It was Bobby Fischer who famously said:

‘I don’t believe in psychology. I believe in good moves.’

While we cannot just disregard one of the greatest chess players in history, research and experience have proved otherwise.

Chess is played between two humans facing each other over the chessboard.

It is a one vs. one fight.

A one vs. one battle.

In such circumstances, the mental state of the opponents often determines the outcome of the battle.

There are many examples supporting this.

1) Chess players may not have enough faith in themselves.

For example, a weak player faces a stronger opponent.

He plays passively, almost scared, mentally prepared that he will lose the battle.

Even if his stronger opponent makes a mistake, the weak opponent may likely not take advantage of it.

He may actually consider this to be a very good move or even a trap that he had overlooked himself.

As a result, he may let his opponent escape with his bad move and eventually proceed to lose the game as he expected.

2) When two players face each other, two different personalities clash with each other, since we’re all different and we have different styles of play

Between players of approximately equal strength, the clever player will try to use psychology to his advantage.

He will try and drag his opponent out of his comfort zone, and get him into unfamiliar territory, where he feels less safe and less certain about himself.

For example, a player who likes to play sharp lines will likely avoid queenless middlegames.

When the Queens are exchanged, the chances for tactics are greatly reduced and the game becomes somewhat dry, with much less room for tactics and direct attack.

This is exactly this strategy that Vladimir Kramnik used against Garry Kasparov, a talented attacking player, during the World Championship match in 2000.

He chose the Berlin Defence as his main defence against Kasparov’s 1.e4.

At the time, this opening was considered to be an inferior option for Black, but Kramnik proved that this was the perfect reply to Kasparov’s attacking style.

After the compulsory exchange of queens by move 10, the game would enter a middlegame where Black is passive but difficult to beat.

Kasparov tried many times without success.

This contributed to his frustration and eventually the loss of the World Crown.

This is how the Berlin Defence was named the Berlin Wall.

3) There are also chess players that have certain reputations about their playing style.

Magnus Carlsen is an example of the player who is famous for loving to play long games which appear to be drawn or equal.

He is well known for slowly outplaying his opponents by applying constantly small pressure until they eventually crack under pressure.

This is one of the reasons why Carlsen was considered to be the favourite in the 2016 World Championship match against Sergey Karjakin.

But Karjakin prepared specifically to face Carlsen for this match.

He underwent extensive psychological preparation in order to be able to withstand long games, defending inferior positions.

Carlsen was surprised to find an opponent that wouldn’t mind suffering for dozens of moves in difficult defence.

As a result, he somewhat lost his balance during the match and lost an important game.

He did eventually win, but not before he was pushed into the corner.

In conclusion, Dr Lasker was absolutely right:

‘It’s the players who fight over the board, not the wooden pieces.’