Distinguishing masters from amateurs

Pattern recognition is often subliminal but it is another skill that clearly distinguishes the master from the amateur. Every master has played thousands of games of chess, and analysed many of these. The patterns from these games are templates in his long-term memory. They enable the master to see the essential features of a position, including what sort of lines may lead to a win.

There is one more essential skill: prophylaxis. This is the ability to see the game from your opponent's point of view, ie to create tactics and strategies on his behalf, as well as how to frustrate them.

Since all human players make mistakes, one more faculty is needed: an active eye for errors. At the least, we must not miss a viable move in response to the next move we plan to make.

There are at least three quite distinct kinds of chess: over-the-board, turn-based, and blitz. Classical chess (over-the-board play) requires all the above skills. Turn-based chess, is similar except that one can avoid visualising altogether, due to the analysis board. Blitz or lightning is quite a different game. Between weak players it is largely a game of chance: who is quicker to make the biggest blunder. Between strong players it requires the ability to play intuitively with severely truncated analysis trees.

A cynic might add that another modern chess skill is using software assistance during a game. The person who resorts to cheating may well win the game, but in truth he is cheating himself. Any win arrived at by cheating is actually an admission of weakness and can only sap one's inner strength.