Searching for Magnus Carlsen/Hou YiFan

World Women Chess Champion GM Hou YiFan is "monkeying"*** everyone at Gibraltar ......

2012-02-01T10:09:00.010+11:00

Just a short blog to inform faithful readers of the blog that GM Hou YiFan is making waves at the Tradewise Gibraltar Chess Festival 2012. For the first time in many years, GM Judit Polgar agreed to play in an Open where many other women chessplayers compete as well. Gibraltar has a tradition of offering incentives to women to compete. As result, the scene was set this year for potential games between the top three women players on the Fide rating list, GM Judit Polgar, GM Hou YiFan and GM Koneru Humpy.

GM Hou YiFan began well and was amongst the leaders after 4 rounds with 3.5/4 including a Rd 3 win over GM Zoltan Almasi (rated 2700+) and a Rd 4 draw with GM Mickey Adams. GM Judit Polgar also began well conceding only two draws. One of the draws was in Rd 4 where Judit faced off GM Koneru Humpy. Similarly Koneru also began well with 3/4 (+2 =2).

YiFan was then completely wiped off the board by Indian GM Krishnan Sasikiran in Rd 5 but bounced back with a win in Rd 6. Judit continued being undefeated in Rds 5 (win) and 6 (draw) whilst Koneru won in Rd 5 but lost to GM Nigel Short in Rd 6.

Then came the Rd 7 and the dream pairing, GM Hou YiFan vs GM Judit Polgar. and the young 17 year old came out the better winning in 47 moves. According to GM Alejandro Ramirez, Judit made two weak moves , moves 20 and 24, which led to her loss. See the annotations by GM Ramirez here. See also here and here.
In addition, GM Zoltan Almasi has worked with Judit as her second for many years. That means YiFan has defeated the Polgar team in the same tournament.

In the latest round, YiFan has defeated the top Vietnamese player, GM Le Quang Liem (see game here). This is the 4th 2700+ GM that YiFan (Elo 2605) has either defeated or drew with! She is now co-leader with Mickey after 8 rounds and faces GM Alexei Shirov with the black pieces in rd 9.

In the last year or so, there were comments that YiFan's progress in chess was being stifled by playing only in women-only chess tournaments. However, it has been noticeable that since defending her World Championship title against Koneru that YiFan has been playing in Open tournaments.

Is this the beginning of the rise to World Championship for YiFan?

*** I should explain before I get flamed that it is meant as a triple entendre. Gibraltar is famous for its monkeys but the monkey reference is actually a reference to the mythical Monkey King/God form the book, The Journey to the West, who wreaked havoc in the Heavens before being imprisoned by Buddha. Lastly, "hou", is a homophone which can mean monkey as well as being a respected family name.

An exciting new Chess Scholarship in the USA

2012-02-01T09:41:00.004+11:00

Sorry for the lack of blogs in the past two weeks. Have been away on holiday (R&R in Bali and CNY in S'pore).

But just read of a fantastic new venture in the US where a liberal arts college, Lindenwood University (located in the St. Louis metropolitan area just west of the City of St. Louis) is offering scholarships for chess juniors as they aim to "build the nation’s top collegiate chess program."

“We are planning to recruit some of the highest-rated competitors in the world,” said Tim Canavan, Lindenwood’s Director of Student Life Sports. “We are also going to recruit people who aren’t at the elite level yet, but want to get there. Our interest is competing, promoting the wondehttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifrful game of chess, and providing a way for young people to get a good education.”

There are plans for "25-30 players on up to six different teams". There is a partnership with the famed Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis. The club’s Grandmaster-in-Residence, Ben Finegold, has been retained as coach. See press release at Chessdom.

For information about a chess scholarship at Lindenwood University, call Lauren Nystrom at (636) 949-4949. For more information about the university, visit www.lindenwood.edu.

Perhaps some aspiring Australian chess players may be interested? Especially since it is stated they are looking for ambitious aspirant junior chess players. (Note that Texas Tech University in collaboration with SPICE also offers chess scholarships.) Others are the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC), the University of Texas at Dallas (UTD) and University of Texas at Brownsville (UTB).

Read also Pan-American Intercollegiate Team Chess Championship to understand part of the motivation on the part of universities' administration.

GM Felix Izeta speaks ......

2012-01-15T00:12:00.002+11:00

GM Felix Izeta is one of the organiser of the recently concluded Donostia Chess Festival commemorating the famous 1911 San Sebastian tournament. For the 2012 edition, there was an innovation, the so-called Basque system was introduced. Both chess players play each other two games at the same time one with White and the other with Black. The tournament was not rated. What do you think? Anastasiya Karlovich for Chessbase conducted an interview with GM Izeta, see here. Again you should read the entire interview but I excerpt here an interesting bit about life as a professional chess player:

When I was young, I was in love with chess. I decided to be a chess player no matter how much time and effort it took. Then I succeeded in reaching a certain standard, enough to be invited to chess events. 25 years ago it was easier to get invitations to chess tournaments because at that time there were no eastern players in Europe, but only a few good players from South America and Western Europe. The life of a chess professional was pleasant at that time. Players like Campos, Eslon, Castro, Bellon, were highly considered, respected and I wanted to be one. Normally, when I want something I'm able to put extreme efforts to get it. I quit the university for the sake of playing tournaments and I believe it was a very good decision. The University of Life is more important and makes you wiser. I learned much more from travelling and playing tournaments than I could in a university.

GM Jan Timman speaks ......

2012-01-14T23:39:00.003+11:00

In line with the 2012 Tata Steel Chess, Chessvibes has conducted three interviews with three GMs. I have blog about the first, GM Matthew Sadler in my last blogpost. There is a third with GM Veselin Topalov which is quite interesting on his feelings after his loss to GM Viswanathan Anand for the World Championship, see here. The second interview was with Dutch legend, Gm Jan Timman, once ranked no 3 behind GM Garry Kasparov and GM Anatoly Karpov. He is also famous for his analytical skill and his books on chess analysis should be mandatory reading if you are serious about chess improvement. His interview is here. I like what he said about computers and chess engines. Excerpt:

You also said: 'If I had been 18 today, I would not have become a professional player.' Why not? What are the biggest differences, and can remember how you were looking at the chess world when you were 18 and you had to make that choice?

Certainly. The thing is, back then you didn't have this transfer of information, this influence of computers and databases. This meant that everything you needed to pick up, you needed to pick up from what happened around you, what happened at tournaments, what the strongest players were doing. You could rely on your talent. It was a fantastic time. You didn't need to learn a lot, you didn't need to prepare a lot; it was all natural. That's why I liked it so much. If I, like in today's world, needed to know an awful lot about a certain variation, that would be different. That's just hard work, and in those days I didn't fancy hard work. And if I was 18 again, I probably wouldn't fancy it either.

So although the computer has taken over a lot of work, one also needs to work more due to computers.

