Human Psychology Tricks Pdf Free
Saverio Lazaro
By psychological, I really don't mean rude/annoying gestures to upset the opponent, but more tricks or tactics that have more to do with making psychological moves to throw an opponent off and they can be specific instances, for example, a specific move for a specific line that might make the opponent wonder "what is going on here...".
Also when your opponent is in zeitnot, it is a good idea to think on your moves thoroughly and not to try to play as fast as your opponent does. This also applies to when you're in zeitnot; you should at least try to make your opponent play as fast as you do.
If I know that my opponent is rather a strategic player, I will try to play very tactical positions against him and to out-calculate him. When my opponent is better at tactics then I'll try to play more closed, maneuvering positions. In other words, when I know my opponent well, I'll try to play positions that he feels least comfortable in.
Another thing I always do (though it is hardly psychological), is that I never inform my opponent if he forgot to press his clock. I use his time for analyzing the position, and make my move only after the opponent pressed the clock.
"After two days of play and two sleepless nights I was thoroughly tired out, yet I did not take my usual thermos flask of coffee with me to the adjournment session - this would be the most weighty proof that I would make just a few more moves and then resign the game. It was during these few moves that Tal had to miss the stalemate". - Botvinnik.
Let's say you have a more or less equal position, where both players have to play pretty cautiously, neither can really attack at the moment. Then you offer a draw, and your opponent declines. Now he will a) feel morally obligated to play for the win, and b) believe you are only playing for a draw! This leads to excessive risk taking by your opponent.
Another way to use them is to be just slightly obnoxious, when you know he isn't going to accept. Let's say you know he's traveled two hours to get here, he outrates you and you offer a draw after 8 moves. Irritated people have trouble staying objective and he's more likely to take excessive risks, again. Although I don't actually do this as I think it's over the line.
Another thing I do is when I'm walking around while my opponent is thinking, and he is really using too much time for this move and seems unable to make up his mind, then I will continue walking around. The moment you sit down is often the moment they take a decision and make a move, I want to make them waste as much time as possible in those situations.
Of course, when I'm walking around, notice I've actually made a blunder but he may not have seen the combination yet, then I will sit down immediately hoping he'll promptly move... If he doesn't, just get up again.
The Chessmaster series of games had an (IMHO) excellent set of instructional videos by Josh Waitzkin. Although probably nothing revolutionary, he had one regarding the psychology of chess, which I've found to be very interesting.
One of the concepts involved games where your opponent found themselves in a cramped (but otherwise balanced / drawish) position. Here, if you are able to bide your time (in such a way that you don't give up tempo), you can often cause your opponent to attempt to break out of the cramped position without sufficient preparation. In the video, Josh played quiet moves to bide his time, and without any obvious forced defensive moves to play, his opponent had to try come up with something new. Unfortunately for the opponent, there were no "excellent" moves present; he really had no way to break the position open in a way that was beneficial (but neither did the other player). Objectively, the position was equal, but one player felt that pressure was building up. Eventually, Josh's opponent decided to open the game up, and ended up losing very quickly.
I guess this would be the chess equivalent of "give somebody enough rope (to hang themselves)", and it's also a pretty good example of legitimate psychological tricks in chess. I'm not sure how this would apply at high levels of play, but it's certainly applicable up to low-level tournament play, in my opinion. If you do decide to try this, just make sure you're not giving your opponent the free tempos they need to win the game (this is the hard part).
Not very psychological, will definitely get you a bad reputation, and unlikely to achieve anything in major events, but definitely throws-off your opponent, probably also for the next game. Rank pressure helps, especially after a tense game, etc.
If your opponent is low on time, try to keep the position complicated. Avoid making moves that have an obvious answer (e.g., captures and checks), and try to keep tension on the board, so that he has lots of options to consider every move.
Here's another trick it's worth knowing about. It's not one I've ever managed to pull but I've fallen for it a few times and lately I've managed to spot it and avoid it. Sadly I didn't learn the trick by analyzing what was going on in my games rather I spotted it when watching friends fall for it.
The setup: a 400+ rating difference and the game is heading for a draw! In fact it is dead drawn. So dead drawn that as long as the weaker player steadfastly sticks to his ambition to draw it is going to be a draw.
