it; you may or may not get punished for that oversight, but don't complain if you do.

Sorry for the rushed, poor organization -- feel free to search for the good parts if there are any

Chess is pretty much 5% luck really, that means almost 1 out of 20 moves (at the amateur level) you count on your opponent messing up.

I'd still say less than that.

Probably.