Yes, it's clear that these days top players have to work much harder. And I'm not against computers or something, I really enjoy their presence, and they're very useful for example when I'm working at endgame studies, so no complaints in that respect.

He also criticised the present-day time controls which does not allow a proper endgame battle to ensue:

One shouldn't dismiss classical chess. I mean, it's also clear that the ending is being treated worse and worse as a result of the quicker time control. This is a pity, because it's a beautiful part of the game. But current top players are making elementary mistakes, for example the mistake Morozevich made against Vitiugov in the final round in Reggio.

You mean when he let the dark-squared bishops to be exchanged?

Yes, unbelievable. I cannot understand that he liquidated to an ending that's completely lost. This is because there's not enough time, and therefore not enough focus. But I have to say that there is still enough time for the middlegame and the opening and this guarantees a certain level, and I think this level should be preserved for chess.

There have been some discussions recently about whether former top players were better in the endgame than modern players. But in the old days the grandmasters had more time...

Yes, more time, and therefore more attention, and so they had a better understanding. Of course they had more time, this is all related. These days you hardly see a player with such interest in the endgame.

Also some very interesting bits about comparing himself with Karpov and about learning from both Kasparov and Karpov.

GM Matthew Sadler speaks ......

2012-01-14T23:18:00.002+11:00

As mentioned in the let blogpost, there is this fascinating interview with English grandmaster Matthew Sadler (now living in the Netherlands) in Chessvibes, here. His story is re-told int he interview but in brief, it is about a talented young English GM who managed to get into the top 20 in chess and then decided to give up chess and "retired". Then lo and behold, last year there was a comeback of sorts beginning with a small Dutch rapid tournament followed by two long play tournaments wins. after the first, this got him an invite into the Tata Steel Chess Tournament Group C at Wijk san Zee. But it seems if he started his comeback earlier and with the two wins, he would have been invited for the Group B. Be that as it may, he is first seed in Group C. However, I really liked his attitude revealed in the interview: Here are excerpts: On why he stop being a professional chess player:

That's a very good question. I'd been wondering about it for a while; what was I'm going to do with things, how far would I go, et cetera. Basically it wasn't clear to me that I could really get higher than a top 20 player and in that case I wonder whether it was really worth carrying on another five or ten years. You'd have some good results, and maybe a few extra things that you could be really proud of, but at the end of the day nothing has really changed, and then it's time to start going downwards slowly. I sort of decided that I'd sort of had my fun basically. I had a great time as a professional but if I was ever going to switch to something else then now was the time. That was basically it. It was a real combination of all sorts of things, but that feeling of having had my fun and really wanting to try something else, completely different from scratch, I found it really attractive.
[......]
At that specific time I had a Dutch girlfriend so of course that was just meant to be. I applied for lots of jobs and pretty much took the most exciting thing that came along. I was really keen to do something that was completely outside chess, something that wasn't relying on me being a chess player or anything but just completely from scratch.

Why? Did you somehow want to really forget about chess, or did you feel you wanted to prove that you were capable of something else too?

No, just the feeling that there was a life outside chess as well. That there was lots of other things to do basically. What I really did not want, to be honest, was to be 35 and on my way down and not see a way out from chess. With the amount of energy I put into chess and the amount of work that I put in I couldn't really see myself like Kortchnoi for example, carrying on until he's 80, or until he's 100, I just couldn't see that happening. I really thought: if that was something that worried me then I should do something probably sooner rather than later. When you're 24, 25 you can start from the bottom and work your way up again, it's no problem. If you try that when you're 35 that's a lot more difficult I think.

Was it a good decision?

I'm so glad that I did it, to be honest. It was a great adventure, you know, moving to Holland, learning Dutch, starting off in something about which I had pretty much no idea and building up something from scratch again. It was great, it's been really nice.

And here is a very apposite observation about chess and life in general (in response to his decision to quit chess):

For me of course the whole decision had been brewing for a very long time actually. I think it was quite a shock actually for British chess. But within a couple of weeks people just forget and move on basically. There are so many good players you know. I still played for a couple of years in the Bundesliga and it it's weird. You notice how quickly you become unimportant actually, you're not studying theory so you're not playing any novelties anymore. People aren't really looking at your games because they're not really that interesting. It's amazing, professional chess moves on so quickly. You're forgotten very quickly.[emphasis added]

Continue reading about his employment journey after chess. It is quite inspiring especially when e left school at 16 to pursue chess ......

On his performance with the English team:

You scored statistically better in team events? [......] How do you explain this for your own situation?

I don't know, I think it just inspired me. In a tough position you just fight that little bit harder because you can see how important it is for the team. The importance for the team means more to you than just the importance of the game for yourself. Some people got a bit nervous I think, playing for the team, the played a bit like shadows of themselves and some other players just got inspired and were able to play freely and aggressively and get good results.

Happy New Year and the Australian Junior Chess Championship starts today

2012-01-14T12:55:00.004+11:00

Happy New Year! and in a few weeks time, Happy and Prosperous Chinese New Year!! Have a mighty powerful Dragon Year!!!
(Hmmmmm! wonder if we will see a revival of the Dragon in top level chess this year :):))

The premier junior chess event/tournament in Australia begins today and the Melbourne Chess Club together with Simon Dale et al have been working hard. They have a record number of entries, 273 entries in total. Well done. The organisers have been quite innovative in "luring" juniors and parents, offering prizes etc to register entries before the deadlines.

The website is here. The pairings, results and standings can be followed here.

There is a complicated schedule of the various age tournaments. Follow it through the website by clicking on "Schedule". The U16, U18, U8 and U10 Open and Girls begin at 11 am. There is only one round per day for the U18 and U16 (except for tomorrow, Sunday) but three rounds for the U8 and U10.

You can also follow on ChessChat here or on Facebook here..

Please note that a sizeable contingent of Australian juniors are playing across the Tasman in the 2012 Queenstown Chess Classic. Website is here.. Queenstown begins tomorrow with Round 1 at 3 pm.

If you are really still not sated with chess, the premier chew event in the world, the Tata Steel Chess Tournament in Wijk aan Zee begins tonight with Round 1 at 10:30 pm AEST. Website is here. I am cheering for English Matthew Sadler making his comeback to tournament chess and staking a claim as the world's strongest amateur player. Wijk aan Zee will be his 3rd major chess tournament and he is playing in Group C. Actually he will have been playing in Group B if he began his comeback a little earlier. He did a fantastic interview with Chessvibes and I will blog about that later in the day.

2012 Australian Chess Championship Day 2 Round 2

2011-12-28T21:21:00.004+11:00

In the Championship division, IM James Morris defeated Indian IM Akshat Khamparia, Chen PengYu drew with FM Max Illingworth and Anton Smirnov drew with Andrew Bird. FM Bobby Cheng got back into winning ways defeating late entrant from WA, Ihsan Ferozkohi (watch the interview with IM Leonid Sandler). In the battle of juniors, Justin Tan defeated Jonas Muller whilst FM Gene Nakauchi defeated Karl Zelesco.

