CHESS PSYCHOLOGY covers a topic that has never been fully addressed in the chess literature. There have been prior attempts like CHESS PSYCHOLOGY by Krogius, THE PSYCHOLOGY OF CHESS SKILL by Holding, THE PSYCHOLOGY OF CHESS by Hartston and Wason, CHESS THE MECHANICS OF THE MIND by Pfleger and Treppner, and WINNING WITH CHESS PSYCHOLOGY by Benko and Hochberg. One could also include Bent Larsen’s book of selected games (click HERE to see Silman’s review), where the Dane has many interesting things to say about psychology in chess. More recently one can recall works by Rowson (click to see Silman’s and Watson’s review of Rowson’s book on chess psycholody), Aagard, Jesper Hall, Tisdall and Nunn that have touched on the subject, but none that could be called the definitive work.

IM Dunnington divides his book into three chapters. The first which deals with psychological factors, covers the nuts and bolts like getting enough sleep, exercise, eating sensibly and thinking positive. This is sound counsel, but nothing terribly new. More interesting to my mind is the following chapter where Dunnington gives practical examples illustrating typical failings. One of the great difficulties many players have is admitting their mistakes. Dunnington shows how a player will usually continue a bad plan rather than cut his losses, just because he doesn’t want to admit his previous moves were wrong. The English IM also gives a very nice example of the sin of cashing in one’s chips too early, showing the game Pons-Sokolov, from their match in 2001. In this game the Spaniard quickly established a large positional advantage, but threw away the win by going after what proved to be a worthless pawn. Clearly the ability to know when to cash in a positional advantage is one of the most difficult skills in chess.

What Chess Psychology and all other chess books on the subject don’t really cover is the sort of material you find in modern sports psychology manuals. Things like drills for visualizing success, reducing stress, etc. One can read in the pages of newspapers and magazines how professional athletes hire sports psychologists to help achieve maximum performance. Strangely, outside Dr. Zukhar, who worked for Anatoly Karpov (remember the 1978 World Championship match?) I don’t recall reading much about top-level chess players and this subject. It would be interesting to know if chess players, who are engaged in a more cerebral than physical activity, would benefit from the sort of training followed by professional athletes. Those that are curious might find the works of Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi of interest.

Chess Psychology is a solid effort that may prove useful for players in the 1800-2200 range.

.

YOU CAN FIND THIS BOOK AT