What music should I listen to while playing chess?

Have you always wondered what kind of music is best for your brain when playing chess? I sure did, which is why I made this experiment where I played games on Chess.com while listening to different types of music, and seeing how it affected my chess. Without further ado, let's start the experiment.

Music Type #1: Classical

Analysis of Game 1 (Classical):

The first game I played during this experiment was with the White pieces, where I played an Alapin Sicilian, one of my most favorite openings for White to counter the Sicilian. After I played 8. Be3?, my position was worse after the critical move 8. ...Bb4+!, where I either need to isolate my pawns after 9. Nc3 Bxc3+ 10. bxc3 or I have to retreat my bishop to d2 and lose a tempo. Fortunately for me, my opponent went 8. ...d6?, in which after I developed both of my knights and the game crumbled for Black after 10. ...Qa5??. Overall, I would say this game was pretty accurate by me, just some slip-ups in the opening stage.

Analysis of Game 2 (Classical):

The second game I played (also with the White pieces) was interesting, where I faced a Latvian Gambit, with the moves 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 f5!?, in which I responded by not capturing the f-pawn, which allows the move 3. ...e4!. This is still theoretically fine, but I have never studied this opening as White, so I wanted to play it safe. The main summary of the game however, is that Black neglected the a2-g8 diagonal, where I promptly placed my bishop there and had a crushing position.

Music Type #2: Rap/Hip-Hop

Analysis of Game 1 (Rap/Hip-Hop):

Overall, I would say that this was a pretty accurate game, aside from the timing of the tactics that I displayed during the game (ex. After 15. Qc2?? b4! could've been played earlier). There was also a point during the game where I repeatedly allowed my opponent to play Bxh6! due to the queen's pin on my g-pawn. Luckily, my opponent trapped their queen after 28. Qh6?? Rh5! and my opponent resigned after.

Analysis of Game 2 (Rap/Hip-Hop):

The second game in this experiment where I listened to Rap/Hip-Hop was quite an interesting one. The opening was quite strange, with my opponent offering me 2 pawns for free and a third one for the exchange. However, my opponent took my pawn with their pawn instead of their queen, making a weakness on d6. The coolest part of this game, however, is that my opponent had a tactic after 5. d4?? with the brilliant move 5. ...Nxd4!!, relying on the fact that Qh4+ is devastating for the White pieces if I capture the knight on d4. My opponent missed this however, and simply retreated their bishop. I had a +3 to +5 position throughout the rest of the game, but it was not simple conversion for me. My opponent surprised me with some clever moves like 13. Nxd4, where I had to play accurately to maintain my winning position.

Music Type #3: Rock

Analysis of Game 1 (Rock):

My first game playing Rock music was quite unexpected. This was pretty much my first time ever listening to the genre of Rock (and I know that this is where I might piss some people off) and I wasn't a huge fan of it due to the fact that I didn't want to listen to grownmanscreaming.mp3, but other than that it's an OK genre. Since the music I was listening to was quite loud, I decided to play with an aggressive approach in this game. It ended up with the advantage to my favor, but I did miss a critical idea to castle queenside to not only connect my rooks, but to bring another piece into the attack. Not doing so ended up with the game balancing out, but luckily my opponent was weak on defense.

Analysis of Game 2 (Rock):

The only thing I can say about this game is that it looks like something out of Guess The Elo, or those super clickbait-y videos of Gotham reviewing a random subscriber's game and "quitting" for the 500th time. I will say, it felt quite good swindling my opponent and winning despite being down 8 points of material and the fact that I could finally close the window playing "Thunderstruck" by AC/DC, which is basically grownmanscreaming.mp3 behind a generic electric guitar. My first inaccuracy was when I played 4. ...Bg6? which at first looks completely normal, but White has a very cool idea of taking my bishop and playing e6!, which either dominates my position or makes me have a terrible pawn structure and a cramped position. But luckily, my opponent didn't know this idea and instead took my bishop and played 6. Nf3?!, turning it back into a regular Caro-Kann position. Another error I made was when I played 12. ...f6?!, which seemed like a good idea at the time, due to the fact that it chips at White's e5 pawn. However, it also significantly weakens my e and g pawn, making them both potential targets in the future. After the exchange of both pawns, my opponent did the correct thing and attacked my g-pawn immediately with 14. Qd3!. I tried playing Ne4 to blockade the attack, but Nc3 just immediately makes my idea look stupid. Since I was trying to be aggressive as possible, I sacrificed my rook for three turns until my opponent took it, but only because it benefitted them, and they slowly but surely put my attack to a halt. Before you know it, I was completely lost during the ending stages of the game, and SUPER luckily for me, my opponent fell for the only swindle I had, and I checkmated them. Somehow, my accuracy was still pretty high, with it being 70% (Chess.com) and 84%(Lichess).