With such a large rating difference the stronger player really can't afford a draw. The tactical draw offer isn't likely to work. The stronger player can't accept the draw. So, what is he going to do? What he needs is a sucker punch.
My club runs a regular Monday night 9 round Swiss standard FIDE rated competition with large enough prizes that 3 or 4 grandmasters will usually turn up to hoover up the prize money. Nevertheless for us low life players we occasionally get the chance for a shot at glory against one of these chess demi-gods. Usually it ends quickly and ignominiously, fortunately before any of our friends' games have finished so they don't witness our humiliation.
But once or twice a year you'll get up from the finish of your game, look up to see how Joe is getting on against the GM and, lo and behold! the pair of them are still sitting at the table. Maybe he's in there with a chance?
About a year or so ago I got up in that situation and saw that a regular sparring partner was in that exact position. Not only that, the game looked to be a dead draw. 2 rooks and a few pawns each, a couple of weaknesses each, no real chance to mount a serious attack against any of the weaknesses. All Joe had to do was hold his nerve and glory (at least from his peers) was guaranteed.
They must have just recently reached the position because Joe made the regulation draw offer and without blinking or hesitating the GM made his move and pressed his clock. What followed was some fairly meaningless looking maneuvering by the GM. Joe didn't move from his bunker. Then the GM made a weak looking move. Joe could move one of his rooks into the GM's position and make a couple of threats. They were easy enough to parry but there was no danger. If the threats didn't come off Joe could always move his rook back into the bunker.
The GM parried the threats but did so clumsily. Joe could, if he wanted penetrate even deeper and it looked like he could win a pawn. However with my extra 200 ratings courtesy of supporting my weight on my feet rather than backside I could see that once that pawn was won the rook would take a while to get back into play and in the meantime his remaining bunkered rook and king wouldn't be able to handle the threats from the GM's two rooks and king.
"Don't do it!" I wanted to shout, but it wouldn't have made any difference, apart from getting me thrown out. Joe was seeing through red mist, he thought he'd won the lottery. He wasn't just going to draw with the GM, he was going to win! The GM landed his sucker punch and Joe was the sucker.
Losing a dead drawn game to one of your peers hurts a bit but doing so against a much, much stronger really hurts. It hurts so much that the pain spreads to the spectators. Everybody loves an underdog and an upset and you nearly did it.
Why did it happen? If you're like me your whole game plan was aimed at the draw. Luck was on your side and you cooly managed to execute 98% of the plan. You did the hard work but at the last moment you let emotion overwhelm your rational side and fell for a cheap trick from the GM.
Remember the GM has earned his title. If he appears to do something stupid just remember who you are playing. You have two choices. The first is to trust your opponent and stick to your plan blindly. A bird in the hand and all that. Opportunities like that are scarce. The second option is to suspect that despite all the evidence your opponent has made a mistake. After all, he played badly enough to let you get the drawn position in the first place. Maybe it just isn't his day?
If you massively outrate your opponent and you end up in very drawn position what do you do? You give him hope of even greater glory, a win! You lure him gradually down a path of getting more and more out of position with the promise of material or positional gain. Only you've seen just a little bit further. The alluring path leads to his doom.
This is an old trick and is standard procedure against computers, usually with prepared variations. Often prepared with the help of computers ;-) Lure the computer with a sacrifice who's payoff is outside the computer's calculation range and it will blindly fall into the trap.
Every player has his own habit: one will first make his move and then write it down, while another will do things the other way around. Incidentally, in recent years Fischer has actively objected to this 'other way round', expressing the opinion that a scoresheet is not a black-board for writing down exercises. However, in our game Fischer first wrote down the move 22.Rae1!, without a doubt the strongest, and wrote it not in his usual English notation but in European, almost Russian! Then he not very deftly pushed the scoresheet towards me. 'He's asking for an endorsement', I thought to myself, but how was I to react? To frown was impossible, if I smiled he would suspect 'trickery', so I did the natural thing. I got up and began to calmly walk up and down the stage. I met Petrosian, made some joke to him, and he replied. The 15-year-old Fischer, who was essentially still only a large child, sat with a confused expression on his face, looking first at the front row of spectators where his second was sitting, and then at me.
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