Here's a frightening fact regarding chess players: You know much more than you think -- yet you use far less than you know.
What if you could play a game of chess using EVERYTHING you've ever learned?
How many chess books have you read? Games played on a computer to develop your skill? Games played against other people? How many great chess games have you analyzed? How many chess problems have you pondered and solved.
If you're serious about chess, you've read and done a lot.
Yet, haven't you ever made a move that you knew right after was far less than your actual knowledge, ability and experience? Maybe a move that was downright stupid. You gave away your queen for no good reason.
Odds are good you made such a move in your last game. The games of world championship tournaments contain such moves -- by the greatest names of chess from Bobby Fischer to Garry Kasparov. Who certainly know better.
What's even more important, during a chess game you need to think about more than the board and the positions of the pieces. You have an opponent (I'm ignoring chess against computers here -- who cares what computers think, anyway?)
A large part of winning chess is defeating your opponent. Yes, that involves chess moves. But it also involves understanding and playing against that particular person. Bobby Fischer was not kidding when he said the goal of chess was to crush your opponent's ego.
What if you could not only play the best game of chess you're capable of, but you can "read" your opponent's state of mind. Important tournaments have been won and loss by one player understanding when their opponent could be manipulated into making a mistake.
They don't tell you in words -- but it's in the muscles of their faces, the expressions in their eyes, in the slump of their body posture.
According to science, our conscious minds can detect up to 126 bits of information per second. However, our senses take in thousands more bits of information. The feel of your right buttock against your chair. The ambient room temperature. The honk of a horn two blocks away.
Your brain takes all this information in and processes it. Yes, consciously, you are thinking only about whether sacrificing your bishop will gain you an advantage 5 moves in the future. Your unconscious mind hears your opponent's breathing. Registers the tenseness of their shoulder muscles. No matter how much deodorant they're wearing, your nose detects pheromones of fear or confidence.
How can you consciously take advantage of this overload of subconscious information? What does it all add up to and mean to the game of chess you're playing?
Win Wenger, co-author of THE EINSTEIN FACTOR, invented a technique called imagestreaming.
When you practice imagestreaming, you learn to understand and access your databases of stored but subconscious information -- about chess and about your opponent. You do this by reinforcing and describing
The basic technique is simple. Get a voice-activated recorder or a person who can listen to you without talking or reacting in any way (I prefer the voice-activated recorder). Close your eyes. Start talking. Describe what you see. Don't judge or evaluate or rationalize. Just describe in concrete terms what you see. And hear. And taste. And smell. And feel.
This activity engages just about every section of your brain. It bridges not only the well-known "right brain, left brain" aspect of your brain, but the more specialized sensory cortex, parietal lobe, occipital lobe, Wernicke's Area, auditory cortex, temporal lobe, olfactory lobe and Broca's area.
Once you're practiced imagestreaming on whatever images just happen to come into your mind, you can set an intention to imagestream to learn something specific. If you learn a new chess technique today, imagestreaming about it will help install it into your memory and your game.
Before a tournament, imagestream on what parts of your chess game you most need to review. Or on your opponent or opponents. During a break or at the end of the day, imagestream on an ongoing game or your opponent. You'll be amazed at the insights that pop into your brain.
Maybe you'll remember a chess technique you read in a book 5 years ago -- and it's just what you need to win. Maybe you'll realize that your opponent is over-confident. They're unprepared and if you attack you'll throw them off balance.
Take Win Wenger's challenge. Try imagestreaming for 10 minutes a day for 10 days -- I guarantee that if you do this, you will notice changes in your ability to think, visualize and remember. It will improve your chess game and the rest of your life.
- Related Videos
- Related Articles
- Ask / Related Q&A




Over 40? Out of work? Make this the best time of your life
By: Craig Nathanson | 05/07/2009Take a new approach Right now millions of Americans are either out of work, recently laid off, or afraid of being laid off. There are millions more, who simply work at jobs, which provide no meaning. They work only in order to get a paycheck.
Anger Exposed: Why Do People Really Get Mad?
By: Maria Meiners | 05/07/2009There are a lot of theories around anger. But what it boils down to is that there is one, and only one, real reason people get mad. Read on to find out what it is and what you can do about it.