Live games for top 5 boards are here and results are here and here.

Round 3 pairings to look out for:
Top game on Board 2 where it is the battle for the 2012 Olympiad Squad as young gun IM Moulthun Ly takes on old hand IM Aleks Wohl. Another game to watch is Bd 3 where GM-elect George Xie takes on in-form IM James Morris.

2012 Australian Chess Championship has started (in 2011) in Geelong, Victoria

2011-12-28T09:21:00.002+11:00

I was out hunting bargains (well, bed linen for an 11-year old who now decidedly has his own taste in fashion and style and toys for an eight-year old) yesterday and "forgot" that the 2012 Australian Chess Championship started even though we are still in the 2011 calendar year. For some of us who comes to chess in recent years, this seems odd. But as I understand, this was the norm until a few years ago when the Australian Championships and the Australian Open (in alternate years) was shifted over to the 2nd January.

Getting hold of results may be a bit of a mystery so here is my guide to full enjoyment for those of us unfortunate enough to follow it only online:
1) Website with results, pairings is here (which is actually the website of the hosting club, Geelong Chess Club.
2) Results and pairings are also available at Chess-Results, here and here.
3)Games can followed live here courtesy of Box Hill Chess Club. You can switch between one giant game display or multiple display windows (4 on my PC).
4) There are a number bloggers following the Championships including IM Aleks Wohl (see here) who has already blog on his Rd 1 game with Vic junior Justin Tan. It seems Wohl, true to form, played a speculative exchange sacrifice which created enough messiness and complexity for Justin to err; FM Carl Gorka's Coffee House Chess.
5) You can also follow the chat at Chess Chat here (from p 20 onwards).
6) Photos by Raelene Zelesco (mother of Karl Zelesco) can be found here.
7) IM Leonid Sandler, Victoria Chess President, has videos here.

Most rounds begin at 1 pm except for Sat 31st December and the last round, Sunday 8th Jan, both which begin at 11 am.

Now onto Round 1:
The biggest story is the no-show on Bd 1 by Black and GM Zhao ZongYuan winning by forfeit! You can read all about it on Chess Chat.

But in terms of juniors, the biggest story is Queensland junior, Liu Yi, defeating fellow junior, FM Bobby Cheng and 2009 Vic Junior Champion, Jason Tang, defeating NZ FM Michael Steadman. NSW junior Chen PengYu drew with 2010 Australian Champion, IM Stephen Solomon. GM Darryl Johansen drew in 14 moves with Vic junior Laurence Matheson. Hmmmmmm! Is there a story here?

And in the Reserves, ACT junior Megan Setiabudi drew with Kerry Stead and NSW junior Kevin Willathgamuwa drew with Peter Fry.

A Refreshing Perspective on norms

2011-12-25T08:19:00.003+11:00

From USCF Chess Life Online on Christmas Day comes an article by one of the Shahade sibling, IM Greg Shahade, chess entrepreneur, organiser, promoter, coach and recently, re-emerging player. My recommendation: read the article (see here) for a really refreshing and naturalistic view on chess improvement, titles and norms.

Excerpts:

There are so many pretty good chess players out there obsessed with making a norm, as though it’s going to help them in some way. Here’s another newsflash….unless you are 2500 FIDE, you aren’t getting the Grandmaster title, so if you are hanging around 2400-2440 all the time, making a GM norm isn’t going to help you very much. However if you get your rating to a consistent 2500 level, and you don’t have an especially draw happy style of chess, you are going to make GM norms in your sleep. You sure won’t make them in every tournament you play, but probably one out of every 4 or 5, and then you are well on your way to becoming a Grandmaster.

In my U.S. Chess School camps there are a lot of students who tell me that their goal is to make IM norms as quickly as possible. I always find this ridiculous, because usually while it’s clear to me these kids have talent, they are certainly not IM level players at the moment. Meanwhile I see them play in tournaments, and go through all kinds of weird contortions to improve their chances of making IM norms, and they sometimes seem to think that the only point of playing these events is to make IM norms. The way for these kids to make norms is extremely simple. All they have to do is just get a little better at chess, show up to play in the chess tournament, play normally, and the norms will come.

Do you agree? Comments?

US Extreme Chess Ep 1

2011-12-24T23:59:00.002+11:00

Enjoy! Let me know what you think.

PS. To those who share the faith, Blessed Christmas. Shalom! Kyrie Eleison!

To those who do not share the faith, happy and merry holidays! Good luck to all juniors playing in the Australian Championship in Geelong. I will try to blog from watching via Internet in Sydney.

Magnus Carlsen speaks......

2011-12-24T21:35:00.002+11:00

Check out the interview Magnus gave after ending the year on a high, a personal record rating high for the year 2011.

Interview with ChessPro translated here and translated here (the same translation).

Excerpts:

I’m a professional chess player, and if that’s the case then I should do all that I'm capable of to fulfil my potential. I like to win and I strive for the best possible results… At the same time, I still manage to get a lot of enjoyment from playing! During a game I cease to think about the result as I become so enthralled by what’s happening on the board.

How much slower do you think your chess development would have been if you didn’t have a computer at hand?

I don’t know. I never thought about it. It seems to me (stopping to think), that the computer didn’t have any kind of fundamental influence on me personally.

That’s hard to believe… You stand out precisely for being ready to play any position “on sight”, for being ready to defend positions where “ugly” machine moves are required…

But that’s how it was. I can tell you that for the first few years I didn’t use the machine’s help at all, even as a database! Back then I simply put a board in front of me, took the books I was studying at the time and looked at everything on that. And the first time I needed a computer for chess was when I started to play on the internet.

Honestly, when I was about 11-12 I didn’t even know what ChessBase was. I realise that sounds pretty implausible from my lips – and the majority of people consider me a product of the “computer chess” era, but that’s how it was! I’d add that my computer “incompetence” in chess even amazed my first coaches. I had nowhere to show them databases, or my analysis.

So your chess understanding, your positional sense – it’s all human?

I think so, yes. And my fundamental chess understanding was formed without machine involvement. That was my approach to chess, my idea of the struggle.

Junior Chess on Internet/Youtube ...... US style:Extreme Chess

2011-12-24T21:24:00.003+11:00

Here is the trailer of a US production by that US powerhouse chess siblings, the Shahades, Jennifer and Greg. Enjoy.

Tomorrow, Christmas day: Episode One.

The Sydney Grammar saga ......

2011-12-05T10:21:00.003+11:00

I am planning to blog on this saga as I think it raises interesting issues which I have been exploring in the blog as well. For those who does not know, check out the Sydney Morning Herald Saturday 3rd December edition. From the e-version it seems there is also a Channel Ten report. (I have deliberately not provided links because I am personally not enamoured of the whole media circus thingy. But if you wish to find out, you need to do the digging yourself.) The SMH report has also been picked up by Susan Polgar's blog and there are some pretty interesting responses in the comments section.

