MINDSET

[Mike Scott]

I think chessplayer do realise that the further they go up the chess ladder, they have to learn new tricks so to speak

Sometimes they know but do they actually do the really hard graft to improve what their poor at, or do they just focus on what they believe their good at. I think this may be related to something Jonathan Rowson raises in his excellent books: they way we have a myth about who we are as a player and we try and live up to that.

I would also add that not everyone does really understand why they do certain things and avoid others, especially when they're young. It is frequently a sub-conscious reaction.

Not sure if this is really related but my theory of teaching chess is to focus on why we make bad moves rather than how to make great ones - juniors manage the latter often enough. This grew out of a frustration of reading so many (well a few) books as I grew up that really just seemed to explain/show how clever the greats were. We all like dreaming of playing like a world champ. and find it easier to study their games rather than working on our own weaknesses.