>> that better chess players don't evaluate more moves That's not true. A chess master calculates lines to a much deeper depth than an amateur player. They als

>> that better chess players don't evaluate more moves That's not true. A chess master calculates lines to a much deeper depth than an amateur player. They also have much better heuristics for evaluating positions, true. And they are much better at pruning irrelevant lines, as you say. But at the end of the day a master-level player is evaluating many more positions than an amateur before moving.