You will get more than chess

國際象棋是一門競技運動，除了平日的刻苦訓練之外，臨場的超競技因素也十分重要。其中，心理因素絕對不能忽視。很多棋手也因為過不了“心理關”，導致比賽成績不理想。

最近我看到以色列IM Vitaly Neimer寫的一篇文章——How to Use Psychology to Win Chess Games（如何運用心理學贏得國象比賽）頗為有趣。這篇文章給出了8個步驟，既有自我診斷，也有戰鬥機巧，還有風險規避。可以說是比較全面的棋弈心理戰手冊，值得一學。

Step1：Know thyself 了解自己

在下完比賽之後，回答如下問題，搞清自己當時有沒有犯如下錯誤。全面的認清自己犯過的錯誤，對於下一次的提升有很大幫助。

Did you refuse to accept a draw against a lower rated player, only to lose instead? Pride goes before the fall.是否在因為不甘於同”弱手“和棋而最終卻導致輸棋。記住：驕兵必敗。Did you get overconfident and stop paying attention, only to lose your queen?是否因為過於自信而注意力不集中以至於丟掉了皇后？Did you become needlessly afraid and react to threats that weren't there?是否對於一些本不存在的威脅過於小心？(走軟著、浪費時間)

Step2：Hiding your threat 隱藏你的威脅

人人都不想費腦子在一些看起來很easy的問題上。因此，儘量嘗試把你的威脅隱藏在一些看起來沒有危險的地方。

A good example of hiding your threats is to make sure that when your opponent asks himself, "Why did he move there?" he has an easy answer available. Good threats are moves that answer threats, and make threats of their own. "Why did he move his bishop there? Oh, to defend the knight that I'm attacking." And many a player will stop right there, satisfied that he has answered the question, and too lazy to bother asking whether there could be another reason. The stronger the player, the harder they will work.

隱藏自己威脅的好辦法是確保你的對手能夠“看穿”你的意圖。當他自問“為什麼他要走這裡時。”他自己有一個簡單的答案。比如“為什麼他的象要走到這？哦，去防守我正攻擊的馬。”大多數棋手都會在得到一個easy答案後停止思考，並且懶得去計算更多原因。高水平棋手往往不滿足於得到眼前的回答，他們會挖的很深。

如果你能把威脅隱藏在背後，很有可能一般的棋手就會中計。

Step3：Use three threats in a row 連續製造三個威脅

對於弱手而言，連續製造三個威脅基本就解決戰鬥了。當他們疲於奔命的時候，往往就到了放棄的邊緣。

Step4：Take ten moves to do what you could do in two 綿裡藏針

這個技巧指的是把你的計劃隱藏在一系列不起眼的著法之中，然後讓對方摸不到頭腦。當然這個策略在開放對攻的局面下要謹慎使用，局面型棋手可以考慮。

This makes your opponent begin to lose his caution. He finds no meaning in your last six moves, and gives up looking. Make sure these meaningless moves are done in safe positions and are not giving him the opportunity to create problems for you.

這些看起來無意義的走法會迷惑你的對手，讓他對你的真實意圖無從分析。但要確保這些走法是在一個安全的局面下進行，不要因此留給對方時間給你製造麻煩。

Step5：Surprise your opponent 出其不意

我個人把它理解為善於打破局面的平衡狀態。比較經典的案例是俄羅斯棄兌，或者說局面型棄半子。

Sometimes even an unsound piece sacrifice can win just due to the shock value. That doesn't mean you should make unsound sacrifices, but one of the reasons overly aggressive players often win is that they have succeeded in intimidating their opponents and rattling them into unsound defense.

有時一些看起來不成立的棄子往往可能收穫奇效。這並非是鼓勵棋手做出不成立的棄子抉擇，但很多進攻型棋手確實因此獲益。他們通過棄子把對手震懾住，讓對方慌不擇路，最終收穫勝利。

Step6：Use fake outs over the board 聲東擊西 （盤外招少用為好）

在比賽之中，我們會無意識的被一些行為和舉動所影響。因此可以有意識的利用這些，構成合理的“盤外招”。

This includes not looking at the part of the board you're actually thinking about, pretending to concentrate when your opponent has forgotten to hit the clock so that he doesn't notice his time running, as a few examples of this kind of cheap bluffing.

這些手段包括“不看你正思考的棋局方向（進攻王看後翼）”“當對手沒按鐘的時候故意不看棋鍾” “站在你的對手後面看棋施加壓力”等等。

Step7：Facing older people：open up the position 盲拳打死老師父

老教練或者老特大一般都是局面棋見長。跟他們下理論殘局或者封閉局面簡直就是自取滅亡。作為年輕人，必須把局面搞亂，利用自己的計算優勢獲得勝利。

Try to open up the position and get them into a game that is all "Tactics" because this is where they break down and make mistakes in calculations or they just "miss" seeing a few threats.

嘗試開啟局面，和對手陷入“戰術”搏鬥。老棋手的亂戰能力通常不行，容易犯錯。

Step8：Avoid shortcomings 避免短板

如果你是年輕棋手，殘局不紮實。那麼你應該儘量選擇比較混亂的局面，比如在中局結束戰鬥。揚長避短通常可以事半功倍。