GM Kevin Spragett's take on junior chess following GM Vladimir Kramnik's remarks ......

GM Vladimir Kramnik's remarks on the current generation of Russian junior chess players (see my last blog) has been picked up by GM Kevin Spraggett and this is what he says (I cannot link his blog as it is not suitable for juniors):

ARE TODAY'S CHESS YOUTH THE SACRIFICIAL LAMBS OF HI-TECH?

Like many vibrant aspects of human culture, chess has traditionally been handed down from one generation to the next generation. Not only thru an accumulating chess literature (that began in the 15th century--some of the first books published in any domain were chess books) and by way of examples of the play leading players of the day, but especially thru the development of new ideas. Each successive generation was built on the previous generations best efforts.

In this way chess culture and chess knowledge has attained a firm historical point of reference; and has witnessed, parallel to this, an impressive growth of relevant information, both horizontally and vertically. Chess has more books and magazines written about it than all other games combined!

Generations of players were brought up learning the great games and successes of Morphy, Lasker, Alekhine, Capablanca and others who moved chess forward into the modern times. When I first learned chess I instinctively centred my chess formation around their teachings, their ideas and their best and most instructive games.

Some generations have been more outstanding that others: the generation of post-World War II Soviet Union will likely never be equalled: almost a dozen World Champion-quality players, including Tal, Spassky, Petrosian, Korchnoi, Geller ,Smyslov and Bronstein. Together they extended and enlarged Opening Theory to unprecedented reaches, so much so that even today their contribution is as vital as it was 50 years ago.

By comparison, the generation of Karpov, and then Kasparov, were relatively lean times. Then came another great generation: Shirov, Ivanchuk, Gelfand, Kramnik, Kamsky, Salov, Khalifman, Svidler and a few others. Even today they dominate chess as they did 20 years ago when they first appeared!

But strange as it may seem, today's generation of young players that is just under 20 years of age no longer is as much shaped by the traditional 'hand me down' process of one generation to the next: instead, today's generation is strongly influenced by hi-tech.

Today's youth do not first learn their fundamentals thru games of Alekhine or Fischer, or even Kasparov. When told that they should study the games of these great players, they reply cynically ''Why? I will never have to play any of them!''

Today's generation might be called the PC generation, for their dependence on chess-databases and the internet as opposed to fundamentals. They first study the nameless statistics that differentiate one opening line from another and then shape the rest of their chess formation by jumping from one line to another, all in search of a winning formula. The only names of players that are of interest to them are their next round opponents....

Something tells me that they are missing something that I was very fortunate to acquire: a historical perspective of the modern game and a rich understanding of the legacy of our greatest players, regardless of when or where they were playing. Ofcourse, I am not talking about chess strength or level of playing skill: talent, hard work and information can be done in your own room for this!

I am talking about chess culture and chess knowledge, not colourless information or nameless statistics from ever larger databases, much of the content of which is being produced by weak players with little or no experience! I fear for the future of these players...and I am not alone here.

Many of the finest trainers and coaches in the world are beginning to notice that the present generation is different from any previous generation.