My blog will consist of my personal views and not the views of AusJCL nor NSWJCL. I am delaying as I want the dust to settle and for every punter to finish their immediate knee-jerk reaction and ranting (check out ChessChat). Another reason is I am trying desperately to finish marking before even attempting to analyse the whole issue.

So stay tuned.

World Youth Chess Championship 2011 Caldas Novas Brazil

2011-11-29T10:22:00.003+11:00

[My apologies for the late posting but better late than never!]

The WYCC 2011 edition is finally over and we have a new star in Australia (well sort of and perhaps I am going overboard since it is early days yet as he is only 8 years old) with the name of Kevin. Yes, Kevin Willathgamuwa did Australia proud by coming 10th in the U8 Open division. Kevin could have got a higher position if he won his last round. Similarly a number of other Australia juniors woudl have achieved a higher final placing if they won the crucial game in the last round. But it is never easy ...... The second best placing was achieved by Justin Tan in the U14 Open placed 24th and as GM Ian Rogers commented, the only player who managed to defeat the eventual winner. Sally Yu managed a 28th placing result which came after a long layoff from chess (?). So my congratulations to all.

Five out seven managed to achieved 50% or more in their games. And I think that is a great improvement.

Final result here. The official website is a mess.

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

2011-11-22T13:19:00.003+11:00

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.

More on junior chess from GM Vladimir Kramnik ......

2011-11-22T12:35:00.002+11:00

The translated excerpts are here (again thanks to WhyChess and Colin McGourty) but read this:

What sort of impression did the talented young players make on you? Are they well-read children or “children of the computer”?

I can’t say I studied them that well, but it seemed to me that the kids, including the girls, are definitely very talented and mentally alert. But when it comes to knowledge… It seems to me that at their age our generation knew more about chess than they do. They need to gain knowledge. But in terms of talent everything’s fine. I posed them some questions and they suggested very interesting moves. It seemed to me, however, that we were keener on working, although it’s hard to draw conclusions after three days.

Originally I wanted to give lectures on the opening, but then we discussed it with the coaches and decided that I’d talk about general topics: how to prepare for opponents and determine their strong and weak points and so on. The second lecture was on the topic of positional play. They all see tactics well, but I was told that they’ve got some problems with positional play.

Food for thought for Australian coaches and trainers.

PS. note that one of his 3-hour lectures will be published on the Russian Chess Federation website after the 2011 WYCC in Brazil. Hmmmmmm ...... perhaps we can get a translation from an Australian chess player who reads Russian?

From the "mouth" of IM Silvio Danailov ......

2011-11-22T12:03:00.003+11:00

I came across the translation (on WhyChess) of an interview with IM Silvio Danailov, current President of the European Chess Union but better know as the "gutter-mouth" manager of GM Veselin Topalov. You can read the translated interview here but here is the exceprt I was interested in:

The interview started with a discussion of the recent European Team Chess Championship, where Bulgaria had excellent winning chances until the final rounds. Danailov talked about the players tiring towards the end, and continued:

Don’t forget another factor – Kiprian Berbatov giving up chess was a big blow for us. We’d spent 4 years getting him ready and were relying on him for the fourth board, but finally he decided to concentrate on mathematics and not chess. But that’s what the younger generation is like – not only in chess but also in all other sports. They’re distracted by many things – there’s the internet and many different forms of entertainment. The old practice of self-discipline, self-improvement and self-sacrifice is rarer and rarer among the young. That’s the problem for Bulgarian sport as a whole – there’s nothing coming up from below. […]

But can the money there is in chess, which primarily benefits elite chess players, put off young people like Kiprian?

On the contrary, he also earned pretty well, but now he won’t have that income. There’s a long road ahead in order to become a mathematician, and the earnings in chess aren’t bad. But if you love something you don’t do it for the money. He gave up that money for the sake of mathematics, and he’s got the right to make that choice, of course. But it was a big blow for us.

Hmmmm...... Another strike for mathematics over chess! A reverse of GM John Nunn's decision 30-40 years ago to give up mathematics for a professional career in chess.

IM Danailov's remarks reminded me of an article (based on an interview with Alexander Vaisman , Honoured Trainer of the Ukraine) I read in the NIC' The Chess Instructor (2009) (btw a great book for any chess parent to read and reflect).

Alexander Vaisman bemoaned the deleterious effect chess parents can have on their talented child in two opposing extremes. The first is imposing an expectation of winning at all costs and all the time. Vaisman makes the point that junior chess is preparation for adult chess. (Do you agree?) In fact he does not think highly of Fide's World Chess Championships for the U8-U12 (which is currently taking place in Brazil!). But he also goes on to mention the other extreme where parents "make their child combine chess studies with higher education. The result is that both areas of study suffer. One must have the courage and intellect to choose one or the other. And parents should never try to impose their own will on their child, in this respect. He then gave the example of two juniors who pursued university studies. One junior gave up university after 2.5 years but the other continued. He expressed regret at the latter's choice since he believed that the junior had the potential to be World Champion. "But... the boy was forced to go to university. Time passed, and with it passed his chance to become World Champion. What a shame... 'Never kill a dream', as they say. Not the dream of the child, nor that of his trainer." (Note he advocates identifying as early as possible talent for chess and the the necessity for talent plus hard work equals success. He also speaks on other topics relating to chess training for juniors.)

This is an important issue for chess juniors and their parents. Would you have the courage to pursue the dream? Yes, it takes courage! And I salute those in Australia who have done so. They have proven to be more bold and courageous than me. I wonder what you would do, as a junior and/or as a parent ......

World Youth Chess Championship 2011 Caldas Novas Brazil

2011-11-21T10:56:00.007+11:00

Heading into the first rest day, I thought I will summarise the exploits of the intrepid Australian juniors after 4 rounds (see here for results). Things will only get harder from now on as the Australians begin to play other juniors nearer to their own playing strength if not higher.

U8 Open
Kevin Willathgamuwa has 3 /4 all against unrated players but faces his first rated player in Rd 5: Samir Sahidi Elo 1579 from Slovakia (2.5/4) on Bd 11.

U10 Open
Rowan Willathgamuwa Elo 1687 has 2.5/4 winning against unrated players but lost to a FM in Rd 2 (Amin Tabatabaei from Iran Elo 2028). Rowan faces an unrated player from Argentina in Rd 5.

U12 Open
Karl Zelesco Elo 1976 has 3/4 having lost in Rd 4 to a Canadian seeded 8th (Elo 2094) but defeated an Italian FM (Elo 2211) in Rd 3 ranked 4th. Karl now faces Trinadadian Joshua Johnson Elo 1862 in Rd 5.

U14 Open
Justin Tan also has 3/4 also losing in Rd 4 to a FM from France Bilel Bellahcene Elo 2311 seeded 11th but similarly defeated a FM from Russia Kirill Alekseenko Elo 2351 in Rd 3 seeded 8th. Justin faces German Dennis Wagner Elo 2333 in Rd 5.

