@ fred703 I dont think its smart or fair to characterize there as only being two "types" of chess players in the way that you have. Maybe its a matter of perspective, if I had to divide all chess players into two groups I would say they would be separated by those who play to win, and those who play to learn. When you play a lot of chess you realize that different games can have different subjects, one person might not ever get off the same subject until he can advance to the next. Other people might choose a subject based on the aptitude of the enemy and more importantly their perception of the amount of effort or time that will be needed to win. These subjects and knowing how best to counter them are various positional patterns that are applied largely out of book theory. Theories can often bear the burden of predictability, once you spot a pattern you have to recognize the theory and use your advanced knowledge to mitigate its effect, but make no mistake, this is by no means intuition. Every game a player looses it is because the game passed a certain point of no return. Every good chess player looses, and this is how you learn, but this experience of having having hope in a situation where your opponent has knowingly passed this point can be maddening, In chess as well as life.