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by everdev 2712 days ago
The finding that better players make worse decisions is only under very specific conditions where the board complexity is high.

One theory could be that stronger players are going for a win which requires more risk while weaker players are happy to play a non-aggressive move looking for a draw.

Unfortunately the article didn't state if most blunders come from being ahead or behind in material.

2 comments

Sometimes you need to go for the win because of external conditions (last round of a tournament, or your chess team is losing and the captain told you to press on). Last world championship qualifiers for example saw Kramnik tilting because he needed to go all in in order to still make a chance to qualify.
I think I've noticed watching blunders in pro-chess tournies, that as a scrub chess player I see moves like: Develop, get rook to open file, don't advance pawns protecting the king, knight on rim is dim.

The pro may calculate a huge line that requires breaking a simple rule, and in the end that may come back to bite them. Where me, all I see is "hey don't leave the knight on the edge like that."