The Einstellung effect

I was overjoyed by the arrival in our mailbox of the November issue of Chess Life, the U.S. Chess Federation's monthly publication. I look forward each month to reading its chess news and tournament coverage, columnists and selections of games and problems. This month, I was particularly intrigued by Grandmaster Andy Soltis's column about the "Einstellung Effect." (The full text of the article is available at www.uschess.org, but I believe you have to be a USCF member to access it.)

Grandmaster Soltis normally writes about topics of interest in the chess world, but these are often related to positions that have occurred in various tournaments or other venues. This month, his topic is, "Why do the best players play second-best moves?" To summarize his two-page column, researchers have conducted studies in which chessplayers of varying strengths were shown two similar positions and asked to find the quickest win. The first position had a well-known checkmate-in-five combination while the second position, which had identically placed pieces save one, did not (due to the one relocated piece now covering the checkmate square).

The researchers found that strong players tended to immediately identify the mate-in-five but took a while longer to find a quicker but less well-known route to victory. Hence, the Einstellung effect, which according to Soltis, "Occurs when you try to solve a problem and are lured into a familiar but second-best approach." One study also found that there was no significant difference in the amount of time it took Class A players (shown only the second position) and International Masters (shown only the first position) to find the fastest win, which was the same combination in both cases. This is because the IMs were distracted by the more familiar yet longer combination. Soltis concludes, "They did no better than the A players when facing more or less the same position. The IMs' superior strength had been wiped out by the Einstellung effect."

This is a fascinating finding for anyone interested in psychology; the Einstellung effect is not confined to chess praxis but can be applied to mathematics and any number of other disciplines. I must question, however, GM Soltis's presentation of the entire question. It is true that the Einstellung effect may inhibit strong players from finding the fastest win, but what about finding a win the fastest? If I can find a mate-in-five instantly but have to spend a couple minutes finding a mate-in-three, is that really an efficient use of my time and energy? I doubt it.

All the same, kudos to GM Soltis and researchers Merim Bilalic, Peter McLeod and Fernand Gobet for giving me something to ponder on this rainy Thursday!