A series in 41 articles
The psychology of chess
Chess produces a rare kind of information: an unambiguous defeat, with no teammate to pin it on, no element of luck, public and frequent. That is what makes it the best observation ground there is for understanding how a brain handles what contradicts it.
Every article opens on a scene from a game, cites the founding study and its critique, and ends with one thing to do. Several classics you think you know did not survive replication: that gets said every time.
1 of 41 articles published.
The Core: Why the Brain Protects Its Self-Image
Six mechanisms that fire in a precise order, before, during and after every game. The series hub closes them out.
- Why Your Brain Prefers Being Right Over Learning
- The Dunning-Kruger Effect in Chess: What 3,388 Players Reveal About Your Confidence Think your rating doesn't reflect your real strength? A 2025 study put the question to 3,388 tournament players. On average, they believe they're 89 Elo points above their actual rating. Here's why, and why that famous curve you've seen everywhere is a fake.
- Cognitive Dissonance
- Confirmation Bias
- Defense Mechanisms
- Rationalization
- Projection
Biases of Judgment
What distorts your evaluation of a position, a move or an opponent.
- The Halo Effect
- Survivorship Bias
- Loss Aversion
- Anchoring Bias
- The Barnum Effect
Self-Sustaining Loops
Beliefs that produce the very facts meant to verify them.
- The Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
- Learned Helplessness
- Social Comparison
The Group
What the presence of others does to your play, and what it does to the community.
- Crowd Psychology
- Conformity
- Obedience to Authority
- The Bystander Effect
Motivation and Discipline
Why you train, why you stop, and why the plans don't hold.
- Self-Determination Theory
- Intrinsic Motivation
- Delayed Gratification
- Habit Formation
Influence and Manipulation
The seven levers of persuasion, applied to the chess market and to the board.
- The Psychology of Persuasion
- Reciprocity
- Social Proof
- Scarcity
- Emotional Manipulation
- Gaslighting
Reading the Other Player
Modelling an opponent, and spotting when you fill that model with yourself.
- Theory of Mind
- Emotional Intelligence
Memory
How the memory of a game gets rebuilt, and what you lose in the process.
- Reconstructive Memory
- False Memories
Learning and the Body
Conditioning, beliefs and the physiology of performance.
- Classical Conditioning
- Operant Conditioning
- Neuroplasticity, and Its Myth
- The Placebo Effect
- Chronic Stress
Status, Choice, Attachment
What a permanent rating does to a person, and what keeps them in the game.
- The Psychology of Status
- The Paradox of Choice
- Attachment Theory