Cutting Down on Alcohol: Some Health Reasons Why it’s Worth Considering
By: E. Avila | 04/07/2009Like most things in life, alcohol is a two-edged sword. Its health benefits have long been known. Moderate alcohol drinking can help stave off numerous disorders such as hypertension, heart attacks, strokes, and a host of other health problems. On the other hand, immoderate consumption can LEAD to a multitude of health problems.
When You Come To A Detour
By: Meredith Miller | 03/07/2009What is a detour? It represents a change in our direction. It's an unknown factor, unsure of where this new route will lead. In life, sometimes there are detours that force us to take a new route in our journey. But what have I discovered while on this different route? I have seen the beauty in my life that I never knew could exist. I have received blessings that I would of never seen, and I owe it all to a detour.
Overcoming your Disbelief
By: Kate Siner Francis PhD | 03/07/2009I am sure that you have heard the expression that success is a habit. Well it is accurate. Some of us were fortunate enough to learn the habit as we grew up, some of us learned it but only in certain areas of our live, and some of us did not get the information we needed to thrive and as a result success does not seem possible. With the right information and the right support, you can have the life you have most deeply wanted.
The Benefits if you are Being Thankful
By: control902 | 02/07/2009This article is about what a person gets if he thanks Allah for anything happened.
Stay actively calm and calmly active
By: surbhi gupta | 02/07/2009Swami Yogananda Paramhansaji preached to stay "actively calm and calmly active".As always with preachings, sounds nice and easy but difficult to follow.However practice makes everything easier.This is not a mere preaching but the need of the hour ,as absence of this is manifested in daily road rage cases,children fighting with parents and with each other on petty issues,brother killing brother for some little material profit,bloodshed among neighbours,etc.This deterioration of man and society
How to Face your Fears using Progressive Overload
By: Craig Harper | 02/07/2009How do we begin to address our fears? We do what scares us – that is, we work against emotional and psychological resistance; we lift that mental dumbbell. And then we lift a heavier one. Once we face our fears, we become stronger, we develop new skills, our mindset shifts, the “weight” seems lighter and we move to the next (heavier) dumbbell on the rack.
How Software Programers Can Become Rich
By: Richard Stooker | 20/03/2007 | CareersSoftware programmers and developers can use their expertise to make themselves financially independent and even wealthy if they focus on helping solve problems for people. Many are forming their own software companies, called micro-ISVs.
How to Protect Yourself from HYIP Frauds
By: Richard Stooker | 20/03/2007 | Non-FictionHYIPs are online frauds. Don't be fooled. Don't waste your time or money. Invest your money for income from real stocks, bonds and mutual funds.
How to Make Your Article Titles Sell More
By: Richard Stooker | 31/10/2006 | Online PromotionArticle titles are the headline for the article. Make sure they include a powerful benefit to the reader.
How to Sell More Through Marrying the Power of Testimonials to "Once Upon a Time"
By: Richard Stooker | 28/10/2006 | AdvertisingCase studies can combine the power of stories with testimonials to make an emotional impact that dissolves prospect sales resistance.
Benefits and Risks of the Annual Flu Shot
By: Richard Stooker | 28/10/2006 | HealthFlu shots train your immune system, but don't do the heavy lifting for you. The stronger your immune system, the better it can defend you against the flu and all other diseases, vaccination or no vaccination.
How to Use Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI) to Improve Your Web Writing Results
By: Richard Stooker | 28/10/2006 | SEOWeb site writers should now use Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI) to optimize their search engine optimization results. Keyword Density Analysis is out of date.
Symptoms are Not the Disease of Bird Flu Even Though They're Unpleasant
By: Richard Stooker | 22/10/2006 | HealthIn the long run we're better off suffering through the symptoms of a disease than covering them up. Many bird flu symptoms are the body's way of fighting the disease.
Changing to a Computer Career for Retired Baby Boomers
By: Richard Stooker | 22/10/2006 | CareersThe retirement of lots of baby boomers will create an opportunity for many people to change to a computer career . . . and many of them will also be baby boomers.