U16 Girls
Abbie Kanagarajah Elo 1617 has 1/4 being paired with two opponents rated over 2000+ (seeded 21st and 15th respectively which demonstrates how tough the competition is) in Rds 1 and 2 but drew against unrated opponents in Rds 3 and 4 and now faces unrated Angelica Gariela Marques form Brazil in Rd 5.

U18 Girls
Sally Yu Elo 1918 has 1.5/4 having lost to a WFM (elo 2205) and a WIM (Elo 2167) in Rds 1 and 4 respectively but drew against another WFM (Elo 2106) in Rd 3. Sally now faces unrated Reka Kantor Elo 1972 from Slovakia in Rd 5.

Miranda Webb-Liddle Elo 1489 has 0.5/4 managing a draw against an unrated player in Rd 3. She faced higher rated players (2 x 2000+ and 1 x 1900+) in the other rounds and lost. She now faces Romanian Maria Vasilecu Elo 1835 in Rd 5.

Note that Rds 3 and 4 were a double header, ie double rounds on 20th November. (PS I checked out the time difference and it looks like they are -13 hrs in comparison to AEST, which meant they started playing Rd 3 at 11 pm AEST 20th Nov and Rd 4 was at 6 am AEST 21st Nov.)

All in all, I think our results are better this year. I suspect that Kevin, Rowan, Karl and Justin will find it harder going from Rd 5 onwards and Abbie, Sally and Miranda may find it a bit easier. Nonetheless their task is made easier since we have a secret weapon travelling with the Australian juniors, who is none other than opening theoretician and specialist, GM Ian Rogers. Hopefully the rest day will give some respite to the kids and allow them to have a breather. And maybe for their super-coach to come up with some magical openings novelties, just kidding!!! :) :) :) At this standard of play, I think games are won and lost in the middlegame and/or endgame.

Now to a round up of the tournament itself.
In the U8 Open, US junior Awonder Liang (yes that is his name and see here for more) leads with 4/4 with 8 others snapping at his heels with 3.5/4. Kevin is joint 10th with 3/4 well within striking distance.

In the U10 Open it is very close with 4 players on 4/4 and 6 others on 3.5/4. Rowan is sitting on joint 27th with 2.5/4.

In the U12 Open, Karl's 4th round opponent leads with 4/4 with 12 others on 3.5/4. Karl sits on joint 14th placing.

In the U14 Open, Justin's 4th Round opponent is joint first with an Indian junior, FM Diptayan Ghosh. Justin is sitting on joint 14th position.

In the U16 Open, there is no one with a perfect score and hence 8 juniors are sitting joint first with 3.5/4 including my picks, FM Felix Jose Ynojosa from Venezuela (but plays chess in England) and Polish IM Kamil Dragun. GM Jorge Cori is 0.5 point behind on 3/4.

In the U16 Girls, we have a sole leader, Indian unrated Pv Nandhidhaa with 4/4 (demonstrating how dangerous these unrateds from India et al are) followed closely behind by 7 others on 3.5/4.

In the U18 Girls, we have two joint leaders on 4/4, Russian WGM Alina Kashlinskaya and Georgian WIM Meri Arabidze.

In the U18 Open, we also have two joint leaders and who will clash Rd 5, GM Samvel Ter-Sahakyan (seeded no 1) and 3rd seed GM Saleh Salem from the UAE. There are 6 others on 3.5/4 including 2nd seed, Russian GM Vladimir Fedoseev. WGM Deyse Cori and IM Zhou YangFan are on 2.5/4.

But there are plenty more chess to come with 5 more rounds to go.

World Youth Chess Championship 2011 Caldas Novas Brazil

2011-11-20T11:53:00.002+11:00

Rd 3 Pairings:

Willathgamuwa Kevin vs Baasansuren Erdene U 8 Open
Romero Gonzalez Juan Ignacio vs Willathgamuwa Rowan U 10 Open
Zelesco Karl vs FM Rambaldi Francesco U 12 Open
Tan Justin vs FM Alekseenko Kirill U 14 Open
Fang Tina Fang vs Kanagarajah Abbie U 16 Girls
WFM Petrova Irina vs Yu Sally U 18 Girls
Webb-Liddle Miranda vs Monadjem Mina U 18 Girls

World Youth Chess Championship 2011 Caldas Novas Brazil

2011-11-20T00:06:00.003+11:00

We have started Round 1 with 4 wins and one loss: see here. It looks like the U18 girls Rd 1 begins one day later (maybe they are playing one round less?) OR maybe the results are not being updated as quickly.

It seems there are live games here and here.

According to live games, there is a BIG UPSET in Rd 1 of the U18 Open. Top seed Armenian GM Samvel Ter-Sahakyan lost to Elfer Cutipa Loayza from Peru. And 2nd seed GM Vladmir Fedoseev has also lost. Hmmmmmmm! not very sure about this especially after the problems with the electronic live games from the European Team Championships recently in Greece.

After further investigations, it looks like the live games results are corrupted. Perhaps they inputed the names of players wrongly. There are just too many upsets.

Stay tuned.

World Youth Chess Championship 2011 Caldas Novas Brazil

2011-11-17T22:20:00.006+11:00

It is that time of the year again, yes, time for the greatest show on earth in the area of junior chess, the biggie, the Mother of all junior chess tournaments, the World Youth Chess Championship 2011 (WYCC 2011) (see here). This year it is in Brazil, in the city of Caldas Novas in "the state of Goiás and considered by many to be the largest hydro-thermal resort in the world" (wikipedia).

Australia's representatives are:
No. Name FideID FED RtgI Name
62 Willathgamuwa Kevin 3214168 AUS 0 U 8 Open
37 Willathgamuwa Rowan 3214176 AUS 1687 U 10 Open
24 Zelesco Karl 3213390 AUS 1976 U 12 Open
28 Tan Justin 3206882 AUS 2160 U 14 Open
64 Simmonds Leteisha 3208699 AUS 1642 U 16 Girls
65 Kanagarajah Abbie 3208630 AUS 1617 U 16 Girls
43 Yu Sally 3206718 AUS 1918 U 18 Girls
60 Webb-Liddle Miranda 3206939 AUS 1489 U 18 Girls

Note that Daniel Lapitan has withdrawn from the U12 Open.

The team Coach is the evergreen GM Ian Rogers (who has to make the mad dash from Amsterdam, see here for a photo (2nd photo) of him kibitzing with David Smerdon (?)).

The Schedule:

Thursday 17 November 20h – Arrival of Delegations
Thursday 17 November 22h – Technical Meeting
Friday 18 November 15h30 – Opening Ceremony
Friday 18 November 16h – 1st round
Saturday 19 November 15 hs – 2nd round
Sunday 20 November 10 hs – 3rd round
Sunday 20 November 17h –4th round
Monday 21 November – Free day
Tuesday 22 November 15 hs – 5th round
Wednesday 23 November 15 hs – 6th round
Thursday 24 November 15hs – 7th round
Friday 25 November 15 hs – 8th round
Saturday 26 November 10h – 9th round

Saturday 26 November 20h – Closing Ceremony
Sunday 27 November – Departure of Delegations

Best way to keep track of results is via ChessResults (see here). Looks like there is no live broadcast of games.

