Chess

by Gerald Abrahams

The Chess Mind lucidly presents a modern and original approach to an old game. This is the first authoritative attempt to make the Chess player conscious of his intellectual processes, and so to help him in the use and control of his mental powers whenever he plays. The book contains some hundreds of Chess 'gems,' including a large number of annotated games. These are presented and analyzed, both as instructive Chess and in order to show the nature of the thinking that operates in Master-play. Many aspects and degrees of mental activity are illustrated on the chess Vision or Intuition, reasoning, Calculation, Imagination, Memory, and will Power. Individual style and psychological causes of error are also investigated. In studying the examples that reveal these factors in action, the reader is learning some of the underlying principles of Strategy, and some Chess technique. He is at once improving his game, and finding an importance for Chess in his general educational equipment. In days when mental processes are being questioned - the days of Technocracy and Chess machines - this book is a corrective to conventional approaches. It is independently valuable as a contribution to Chess literature and to Psychology.

256 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 1973