Chess Equanimity : Does it mean playing chess with a balanced mind or playing chess with mental calmness ?
Could the term mean ... playing chess without letting our emotions interfere?
Chess is a mind game.
So, basically the opposite of how I play. I suppose so.
To me, and something I'm working on fixing myself, it is the state of not having emotions cloud my objectivity.
So, I am working on identifying what are causes of me having an emotional state and fixing each. I think it is something folks of high skill have mastered, too (for the most part), so that even after playing a blunder, they can still play with the same objectivity and continue playing the position.
Biggest drivers of emotions affecting my objectivity: miscalculating, moving too fast and not calculating or considering opponents threats, feeling uncomfortable in the position, being afraid of my opponent, real or perceived clock pressure, feeling tired and not realizing how it is affecting my judgment, lack of confidence, assuming I'm going to lose after having an undesirable position.
A lot to work on, but part of progressing as a chess player, right :) There's always stuff to improve!
Since my coach believes in stuff I work on to have multiple purposes, tactics puzzles and reviewing games of GMs (and my own) can help fix many issues with calculation and move selection, as well as dealing with disappointment and moving forward. I also need to be playing a lot more games, 50/50 split between playing and study, but it is something I'm working on (I spend most of my time studying and barely playing).
For example, I was over 2200 in tactics puzzles rating here (not that rating matters), and I failed some puzzles and then emotions of losing those puzzles clouded my objectivity and I missed more, and eventually lost over 350 points of rating points. So, working on being self-aware of when I'm in that negative mental state that clouds my objectivity... and even if I can't escape that and want to continue playing, I can continue solving each next puzzle as an entirely new position to evaluate.
It is a progressive thing, I still am far from where I'd like to be, but making forward progress is good progress. I wish it was a Eureka! type moment or realization, but that is unrealistic for me.
I suppose honestly knowing my faults is the first step towards fixing them, and fixing them won't happen overnight. Masters have mastered not only chess moves/positions/whatever but also themselves in playing the game (especially after playing bad moves, being in time pressure, and other emotional triggers that impacts objectivity).
That's my newbie view with my own perspective.
Equanimity is nice. But blunders do lose games to the point that quite often there is no game left after a blunder. So taking your mistakes easy to learn from them is good. But the emotional control alone won't improve the moves you find and make.
It's good to have that control to enjoy the game, but it isn't a must to play good chess. Emotions are always present and even supergm's get upset or happy about their moves and games.
I think that if you get upset about your mistakes you tend to avoid them more, but then chess comes more challenging and less enjoyable. If you play chess for joy and aren't going for the best moves all the time I believe you'll learn less but will enjoy it more.
Only engines and computer programs that use neural networks can have your "chess equanimity".
In chess, especially in blitz and bullet, it is important to have emotions as to feel where to put the pieces (sometimes pattern recognition) and also anticipation of your opponent's ideas (which is called prophylaxis).
