Psychology in Chess

Is the best strategy in chess to always play the move you find objectively best, or to lay traps and play the game of psychological warfare? How does the answer change from bullet to blitz to tournament chess?

lol...  Hello Don!  Greetings from Ireland.  Or are you Yuri?  He was banned recently or got his account deleted.

the answer is yes

Seems legit.

When I played a stronger player at my city's chess club he said he'd like to use those ear muffs that construction workers use. He is not a weirdo or anything, and he said he uses that to pay better attention and not allow himself to be distracted. He also almost the entire time looked only at the board.

After playing some more I can actually understand him and may be tempted to do the same sometime. There are some people who are former street chess hustlers. Those guys sometimes have bad reputation for trash talk or just distracting conversation. I played with one myself. By telling them your ears are intentionally blocked you are cutting them off basically.

Thanks for your input, Drawgood! I haven't actually played a hustler but I can imagine how difficult that would be. I tend to play psychologically, and it's probably hurting me in some cases. Perhaps I should try ear muffs at my next OTB tournament, haha :)

objective... always... what?" or to lay traps and play the game of psychological warfare"? so play both objectively and.. do what?

Assuming these "traps" are sound they're objective and if they aren't they aren't even traps lol

I think it's always best to play objectively best moves and not think about some sneaky traps based on psychology. You should however expect that someone may be tricking you, but that in itself is objective play if you see it. Some people say "play the board" and not pay attention to the player. I strongly agree with that.

I do know that especially in chess tournaments where kids play the parents or coaches tell kids to use various psychology tricks to distract the opponent kid, or to make them nervous. When I see that happen it makes me really angry if kids do that. For example when they hit the timer they could move the timer toward themselves by something like half an inch. It distracts their opponent. Another time I saw a video where Jennifer Shahade was introducing two girls who are finalists in a tournament and the girls who are both under 14 I think, would play a game. One of the girls did a very dirty psychological trick when before the game began she started to adjust her opponents pieces. The pieces were centered well. They didn't need to adjust them. But doing that can unnerve the other player because one who touches their pieces before the game is invading their private space so to speak.

Other times there are less devious tricks I've seen kids use. For example making the moves confidently even the player isn't confident in the move, or making it look like they are not sure about their move and moving their piece slowly and exhaling a frustration breath. Those are tricks too but I think those last two aren't as bad as moving the timer or touching opponents pieces pre-game.

Good job not paying attention to that Irish raging patzer

...

says the computer easy trashing troll

Wow stuzzi! You're even a creep towards the very clearly fake women here on chess.com! Are there no women where you live or are you just really hideously unattractive?

thats really funny lol. you're basically like "im shit at chess i can just bring down their level by distracting them somehow"

Engines aren't shit at chess... Where have you been for the last 30 years?

he/shes 1700 blitz... 

The account is an obvious troll.  Look, "she" changed her picture to a troll face and changed username.

1700 blitz, if not Yuri, is smart cheating from a low rated troll.

Guess what.  It got banned.

If this thread hasn't been closed/posts made removed doesn't that mean the account was closed voluntarily?

I noticed that too but don't know about involuntarily and voluntarily account closing and how they affect posts.

I would assume the account was closed voluntarily as he had some crazy shift in character and changed the profile picture and name.

english is not your first language.

Seariously dude, I don't get how I did not make sense...