The Deadly Sins of Chess, By Connor Eickelman

There’s only one reason why you’re not a master, or a grandmaster, or even a world champion: Maybe it’s a lack of chess knowledge, in the opening, or the endgame. Maybe it’s a lack of energy at the board. Or, maybe it’s a psychological flaw. I can’t suddenly teach you all the opening knowledge you need, or give you an energy boost at the board, but I might be able to help your chess psychology. I think that the best way to organize chess psychology mistakes is with some of the deadly sins of antiquity.

Pride

You’ve checked the pairing sheets for this round. You’ve got an easy opponent this round. Look at his rating! You’ll get an easy win this round, and have time for a leisurely lunch. After every move, you get up and stretch. You chat with a buddy at the water cooler. When you get back to your board, around move 15, you start frowning. This position is a little uncomfortable. By move 25, you start sweating. Wasn’t this supposed to be easy? At move 30, you check your clock. Did you really use all that time? At move 37, in a vicious time scramble, you hang a piece. Whoops.

Greed and Gluttony

If the only way to refute a sacrifice is to accept it, you’ve refuted every sacrifice in the book. If you see a hanging queen’s knight pawn, you take it without thinking. If you’re a little bit better, and your opponent sacrifices a pawn, you gobble it up. But, those queen knight pawns have a habit of being poisoned. Accepting those pawn sacrifices gives your opponent just a bit too much counterplay. And all those extra pawns on the queenside? They don’t help you when your opponent mates you on the other side of the board.

Sloth

It’s been a long game. Three hours, at least. You have the great good fortune of being in a winning position. Even a beginner could win this, you say. There’s no harm in relaxing a bit. There’s no need to calculate so hard on each move. You don’t notice your opponent squirming out of his losing position until it’s too late.

Lust and Envy

What’s the best opening in the world? You might be thinking of the Slav, or the French, or maybe the Sicilian Najdorf. All of these answers wrong. Actually, it’s the opening that you’re not currently playing. Maybe you lose a couple of games in a row with your favorite opening. You decide to “move to greener pastures” and find a new favorite opening. You buy a couple of books, study for a few months, and whip it out at a big tournament, and are duly crushed. Find another opening, buy new books, wash, rinse, repeat.

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So, what can you do if you’re consumed by Pride in your high rating, or by Greed when you see a “free” pawn, or Sloth when you have to win a “won game”, or Envy when your openings just don’t seem to work? It’s not something you can fix overnight, but I do have some advice.

If you’re guilty of Pride, don’t look at your opponent’s rating before the game. Assume that every opponent is stronger than you until you beat him. The solution to Sloth is similar. Don’t let your guard down until your opponent resigns. You’ll have plenty of time to relax after the game.

Greed is a tough sin to beat. I recommend walking away from the board if you think you see a bit of “free” material. Come back to the board with fresh eyes, and check for any silly tactics. You’ll be amazed at how effective this is at preventing those silly mistakes that always seem to come after taking that hanging pawn.

For Envy and Lust, remember that you play your openings for a reason. Why switch away from a perfectly good opening that you’ve played for countless games because of a couple of losses? Unless you’re playing something obviously unsound, consider putting the opening away for a little while, then coming back to it once the negative feelings have subsided.

More than enough books have been written about every phase of the game of chess, but there is a severe lack of books on the psychology of chess. All of the knowledge in the world won’t help you if you don’t apply it, and you have to be in the right frame of mind to apply that knowledge. I hope this article has given you some help identifying your “deadly sin” and given you some ideas on how to overcome them.

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