Does the mind get in the way of good chess playing?

How much thought is really involved in a good game?

Is it like Zen archery where the perfect bullseye is hit when a state of no mind is achieved?  E.g. Not over controlling, just "being" the event...

Or is that only possible after rigorous training, when the game has become part of the intuition itself?

Have there been extensive discussions/interviews with the chess masters throughout history to understand their mood, state of mind, thought process or lack of it, conscious analysis, intuition, etc...?  Are there certain patterns seen, or themes in how the masters tend to involve or dissociate their conscious mind from the game?

Here's a booklist on chess psychology and related fields:

-- Blindfold Chess. Eliot Hearst and John Knott. McFarland and Company. 2009. 437 pages.
-- Chess: A Psychiatrist Matches Wits with Fritz. Ernest Pecci, MD. Pavior Publishing. 2001. 412 pages.
-- Chess for Tigers. Simon Webb. Maxwell Macmillan Chess. 1991. 120 pages.
-- Chess for Zebras. Jonathan Rowson. Gambit. 2005. 255 pages
-- Chess Metaphors. Diego Rasskin-Gutman. Trans. by Deborah Klosky. MIT. 205 pages.
-- Chess Players’ Thinking. Pertti Saariluoma. Routledge. 1995. 201 pages.
-- Chess Psychology. Angus Dunnington. Everyman Chess. 2003. 128 pages.
-- Chess. The Mechanics of the Mind. Pfleger and Treppner. 1988. 156 pages.

--Counterplay: An Anthropologist at the Chessboard. Robert Desjarlais. Univ. of CA Press. 2011. 251 pages.
-- Dynamics of Chess Psychology. Cary Utterberg. Chess Digest. 1994. 219 pages.
-- Moves in Mind. The Psychology of Board Games. Gobet et al. Psychology Press. 2004. 273 pages.
-- Philosophy Looks at Chess. Edited by Benjamin Hale. Open Court. 2008. 236 pages.
-- Perception and Memory in Chess. Studies in the Heuristics of the Professional Eye. Adriaan D. de Groot & Fernand Gobet. Van Gorcum. 1996. 315 pages.
-- Practical Chess Psychology. Amatzia Avni. Batsford. 2001. 160 pages.
-- Predicament in 2 Dimensions. Ariel Mengarini. Thinkers’ Press. 1979. 105 pages.
-- Psychology in Chess. Nikolai Krogius. RHM Press. 1976. 243 pages.
-- Schachpsychologie. Reinhard Munzert. Beyer Verlag. 1998. 390 pages.
-- Secrets of a Grandpatzer. Malibu Chess Press. Kenneth Colby. 1979. 139 pages.

-- The Amateur’s Mind. Jeremy Silman. Siles Press. 1999. 443 pages.
-- The Art of Learning. An Inner Journey to Optimal Performance. Josh Waitzkin. Free Press. 2007. 265 pages.
-- The Chess Mind. Cranberg and Albert. Guilford Press. 1988. 190 pages.
-- The Chess Mind. Gerald Abrahams. A Penguin Handbook. 1960. 346 pages.
-- The Enigma of Chess Intuition. Valeri Beim. New In Chess. 2012. 268 pages.

-- The Grandmaster’s Mind. Amatzia Avni. Gambit. 2004. 176 pages.
-- The Inner Game of Chess: How to Calculate and Win. Andrew Soltis. McKay Chess Library. 1995. 359 pages.

-- The Philosophy of Chess. William Cluely. Kessinger Publishing. 2010 reprint of historic text. 112 pages.
-- The Psychology of Chess Skill. Dennis Holding. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. 1985. 271 pages.
-- The Psychology of Chess. Hartston and Wason. Facts on File. 1984. 138 pages.
-- The Psychology of the Chess Player. Reuben Fine. Dover. 1967. 74 pages.
-- Thought and Choice in Chess. A. D. De Groot. Basic Books. 1965. 463 pages.

-- Winning Chess Psychology. Wilf Holloway. Scachfirma Fruth. 1997. 212 pages.
-- Winning Chess Psychology 2. Wilf Holloway. 233 pages.
-- Winning with Chess Psychology. Benko and Hochberg. McKay Chess Library. 1991. 264 pages.

And there are some scientific studies done, but I don't have the list handy. I think the basic idea from scientific studies on chess players is that stronger players zero-in on the most relevant aspects of a position and they comprehend the information better than lesser players. Yes, there was one study that tracked the eyeball movements of chessplayers as they examined the board.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11913751

Do you mean 'conscious thought' ?