The main question in psychological studies of chess is the following: how are better players able to win more often? Several factors have been investigated but there are no certain physiological advantages that always lead to better chess-playing. The most common finding of studies is that experience plays a great part in determining one's ability, which is certainly a promising thought for mediocre players. In essence, no chess gene has been found.
This paper will provide an overview of psychological research into chess, with an emphasis on theories that have been proven inaccurate by future research, to show the development o research in this field. As with any other branch of psychology, theories are made, and then refined when conflicting experimental evidence becomes available.
The first serious psychological study of the game of chess was conducted by Alfred Binet, in 1894. Binet, who was best known for his early intelligence tests, observed blindfold chess players as a subset of his investigations into memory. To the average person, playing a game of chess without sight of the board represents an extremely difficult, if not impossible challenge for the memory.1 Binet's experiment consisted of a survey which was taken by players of all skill levels, from novice to master. He came to the conclusion that blindfold chess players need knowledge and experience, imagination, and memory.2 The masters who took part in the survey gave introspective accounts that had some similarities and yet several differences concerning their blindfold play. A common thread among their responses was the fact that they did not use tactile imagery to represent the board. In addition, they were generally able to remember all the moves played in a sequence of blindfold games. One master, Goetz, was able to quickly recall all 336 moves that he made over 10 blindfold games played simultaneously.3 Binet concluded that verbal memory was an integral part of blindfold play. Finally the subjects reported the need to be aware of a general plan of action for each game,4 although this would seem to be a necessity for both blindfold and regular chess play.
The masters differed on whether they used visual or abstract imagery to represent the board. The majority said that they used only an abstract representation, combined with subvocalizations of previous moves, to mentally examine the board. A small majority including the well-known master Blackburne claimed to visualize an actual chessboard with pieces on it corresponding to the current position, "just as if before the eyes."5 Binet thus came to the realization that his original hypothesis of a strong visual memory being essential for blindfold play was wrong. In addition, he did not explore the almost direct correspondence between experience and ability in blindfold chess.6 Fine (1967) claims that any master (rating of 2200 or above) should be able to play at least one game of blindfold chess.7
Reuben Fine was a prominent chess-player during the thirties, who competed in the famous AVRO tournament of 1938. He also had considerable experience in psychoanalysis, and in 1956 the National Psychological Association for Psychoanalysis published his work, The Psychology of the Chess Player. The book gives a very Freudian account of the game of chess, and is useful only to demonstrate the advances that have been made in the realm of psychology with respect to chess within the past forty years.
Fine claimed that chess is a substitute for war. The king is held to represent the father, while the queen is the mother. In addition, the rook, bishop, knight and pawn are taken to be phallic symbols.8 Fine draws a lot of significance from the fact that promoted pawns may become any other piece except for the king/father. This restriction implies to Fine that chess-playing boys are discouraged from growing up to be like their fathers. Unfortunately Fine's analysis suffers from its entirely armchair nature. There are no experiments or observations, other than a few biographies of well-known grandmasters to support the hypotheses presented in the book. One consistency in Fine's work is that master chess players all have differing personalities and backgrounds.
The first true psychological enquiry into the minds of chessplayers was made by the Dutch psychologist Adriaan de Groot. de Groot was a master, although certainly below the level of the top players in the world. However, he had much more experience and knowledge of the game than did Binet. De Groot's book was titled Thought and choice in chess (translated from Dutch) and was largely based on his study of chess players of differing abilities. He was able to interview such giants of the chess world as Alekhine and Euwe (both World Champions), and "lesser" grandmasters such as Keres, Tartakower, Flohr, and even Fine, the chess-playing psychoanalyst. In addition, de Groot studied several masters, experts, and "class" (or lower-ranked) chess players.
De Groot gave his subjects a position set up on a chess board. Their task was to determine the best move to make, and to attempt to verbalize all of their thoughts. Fortunately, even mediocre chess players have a wide vocabulary of chess-specific terms ("pin", "fork", "back-row mate") that allow them to describe their thoughts very specifically. One problem about such taking protocols is that only the conscious thought can be captured by the player talking about his or her ideas. Often psychologist refer to a process made in solving chess problems as an automatic one, meaning that it is not thought about proactively. This tends to lessen the weight attached to results of protocol experiments, but they are interesting nonetheless. The positions given differed in that some were decisive tactical positions (meaning that a relatively short combination of moves could force the opposition to resign), some were more positional in nature (meaning that a long-term strategy needed to be devised), and still others were random legal positions.
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