I just read the following on the internet. I thought it is pretty good so I am sharing it with everyone. This sounds like something Magnus Carlsen knows very well 🙂
Chess psychology can be distilled to two simple rules:
– Don’t ever be afraid of your opponent
– Fight as hard as you can until the game is over
Source: Gautam Narula
Chess Daily News from Susan Polgar
Nakamura is fearless. He owns Carlsen and will be the next world champion.
Nakamura sucks
I too came across this short article recently. My response at the time was:
One could dispense with even these 2 basic rules as long as one followed the cardinal rule of chess:
“Always make the strongest move.”
But, in the absence of being able to do just that, the 2 rules given in the article:
Don’t ever be afraid of your opponent
Fight as hard as you can until the game is over
were just what I needed to defeat GM Walter Browne.
It should never be underestimated how difficult it is to follow these 2 rules, particularly for one like myself, who, being artistically inclined, is utterly unconvinced by the fundamentalist modern belief in the supremacy and efficacy of will and reason to the exclusion of just about everything else.