Names to look out for (besides Aussie juniors and the obvious top seeds):
U18 Open - IM Zhou Yang-Fan (Eng) and WGM Deyse T. Cori (Peru) (who is playing in Open section and not U18 Girls);
U16 Open - GM Jorge Cori (Peru), IM Kamil Dragun (Poland), Felix Jose Ynojosa (Venezuela but lives and plays chess in England);
U14 Open - FM Jan-Krzysztof Duda (Poland), FM Koushik Girish (India), FM Tibor Kende Antal (Hungary);
U12 Girls - WFM Maria Furtado Ivana (India) (she is top seed but this might be her year).

15 year old Jack Hughes and the oldest chess club in Australia (?)

2011-11-09T13:37:00.004+11:00

A video of the Mebourne Chess Club to enjoy, mainly because of the junior, 15 year old Jack Hughes, taking the initiative to become an arbiter. I think he carried himself well in the interview and a good ambassador for chess. Here is the link to the newspaper story. Kudos to Melbourne Leader.

Celebrity Chess Coaches vs Solid "Boring" Chess Coaches — Further comment

2011-11-08T12:14:00.005+11:00

For a very apt comment (a picture is worth a thousand words) on the previous blog on Celebrity coaches:

Chess Wishes by Jose Diaz
courtesy of Chessvibes

Celebrity Chess Coaches vs Solid "Boring" Chess Coaches

2011-11-04T11:47:00.004+11:00

This week's soundbite in the chess world was the revelation (but not for most people it seems, at any rate according to GM Vladimir Kramnik) that US GM Hikaru Nakamura has been working with GM Garry Kasparov since late 2010. You read the story here, and here.

This set me thinking of a parallel phenomenon in local junior chess scene. What I mean is the case of the ambitious chess parent who flits from chess coach to chess coach for their child hoping the better known chess coach will somehow make their child a success. Of course who is a "better known" chess coach is dependent on two factors: 1) the chess coach individual success in chess tournaments which is reinforced by chess titles, ie GM title is better than an IM title which is better than a FM title and after that we proceed to ratings, ie Elo/ACF 2200 coach is better than a Elo/ACF 1800 coach; 2) the chess coach's current student(s) successes in tournaments.

So, what do we look for in a chess coach? Or what should we be looking for? A chess title such as GM? Well, they are quite few and far in between in Australia where we basically only have three and one GM-in-waiting. (I know of a chess parent who would only consider a GM as a coach for their child.) Do we look for the celebrity factor (as measured by tournament successes)?

What do you think?

Back to the international chess scene. It is interesting that the most famous of all chess coaches is only an IM but possibly at GM strength. It is also interesting that the most successful chess coaches as measured by the successes of their students are chess players who have achieved the IM or GM title but given up competitive chess to concentrate on coaching and teaching. In fact the most famous Moldavian chess coach is Chebanenko who is not a GM. It is interesting also that two other "Young Guns" in the chess world , GM Anish Giri and GM Sergey Karjayin, are currently being coached by not very well-known names.

Following on from Last BlogPost: Ratings, Norms, Titles, or Fun, or just Chess???

2011-11-04T10:04:00.004+11:00

This is a follow-up to the last blogpost highlighting US IM Greg Shahade's blogpost on USCF Chess Life Online on his concerns about the US junior chess scene's obsession with results and in particular with norms and ratings (see here). I also pointed to Michael Aigner's reply to IM Shahade that chess should be fun otherwise there will be chess burn-out (interestingly he cited the case of Nicholas Nip as an example of chess burn-out; earlier, Nicholas Nip's story was raised in the chess media as junior who managed to beat Bobby Fisher's record in becoming the "youngest USCF Master in history, obtaining a rating of 2207 at the age of 9 years, 11 months and 26 days" (see wikipedia entry here). But it seems he no longer plays chess ......)

This bit about chess as fun brought out a personal bugbear of mine into the open. I am not for any reason denying that chess should be fun but Chess Should be Fun as a governing stricture? That I have problems with.

Let me explain. Like IM Shahade, I think we need to be careful which group of juniors chess players we are referring to in the immediate discussion. So for the benefit furthering the discussion, let me propose the following classification (but bear in mind, only as a heuristic and not as an essentialist tool):

1) Super talented junior chess players who can make it to the GM title and beyond to 2600+;
2) Talented juniors who can make it to IM and possibly GM;
3) Talented juniors who can improve to Elo 2200-2400;
4) Talented juniors who will improve to only 1800-2000.

But this classification is one-dimensional. We need to add another dimension, the dimension of motivation.

1) Juniors who are ambitious and singularly focused on achieving a GM title;
2) Juniors who are ambitious and focused on achieving success in international tournaments;
3) Juniors who are ambitious and focused on only achieving success in local and national tournaments;
4) Juniors who play only because of peers and/or parents.

We need also a third dimension: a measure of Passion:
1) Juniors who are really passionate about chess and live to play chess in a singular manner;
2) Juniors who are passionate about chess but has other competing passions;
3) Juniors who are interested in chess as a hobby or intellectual stimulation;
4) Juniors who are interested in chess as a facilitator to other subjects such as mathematics.

When we try to place juniors according to the three dimensions, we realised that it is a more complex complicated picture than originally envisaged.

Obviously (well, it is obvious to me at any rate) that the group of juniors that IM Shahade is referring to in his blogpost is the group where there is super talent, there is ambition and there is passion! And the group that Michael Aigner refers to as requiring fun as a component of chess might be talented, modest ambition and other passions besides chess or it might also refer to the group who are averagely talented and treats chess as only another activity. As they say: horses for courses.

This schema raises an interesting issue which of course is at the heart of IM Shahade's blogpost. How does a junior chess administrator (usually volunteers!!!) and/or tournament organiser cater for these diverse groups and interests? This question is one which is asked and debated amongst parents at every Australian Junior Championships and in particular whether you have a so-called "serious" chess tournament consisting of only one game a day or you have multi-games day thus making the tournament shorter in duration, thus more "parent-friendly".

Last rant: Why is it that we brow beat chess parents for being pushy parents if they "facilitate" the child's improvement in chess by adherence to a strict regime etc. Don't we do the same in Australia with other kids in other activities? such as swimming (go and read the biographies of famous swimmers such as Ian Thorpe and the 5 am waking up for 6 am 20 km laps in the pool) and gymnastics. What about football (three practices a week!)?

Well, what do you think?

Caveat: My son does not play chess anymore. I have jokingly told people it is because I was a pushy chess parent. But in all seriousness, I do not have to excuse myself nor make any apology. My son turned out to be talented (for a time the 3rd best U10 junior in Australia but that in itself is quite meaningless except as a conversation piece) but lacked the ambition and passion for chess required for further success. He may or may not play chess for fun in the future. On a brighter note, after he stopped chess, he channeled his ambition and passion to the violin. And I am happy with that. Hmmmm ...... Vivaldi's Four Seasons ......

