Idk all my teachers say im a thinker and I do quite a bit of thinking while making my moves so i guess so lol? I consider myself a rationalist and try to base my moves on reason and logic like I do when trying to figure something out in life. So ya, you could say my chess style reflects my personality.
Is your style of play a reflection of your personality?
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Yes, definitely. Personality affects everything, all the little things you do, like how long it takes for you to reply the first move, how you sacrifice, okay well this is chess so less leeway and the quality of the game is usually obvious.
i think your style of play will depend upon your strengths, if you calculate well you will be tactical but if you are intuitive you may be more positional. also if you play a lot of computers you may be more positional owing to the fact that computers seldom miss tactical shots, and are weaker in complex positions (unable to calculate as far). you may be less likely to exchange material later on in real life. in other words maybe your style of play is dependent upon various factors like opponents, knowledge, and personality, over time habits will develop. maybe playing bullet will strengthen your resolve to look for tactics or material over position. or maybe you see a couple of hypermodern games and you try it and see some success, then all of the sudden a habit is formed and you prefer hypermodern ideas. in other words our style is dependent upon our experiences as well maybe like nature nurture, in psychology. the question is how much nature and how much nurture.
I agree with your post. i did not mean to imply that positional players cannot see as tactically as tactical players. just that as a beginner when you grow you may tend to lean on your stronger leg. for a while I always tried to play closed games. cause i never could see much success tactically playing my computer so I saw closed games as a strength now that I have done more tactics puzzles and play less computers my game is changing to more open. unless i'm playing a higher rated player where I go back to my old familier ways. but this may have to change with experience we are always evolving.
I sometimes try to intimidate inexperienced players at the start with a wild sacrifice, but they usually realized that my bark is worse than my bite. From then on I play a dogged game. I seem to play more longer games than anyone else. My speciality is the set endgames, but these rarely come up. I am still waiting for the chance to defeat an opponent with just a knight, bishop and king against king. I like this problem. I imagine that the knight and bishop are border collies rounding up the sheep (the enemy king). My king is the farmer of course. They have to lead the sheep into the pen (the corner that is the same color as the bishops square), whilst working together to block off the escape routes.
I was just curious if people thought that their style of playing chess was a reflection on themselves. I think the argument can be made either way, but that is not what I am asking. I am interested in peoples description's of how they play (if they are bold and agressive, or tactical and "by-the-book", or what have you) and if they think that is also a description of their "day-to-day" personality.
As for me, I am at a beginner's level at best and probably too worried about making mistakes to be able to really let a style of play evolve. but, at the same time, that is typical of a lot of things I do... I start out slow, and really try to learn the game or get a feel for the situation before jumping in all the way. Once I do though, I anticipate my moves will be more slow and thought out (i.e., defensive) than say quick attacks and I think that is a fair description of how I am in life.
I am interested in what you all have to say about this, it requires a bit of self-reflection which I always find intriguing.