Sublime

Tout compte fait, les grands maîtres n’ont jamais eu de mémoire photographique. Grâce à l’étude répétitive de séquences de jeu, ils avaient appris une technique que Chase et Simon ont baptisée « mémorisation par blocs ». Plutôt que de tenter de mémoriser l’emplacement de chaque pion, de chaque fou et de chaque tour, les cerveaux des meilleurs joueu

some chips in the middle: he has made the

AFTER PLAYING WELL IN THE DAVIS CUP, I lose early in Scottsdale, a tournament I typically own. I play poorly in Atlanta and pull a hamstring. I lose in the third round in Rome and realize, reluctantly, that this can’t go on. I can’t play every tournament. Approaching thirty years old, I must choose my battles more carefully.

It was not learning to play the best moves. It was learning to play the human moves.

We cannot pick and choose which style we would prefer for ourselves. Personal style is not generic software you can download and install. You must instead recognize what works best for you and then, through challenge and trial, develop your own method—your own map. To begin, ask yourself, What am I lacking? What are my strengths? What type of chall

In competitive play, though, that theory rarely holds up. Long before a player becomes a master, he realizes that rote memorization, however prodigious, is useless without understanding. At some point, he’ll reach the end of his memory’s rope and be without a premade fix in a position he doesn’t really understand. Without knowing why all the moves

In the 1980s when people discussed the unique nature of humanity, they habitually used chess as primary proof of human superiority.