hypnotized to play better chess

would it be possible to be hypnotized to play better chess.

assuming that you were hypnotized to know all variation of some opening.

opening lines could be memorized, and triggered if white plays d4.

I think it is possible.

before you reject this as ridiculous remember that :

sports athletes use self hypnosis to increase performance under pressure and to calm them down and give them self confidence.

imagine a tape you listen to while sleeping e4- d5 Sf3....

Why stop there?  :)

Find/Hire local goons to stalk you / monitor your chess games and whenever you blunder a piece, have them trash your car or go after members of your family.

(Erik => this is a business opportunity for chess.com!)

I seriously doubt you (or anyone for that matter) will be blundering ever again!

Jokes apart, you're really touching upon things  NO book or video lecture really tells you about getting better at chess. I guess authors already assume you are MOTIVATED enough ... and chess coaches are chess coaches, not life coaches. 

1. If you really want to get better, you will do whatever it takes to do so.  You won't make excuses, you won't look for silver bullets or take the easy way out ...  you'll work smart and work hard  until you hit your goals.

2. The players who quickly improve are EXTREMELY OCD about making the same mistakes over and over again. They get burned a lot easier than the rest of us asbestos skinned folk here.  

3. This "drive" to succeed diminishes once your own personal "sense" of complacency kicks in. Mine kicked in when I crossed 1700 USCF and  until I get off my a## and "want" to push the envelope again, there's no magic potion or hours of studying that's going to get that number higher.  

Hungry trumps "Nice to have", plain and simple.

When I was a 1200, I "wanted" to be a B-class player or move (1600+) more than anything else. 

Now as much as I make excuses (oh, work/family demands are tough, blah-blah-blah)  to cover it up ... the simple truth really is that crossing the 1800/Class A barrier is more of a a "Nice to have" and not a "I will do whatever it takes, take no prisoners" goal.

With that being said, know any goons for hire?

I'm not sure I've heard of people using hypnosis to learn things before . . . frankly, I'm a bit skeptical that it's effective at all. Most stage shows will have the assistants weeding out a few people who don't respond to hypnosis much. I've heard it said you have to let yourself be hypnotized, that it can't just be forced on you. 

With all that said, I'd suggest that a chess player would want to undergo hypnosis to improve concentration or overcome mental hangups about the game (say, excessive fear of losing or impulsiveness), or even to help them have a better attitude about practicing. Opening memorization is okay, but you'd be better off studying a lot of master games or something to get the ideas behind key positions, rather than trying to spit things out from memory. You don't want to set yourself up to be brought down by one theoretical novelty.

...I believe we have just entered the genre of science fiction...

...reminds me of the matrix...hook him up, and download the greatest chess player skills into his brain...

...generally, a great many posts here delve into the scifi relm...like masters being born into the present...or

A british mentalist and hypnosis stage performer Derren Brown took an ordinary middle aged man and over the span of a few weeks taught him by way of hypnosis, accelerated learning techniques, confidence boosting sessions and the like to remember everything he read so he could be entered into a trivial pursuits competition one night. When I say read, he didn't actually read word for word, he was instructed to skim over the loads of books this Mr Brown handed him. and out of about 10 groups, himself being entered alone, managed second place. he says that as the questions were being read out he just knew them, he didn't know how but it just came to him. Yes, I believe that there is something to be said about using not only hypnosis but other skills as well,eg, Speed reading,memory techniques,accelerated learning,mind mapping,logic puzzles yet i believe that if you have a passion for a subject then that is the greatest motivation. Imagine, from a young age , say 3, you are taught memory techniques to remember long digit numbers ( minimum 60),lists of anything,faces and names of people at one meeting,up to 3 or 4 decks of playing cards, any day of any given year and date, taught also to learn any subject using accelerated learning techniques than the ordinary person, languages would be soaked up at early ages, to be taught how to read peoples body language, to learn speed mathematics techniques from trachtenbergs System and then given a chess set with a few good books to get you started, like "My system" by Nimzo and the like, oh no i think i'm describing "The Pretender"...Yeeeahh!

Frankly, and for having being under hypnotic state during a stage show, it will considerably weaken your concentration abilities, which by far outweight the potential benefits of "fast and temporary" learning that could be achieved so.

And BTW I seriously doubt teaching by hypnosis can do miracles. If this is performed in mentalist shows there is probably some treachery for example with a stooge (accomplice) or suggesting the answer to the assistant.

Without any natural gift, one can after one hour of practice memorize relatively long lists - I trained myself, and I can memorize lists up to twenty objects like 'a book from Hemingway with a red cover' when they are announced only once one hour before ; and with more training it can go to over 100 such objects. I can't tell the method (part of magician's secret) but you can find it in the (expensive) book 13 steps to mentalism (Corinda). If an assistant can do such things, he is more probably accomplice than hypnotized !

I'm sure you could be hypnotized to THINK that you play better chess...

I encourage you to seek out on youtube Derren Browns Trick or treat trivial pursuits, and another with trick or treat poker, he teaches an old lady, who doesnt play poker to almost winning in a poker tournament. like you, i taught myself to remember long lists like shopping lists 80, long digit number 60 digits, and got down to 15 mins to remember a deck of 52 playing cards and neat tricks like that. About a year ago i tried to use memory techniques to memorise openings eg, i always open e4, so i will always think this my ear. depending on what opponent replies will determine the rest of the story,eg my e4 opponent replies e5, this an eel attacking my ear or 1 e4...b6 i see a bush growing from my ear, so there is always my ear and depending what my opponent plays will determine what happens to it, apparently its common knowledge or good advice to not memorise openings until you get to a certain level like strong player, i'm only 1300 rating at mo and i use not so much openings but systems eg, London system, Kia for white and black kid and hippo, hardly any one I play goes with set opening play like GMs' do. We're all over the place. Just getting move to 10 sometimes is hard enough. Any way, thanks for the cmmnctn. 

true might be possible in 100 years time

This only confirms my opinion that hypnosis can only affect psychological aspects (self-confidence, etc.) but not learning process (memorizing openings, tactical patterns, etc.).

In that sense, it could work, but that's like taking some med / drug to make you happy and confident (with different side effects of course).

Bobby...Bobby...Tsk, tsk, tsk...

Derren Brown beats 9 chess masters.

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x8a6st_derren-brown-beats-9-chess-players_videogames

LOL !! Brilliant show indeed. Had me completely puzzled until the end :-) Only the Brits can come up with such a stunner, but I suspect these players were aware....

No he doesn't. He gets an even score, and add some magic.

In fact he revels the trick for an even number of players in the video, because it's already well-known.

As for how to have 'a bit more' than equality, he doesn't even need to know how to play chess (unlike what he claimed to beat the weakest player). Same for the prediction of how many pieces are left, he doesn't even need to make a mistake (6 instead of 7). That's magic, and not hypnosis. (and no, I can't tell you how it's done).

No, its not hypnosis, just seemed interesting to me since Derren Brown was mentioned. 

Allez, allez, tiger... I never saw any claim about hypnosis, but it is a damned jolly show. The trick is to put a couple of weaker in the team that you can beat it seems and have the strong ones battle it out against each other. Don't tell me that the french hypnothizers league is upset and organising again a march on Brussels :-)

Interesting - I had assumed that DB had played off the 8 masters/GMs against each other and managed to beat the 9th (who was a club player) himself. Why can't you say how it was done?

Yes, i assumed the same because he said so. I'm now double intrigued...

I wonder if it would work on here, you could in theory set up eight boards against much higher rated players...  

No, couldn't happen, because Derren would not have accepted a draw.