I’m easy to surprise. And then again, I’m surprised that I am so easy to surprise by something that actually isn’t surprising at all. It feels as is I’m rather naive, chesswise.
It reminds me of an old post about focal gamma bursts. Where brain scans of amateurs showed that the they see every position as new, while in grandmasters the Long Term Memory and the region of complex motor skills showed much activity.
 |
| White to move |
3r2k1/ppq2pp1/3Np1b1/1N1nP2p/3Q4/Pn3B1P/5PP1/4R1K1 w – – 0 1
[solution]
Treating it as a tit-for-tat problem, the first move was not difficult to find.
1.Qxd5
But I was surprised by the answer of black
1. … Qa5
Yet this is completely logical. I continued against Stockfish.
2. Qd1 Bc2
And again I was completely surprised.
3.Qe2 Bd3
And again I was completely surprised.
What does this show?
Apparently my trial and error habit is very strong. I only focus on my own moves and am completely blind for what my opponent can do. Despite that my tree of scenarios prescribes to have a look at my opponent’s position every now and then.
The good news is:
- It totally explains why I suck at chess
- It is not rocket science
- The fix is a matter of discipline and not of learning something new
- I finally am quite aware of the scope of the problem and the importance
- It totally explains the “trick” of child prodigies
