What makes you a good chess player?

Originally posted by Brother Edwin
Is it

Farsight?

The ability to picture combinations of movements and how he will react?

The memory of sequences?

A "gut feeling" that you are makeing the right move?

Gut feeling seems to be the key, from most GM's IMHO. Yes, most GM's are great calculators, great farsight, can picture combinations like they can picture having sex with multiple women, but the fact of the matter is, when they first took out a chess board, there was something special about them over other child players, they could literally school other kids in chess, all with limited training and limited training themselves, and simply not know how they did it routinely. The calculating, farsight, combinations, etc can be taught and seasoned eventually through a lot of hard work, but if a chess player is not that rookie kid that instinctly beat all his rookie kid friends, I don't see how he could become a GM once he reaches adulthood.

This is why guys like Pandolfini beleive there will never be a female chess champion, young girls do not seem to have this certain instinct that young boys do. He states girls can learn just as good as the boys, maybe even better, but in most cases, unless you are the Polgars, the genetics are simply not there, ie: it's just biology, the same human biology that would never make a boy an expert reader vs a girl.

Controversial subject, I hope Pandolfini is wrong one of these days, but inherited childhood gut chessic instincts seem mandatory to becoming an elite player.