Ratings, Norms, Titles, or Fun, or just Chess???

2011-11-03T22:17:00.003+11:00

Over at USCF Chess Life Online, there is a blog post by well-known US chess player, chess coach, and chess training camp extraordinare, IM Greg Shahade entitled "Greg on Norms Part I: Please Stop Caring!". See here. IM Shahade begins thus:

Chess is a very difficult and competitive game. It’s extremely hard to become one of the best players in the world. To do so, you need to do almost everything right throughout your chess career. You should never squander opportunities to learn or grow as a chess player if your goal is to be one of the best in the world.

he goes on to say that the focus on norms, results and ratings is wrong and will ultimately harm the chances of the talented chess kids in achieving their dreams of success in chess. For example, instead of taking a last round 15 moves draw against a GM which ensure a norm, he reckons the chess junior should make full use of the opportunity and fight a full game aiming for a win.

What would be much more impressive to me, and would be deserving of a lot more praise than making a norm, would be if one of these players needed a draw in the last round of a tournament to make a norm, yet refused a draw against a Grandmaster opponent, and instead took that opportunity to understand and feel the pressure of trying to play a chess game for a win under severe emotional pressure. However that the player would be congratulated more if they took a draw in ten moves than if he played his heart out, played a character building game that could serve as the building block for a future World Championship run, but instead lost. We have it all twisted around.

This view of things can be contrasted with another well-known chess player cum coach, Michael Aigner (who runs the blog fpawn) (which can be found in the comments).

The most important ingredient for future success in chess is that you enjoy playing the game. You need to have fun at the board and while studying the games of other players. To a large extent, your own personality will define what is fun, and how you will play your games. Fischer enjoyed everything surrounding chess, even watching games between amateurs, and this brought him to the top.

Unfortunately, I don't see anyone having fun if the primary goal is very distant, such as top 10-20 in the world. The reality is that a young player needs many intermediate goals that can be reached sequentially. The youngster benefits from the occasional pat on the back (or CLO article) after some modest achievement. Those who don't taste success will get lost along the way.

I understand Mr. Shahade's form of idealism. He considers chess to be a form of art, like a composition by Mozart. However, art requires a much larger degree of maturity to fathom. While I may personally agree with many of the tenets discussed, I think there's a huge gulf between someone in their 30s and a teenager (or younger).

What do you think? Who do you agree with more?

IM Shahade also has this piece of advice for aspiring young chess players:

In order to become one of the absolute best it’s imperative that our amazingly young and talented players are taught at a very age to have their sights set high. As soon as someone who is as ridiculously talented starts thinking about getting IM norms or GM norms, and adjusting their play in order to make these norms, they have already lost that battle. There are about 1000 Grandmasters. If you are a special talent who has the rare opportunity to think about being one of the world’s best one day, put all of your focus on doing the things that it will take to become one of the top 10-20 in the world. Don’t spend energy worrying about whether you will become one of a group of 1000.

And he ends with these words:

Our young players are not going to become the best in the world by accident. There are kids all over the world who are talented enough and want the same thing. Our top players need to take advantage of every single opportunity in order to be the best, and unfortunately we have a bit of a results oriented culture that pushes our kids away from doing the right things. They should learn and be encouraged to never waste a single game, never sacrifice a learning experience for a short-term good result. Instead every single one of their actions should be focused on one thing, and one thing only: One day becoming the best player in the United States and one of the best players in the world. This probably won’t be possible until they are at least 18 years old, so the next 6-8 years should be treated as a learning experience.

Note: He promises a follow-up blog post on his "own personal feelings towards norms, and will be of a slightly different tone than this article." Hmmmmmmmm! Wonder what he means? Is he one who does not practise what he preaches? Have to wait and see.

PS. there is more to be found in the comments where Greg Shahade and Michael Aigner are having a discussion.

PPS. I have to say I agree with IM Shahade but note his caveat which he reiterates in his first comment:

This article is aimed towards people who have the potential to literally be one of the best players in the world.

He goes on to say:

I teach so many US Chess Schools, please trust me when I say it's a huge problem. Almost every kid who comes to our camps, no matter how talented, will automatically accept a draw against a GM in a slightly better position (or basically just anyone 100-200 points higher rated than them). I'd say approximately 80% would do so based on what I've seen.

I have to say, based on my own observations, which is limited, Sydney juniors are the same as well, taking a draw against a higher rated player just so they do not lose the game and they gain rating points. Anyone agree or disagree?

GM Yasser Seirawan speaks ......

2011-10-29T08:46:00.004+11:00

There is an interview with GM Yasser Seirawan conducted by Spanish journalist IM Anna Matnadze which is published by various chess media outlets (see here, here, here and here - take your pick).

GM Yasser Seirawan was once No 9 on the ratings list and a serious contender for the World Championships. He also became embroiled in chess politics in the 80s-90s. He retired from competitive chess and in the last few years became a very popular chess author with his Chess Duels book as well as his best games DVD for Chessbase. However, prior to this he co-authored a series of beginning to intermediate chess books for Microsoft Corp which are actually really really good. I used it with my son. Highly recommended. My favourite book(s) is his collaboration with FM Bruce Harper (main author) from Canada on the annotated games collection of GM Duncan Suttles. Wonderful, wonderful books (3 vols).

It is very interesting interview to read especially his views on the World Championship cycle as well as on the time controls. Makes a lot of sense too.

Some excerpts for juniors:

9. And your secret as to how to recover from a bitter loss?

One can never overcome a ‘bitter loss.’ The way to deal with a loss is before the tournament. I think most professional players simply have to accept that when they play in a tournament, to win it, they will have to take risks. So if before a tournament a player mentally girds themselves and say, “Okay, I’m going to lose a game, two or three, but I’m going to play hard for a victory,” then ‘accepting’ a loss is easier. Although the bitterness is long-lasting. Secondly, losing is part and parcel of the game. Get used to it. It will happen! Instead, we have to learn to take our losses in stride and learn from them. What did we do wrong? Why did we make the mistake we did? And so on. Losses will help us learn if we make the correct deductions.

17. What would be your advice to young people who are just starting to play chess and take it seriously?

Have fun. Enjoy what you are doing. Take your work seriously. If you get too stressed, take a break. If you apply yourself, you will get mentally tougher, much more disciplined, feel a greater sense of personal empowerment and learn to succeed in anything you want to do. Believe in yourself.

A Chess Parent Speaks ......

2011-10-26T14:09:00.004+11:00

Over at USCF ChessLife Online, there is an article by a chess parent, Andrea Rosen, mother of junior Eric Rosen, who won this year's National High School Championship in April. I suggest you head over read the article in full: see here.