Music Type #4: R&B

Analysis of Game 1 (R&B):

The first game I played listening to R&B (my second favorite music genre after Rap/Hip-Hop) was pretty balanced overall, with nothing really special with any other game in this experiment that I've played so far. An interesting moment of the game, where my opponent had a +4 advantage, was when I played 17. ...Rfe8??. The reason why I am losing so badly is quite interesting, as the White pieces has the unbelievable move 18. Bxf7+!!, sacrificing a full bishop for Qd5+, in which my king gets ripped open and tossed around like a pinata, and after 19. ...Kf8 20. Rf1!, it is very hard to survive. Obviously, my opponent didn't see that and played 18. Be7?!, which exploits the fact that I can't capture the "free" bishop on e7, due to Bxf7+ and winning my queen with the c1 rook. However a few moves later, my opponent blundered the game away and left me with a -5 advantage, where I could sacrifice my rook on e1 by capturing the knight, and after the queen takes, Nf3+ is a royal fork of the king and queen.

Analysis of Game 2 (R&B):

The second game I played was also quite accurate play by me, where my opponent played exactly what I wanted from the Scotch opening, where they traded everything in the middle and gave me a dominant position. The only good move to make sure I don't take complete center control is 5. ...Qf6!, challenging the White queen and forcing either 6. Qxf6, or moving the White queen somewhere else, and with either option, the position is roughly equal. My opponent instead played 5. ...d6, and I had an advantage that turned into a winning attack on my opponent, which started with my opponent giving me the b5 square for my knight with 11. ...c5?? and I forked the d6 pawn and the c7 square, where I would be forking the king and rook, so yes, I was forking a pawn and a fork! Other than that, the best way to explain this game is not that I won, but my opponent lost (if that makes sense).

Music Type #5: Pop

Analysis of Game 1 (Pop):

Pop is one of my favorite genres, mostly due to the fact that the Weeknd is a major influence on the genre, and on this generation's music overall. From Hip-Hop to R&B to Pop, the Weeknd is a very experimental artist, which I like. I found him so interesting, that I made a club devoted for fans of the Weeknd to join on Lichess, where we have monthly tournaments based off of his albums and popular songs! Shameless plug aside, I think this game is very fascinating, where I played the Kings Gambit (making a blog devoted to this opening very soon!), but I made some errors in the opening, after 5. a6??, I could capture the pawn on f4 and maintain an advantage in development. Instead, I played 6. a4??, allowing my opponent to play 6. ...g5!, holding on to the f4 pawn. Luckily, my opponent developed their queen's knight instead, allowing me to maintain the lead in development by capturing the pawn. I had a dominating position for the next 10 moves, but I had one more mistake that I'm annoyed at myself for making. After 21. Ra8+!! Nc8, I had a mate in 2, with 22. Rxc8+!! Kxc8 23. Qa8#. Instead, I played 22. Qa6, which misses out on the cool checkmate, but is also a good move, putting pressure on the knight that is pinned to the helpless king. My opponent then proceeds to throw the game in the garbage by playing 22. ...c5??, which then allowed me to checkmate their king by capturing the knight on c8 with 23. Rxc8# (Qxc8# works too).

Analysis of Game 2 (Pop):

This game was very tactically instructive, with a pattern that I saw after 15. ...Nf3+!! 16. gxf3 Qh4!, threatening checkmate on h2, pretty much forcing 17. f4, which gave me 17. ...Qg4+! 18. Kh1 Qf3+! 19. Kg1 Bc6, and the only way to avoid the checkmate was to play 20. d5, and then sacrifice the queen. This wasn't a perfect game though, as in the middlegame, after 11. Nxd4??, I had a nice pin with 11. ...Qh4!, and the knight can't move, as the mighty White queen will fall to the hands of the Black queen on h4, swinging in from the other side of the board. Unfortunately, I missed this and quickly played 11. ...Nxe5? missing the crucial pin. Another inaccuracy that I played in the game was that I missed a checkmate in 3, where I could play 24. ...Qf4+ 25. Kg2 Qg3+! (notice that the f-pawn is pinned by the en prise rook on c2) 26. Kh1 Qh2#. Unfortunately, I missed the pin of the f-pawn, and thought that I didn't have a checkmate. This told me that I needed to improve my calculation, so I left the game better than ever.

Conclusions

Now that we've come to the end of this experiment, you might be thinking to yourself, "After all that, what is the best music genre to listen to while playing chess?" And the answer is, it depends. Calmer and more mellow music tends to relax your brain and help you analyze the position, therefore helping you make more accurate moves. Louder and more chaotic types of music, such as Rock and Hip-Hop, can tend to scramble your brain and make you play sloppier, which can be seen during the "Rock" section of this experiment, where I mentioned missing critical ideas and ended up in losing positions (and just barely winning). Some variables in this experiment that could've possibly interfered with the results were the ratings of my opponents, as I often won most of these games, having more experience and training under my belt. You could argue that rating doesn't amount to skill level, and that my opponents could've just as easily been closer to my skill level. But nonetheless, it still could've impacted the results of this experiment. And although this experiment might not have been perfect, the results would've still been similar, because the types of music I'm listening to still stay the same. I hope you enjoyed this experiment as much as I did, and have a great rest of your day!

Aryan