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The Allure of Shiny Moves in Blitz: Why Our Brain Falls for Aesthetics

This really helps a lot even though if ur not used to the questions its a lot harder to think about them in blitz games, this helps a lot once ur used to it and in classical games

This really helps a lot even though if ur not used to the questions its a lot harder to think about them in blitz games, this helps a lot once ur used to it and in classical games

woah btw i play these so called "brilliant" moves all th time

woah btw i play these so called "brilliant" moves all th time

@chessprson said in #3:

woah btw i play these so called "brilliant" moves all th time

If that's what works for you, then absolutely go for it but I'm just saying that if you base your entire chess strategy around trying to find brilliant moves in positions where they don't really exist, then you've gone a miss out on a lot of rating points as in most cases the best way forward is to just play sound positional moves that don't blunder anything - you've gonna get a lot further ahead with his kind of mindset. Either way, good luck in your games and hopefully you found the blog useful!

@chessprson said in #3: > woah btw i play these so called "brilliant" moves all th time If that's what works for you, then absolutely go for it but I'm just saying that if you base your entire chess strategy around trying to find brilliant moves in positions where they don't really exist, then you've gone a miss out on a lot of rating points as in most cases the best way forward is to just play sound positional moves that don't blunder anything - you've gonna get a lot further ahead with his kind of mindset. Either way, good luck in your games and hopefully you found the blog useful!

I'm curious about your "Neuroscience" section: What are your sources for the statements about dopamine and chess tactics and the visual system preferring dramatic moves? The latter one seems especially tough to define in any kind of image-based way so I'd love to know what's in the literature about that.

I'm curious about your "Neuroscience" section: What are your sources for the statements about dopamine and chess tactics and the visual system preferring dramatic moves? The latter one seems especially tough to define in any kind of image-based way so I'd love to know what's in the literature about that.

interesting and very well written, thank you!

interesting and very well written, thank you!

Note: if en passant is legal, you need to play it to show your opponent that you know the rules! :-D

Note: if en passant is legal, you need to play it to show your opponent that you know the rules! :-D

Nice psychological analysis of temptation in chess.

Nice psychological analysis of temptation in chess.

Even grandmasters can fall into this trap. Unfortunately I can’t show the example I’m thinking of, since I no longer have the book. But in a book about his games, Walter Browne shows one of his games against Fischer. He had a clear win and saw the move. Dull, but effective. Instead he chose a flashy continuation which he thought would also win easily, but he overlooked something and Fischer got a draw. You can probably find the game with some effort.
EDIT. I found it myself. Brown vs Fischer Rovinj/ Zagreb 1970. Brown sees that 88.Rf6 wins but goes for the shiny move 88.c7, believing that it also wins but Fischer finds a defensive resource and the game ends in stalemate.

Even grandmasters can fall into this trap. Unfortunately I can’t show the example I’m thinking of, since I no longer have the book. But in a book about his games, Walter Browne shows one of his games against Fischer. He had a clear win and saw the move. Dull, but effective. Instead he chose a flashy continuation which he thought would also win easily, but he overlooked something and Fischer got a draw. You can probably find the game with some effort. EDIT. I found it myself. Brown vs Fischer Rovinj/ Zagreb 1970. Brown sees that 88.Rf6 wins but goes for the shiny move 88.c7, believing that it also wins but Fischer finds a defensive resource and the game ends in stalemate.

"Tenacious D"
Rovinj / Zagreb (1970) · 1/2-1/2
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"Tenacious D" Rovinj / Zagreb (1970) · 1/2-1/2 «<