On Thu, 22 Mar 2007 15:02:01 -0700, "David Kane"
wrote:


Larry Tapper hit on the answer exactly. He noted
that "high-level players are canny utility maximizers".
They aren't maximizing good chess, they are maximizing
"highest tournament score". They aren't really
playing chess, they are engaging in a competition
which has chess as a component. They've
concluded that playing the best move is a
sub-optimal strategy and that it is better to
play a number of uncontested or partially
contested games.

Here's a nit: It might be better to say "striving for the best move
is a sub-optimal strategy...", since if they could count on *playing*
it, they probably would. The effort to always find the best move too
often leads to exhaustion driven blunders.