There are three styles of playing chess. One is to play by the books. It involves deep preperation. One is to be good at calculating. And the last is to identify the weakness of the opponent and play their weakness.

Mikhail Tal is the best example of the last style. He didn’t calculate everything. He just would introduce chaos where he thinks the opponent is weak. And if the opponent successfully navigates it, he would just introduce another chaos.

You must take your opponent into a deep, dark forest where (2 + 2 = 5), and the path leading out is only wide enough for one. - Mikhail Tal

The above quote clearly encapsulates Tal’s method. But this isn’t just true for chess. If you are a good systems thinker, then you probably possess this skill. When I talk to someone, I quickly start building the mental model for whatever they are discussing and it becomes clear where my mental model is shaky. I then ask a pin-pointed question. If the person has thought of it, they answer it, and I get my piece to complete and strengthen the shaky mental model. If they don’t, then they are amazed I asked that one question where their entire argument/proposal/insight/recommendation fails.