Player Types - The Reflector

by Arne Kaehler
2/6/2022 – The Grandmasters Dr. Karsten Mueller and Luis Engel have set a ball rolling in Germany with their latest Fritztrainer. GM Lars Bo Hansen designed the four-player model in 2005, and was perhaps ahead of his time. In the 5-part interview with Dr. Karsten Mueller, all four player types are discussed in detail. Today - The Reflector.
Playing styles in chess are an important and thus often discussed topic. GM Dr. Karsten Müller and GM Luis Engel take up a model by GM Lars Bo Hansen based on 4 player types - namely ‘activists’, ‘pragmatics’, ‘theoreticians’ and so-called ‘reflectors’.

The 4 Player Types standard model

by Dr. Karsten Mueller and Luis Engel

Some chess players love to attack, others prefer a solid defence. Some know all the opening theory and others play purely by intuition/recognition. But can we all agree that there is no perfect way to play chess yet?

Every type of player has their strengths and weaknesses.

Namely:

  • The activist (Aronian, Kasparov, Polgar, Tal)
  • The reflector (Carlsen, Capablanca, Karpov, Keymer)
  • The pragmatic (Caruana, Fischer, Euwe, Korchnoi)
  • The theorist (Giri, Steinitz, Botvinnik, Kramnik)

GM Karsten Müller and GM Luis Engel spent a lot of time defining the model of the four player types, wrote a book and developed the Fritztrainer, which is very popular in Germany. 

In this five-part interview series with one of the authors, Dr Karsten Mueller, we take a more in-depth look at all four player types and summarize some open questions in the last part.

The Reflector

 
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MoveNResultEloPlayers
1.e41,184,21554%2421---
1.d4958,93255%2434---
1.Nf3286,32756%2441---
1.c4184,72256%2443---
1.g319,88456%2427---
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1.c343951%2425---
1.h328956%2420---
1.a411860%2461---
1.f310047%2427---
1.Nh39267%2511---
1.Na34762%2476---
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 d6 6.Be2 Be7 7.0-0 0-0 8.f4 Nc6 9.Be3 Bd7 10.Nb3 a5 11.a4 Nb4 12.Bf3 Bc6 13.Nd4 g6 14.Rf2 e5 15.Nxc6 bxc6 16.fxe5 dxe5 17.Qf1 Qc8 18.h3 Nd7 19.Bg4 h5 20.Bxd7 Qxd7 21.Qc4 Bh4 22.Rd2 Qe7 23.Rf1 Rfd8 24.Nb1 Qb7 25.Kh2 Kg7 26.c3 Na6 27.Re2 Rf8 28.Nd2 Bd8 29.Nf3 f6 30.Rd2 Be7 31.Qe6 Rad8 32.Rxd8 Bxd8 33.Rd1 Nb8 34.Bc5 Rh8 35.Rxd8 1–0
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WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
Karpov,A-Spassky,B-1–01974B83Leningrad (m/9)

Playing styles in chess are an important and thus often discussed topic. GM Dr. Karsten Müller and GM Luis Engel take up a model by GM Lars Bo Hansen based on 4 player types - namely ‘activists’, ‘pragmatics’, ‘theoreticians’ and so-called ‘reflectors’.

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Arne Kaehler, a creative mind who is passionate about board games in general, was born in Hamburg and learned to play chess at a young age. By teaching chess to youth teams and creating chess-related videos on YouTube, Arne was able to expand this passion and has even created an online course for anyone who wants to learn how to play chess. Arne writes for the English and German news sites, but focuses mainly on content for the ChessBase media channels.

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