Andrea cites Amy Chua and her (in)famous book, Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother at the beginning of the article. She goes on to say she felt some doubt, which quickly turned to relief on some minutes of reflection, whether she was right as a parent not to insist on academic grades and allowing her son to "indulge" in chess. The article is in a sense a reply to Amy Chua on the benefits of extra-curricular activities.

However, I feel she missed the point. Surely a Tiger Mom would also have insisted on chess as potentially beneficial to pure academic subjects (Amy's daughter played the piano (?)). If so, then sure the Tiger Mom attitude takes over and there is a focus on improvement in chess, training, working hard etc. All of us have experienced this first hand or observed such behaviour in others. (Even the quintessential US chess movie, Searching for Bobby Fischer has a good segment on this very issue.) The question goes a begging: What is healthy? How much of a push is healthy? Or should there be any push at all? But Andrea Rosen does not discuss this ...... Or did she? She did include these bits of advice from her son, Eric:

After years of playing high-level events, he’s got some advice for parents. He said he thinks it helps that Brad and I never told him we expected him to win or made him feel bad afterwards if he didn’t. “I think I did that to myself,” he said, “but that’s another story.”

Eric advises parents to give their kids space after a tough loss. “Just leave them alone.” Berating a player for losing, or showing them how they missed an easy win, he says, “can be psychologically devastating and make it very hard to play the next round.”

Telling someone they need to win the next round isn’t helpful either. “If anything, it will make it worse. They should just have an open, relaxed mind, and try to forget about any pressure or the result.” Parents can also make sure their kids eat well and stay healthy, he said.

Some excerpts:

I think my son Eric’s clear first-place win at this year’s National High School Championship, held April 28-May 1, 2011 in Nashville, Tennessee, offers some vindication to me and all other parents who believe that children, when encouraged to connect with passions of their own choosing, are inclined to work hard and can achieve success at the highest levels through their own intrinsic motivation. As an added bonus, whether or not they win a national championship, chances are their therapy bills as adults will be less.

To me, competing in anything is less about the results and more about what you learn on route. Nine years after he began to play, he’s learned plenty, and how to end a game with checkmate might be the least of it. He’s empathetic, he learns from his mistakes, he helps others learn from theirs, he loses with grace, and he handles himself like a pro in high-pressure, high- stakes situations.

Parts of the article is also Eric Rosen sharing his thoughts on chess and the tournament in particular:

First, he says, it’s easier to play well if you don’t think you’re going to win. [Do you agree? Read on in the article to see what he is saying.]

Second, he says, study the games of great players. [......] he focused on the U.S. Championship that was taking place during the 10 days prior to the high school championship in Nashville. “Every day I looked online at those games, and that really helped. I could see how good players played, and get inspiration. I also went over my own openings, because really that’s the most important thing to prepare before a tournament.”

During the tournament, his focus carried him through sticky situations in games. "[......]A big factor in my success had to do with being mentally determined to stay in the game and recover after my mistakes,” he said.

The High School Chess Coach (or Parent or Chess Fanatic) ......

2011-10-10T12:38:00.003+11:00

Thanks to GM Kevin Spraggett, please enjoy this Saturday Night Live skit (parody) of the life of a high school chess coach. (the last scene: dinner at home — ask yourself whether you are a chess tragic if you have a black and white chess board table cloth and the salt and pepper shakers must be on certain squares ......)

"Is there a difference in the game strategy between countries?"

2011-09-25T09:00:00.004+10:00

That was the question put to GM Nils Grandelius, the junior GM who sports dreadlocks and who just won the European U18 Chess Championship. And his answer?

Players from the countries of Eastern Europe follow a certain structure, they have all followed the same school and we know roughly what they have learned. We from the western countries are more unpredictable on the board.

See the rest of the short interview here. Here is the list of the winners. I guess Australian juniors heading to the World Youth in Brazil will be seeing most of them.

GM Mikhail Golubev Speaks ......

2011-09-23T09:10:00.003+10:00

Another interview in the series with US NM William Stewart (how does he do it?), this time with very well-known chess author GM Mikhail Golubev. Golubev is know for his three books on the Sozin Attack in the Sicilian, the KID and the Sicilian Dragon. Well worth reading to get an understanding of these openings and their resulting middlegames. He is now better known for writing for the only English daily chess newsletter in the world, Chess Today.

Excerpts that I like:

How to make progress? One has to play much and to learn much, to try his or her best, and to take chess seriously. But perhaps it all comes from the heart.

On the books to read:

What are your top book recommendations for beginner to intermediate players?

Perhaps, any entertaining chess book which feels like it may help to improve should actually help. For a level higher than beginners -- collections of games, played by great players and books, written by great players. But only in case if the reader enjoys a specific book, and likes that specific player. If one does not like too much to read Nimzowitsch or Bronstein, just switch to someone else light-heartedly.

What are your top book recommendations for advanced players?

Very important are good opening books, written, first of all, by GMs who regularly practice the openings or systems. Also, at least one good basic endgame manual has to be studied surely.

Also, I like his answer to training:

Working with colleagues often brings much effect, but historically I had only limited experiences of such kind, because all grandmasters from my town (except for Geller who was a totally different generation) played 1.d4 with White, and I did not want to switch from my 1.e4. As an exception Stanislav Savchenko and I sometimes worked on the Sicilian Dragon for Black (especially around 1990), and it was rather fruitful cooperation I think. In general, to work on openings with other players is practical. And to work with many other players is very practical. I worked for Anatoly Karpov two times in 1996-1997, and later I assisted Ruslan Ponomariov from time to time, but this is somewhat different. A serious player has to work with databases, but this is so clear that barely deserves to be mentioned. I think that even now analysing the game with the opponent immediately after the game normally helps significantly for both sides.

GM Bartlomiej Maciejag Speaks ......

2011-09-22T09:32:00.002+10:00

From the ongoing series by US NM William Stewart, there is an interview with Polish GM Bartlomiej Maciejag who is overshadowed by his compatriots, GM Dariusz Swiercz, GM Radosław Wojtaszek and GM Grzegorz Gajewski. Here is an excerpt on training:

What was your exact study regimen when you were working towards GM?

I have always seriously taken studies at school and university, thus I didn’t have much time for studies on chess. On the other hand, the free time I had was so precious for me, that I used it for chess very intensively. My chess coach GM Vitaly Tseshkovsky was coming to me for training sessions and we used to work many hours every day. I worked mostly during summer holidays, for this reason I was always a much more dangerous player around September-October than May-June. The duration of a particular training session during summer holidays was usually about 2 weeks of 8 hours a day, followed by a tournament. A typical schedule was that we played a rapid game, analysed critical positions in particular opening lines, finished a day with a blitz mini-match.

Opening Preparation - How important is it?

2011-09-20T10:34:00.003+10:00

By this time, most chess players would know that GM Peter Svidler (cricket tragic and all-round anglophile) has won the 2011 World Cup. This is what GM David Smerdon said on his blog:

Proof that you don’t need to worry too much about opening theory to succeed in chess. Proof that you can, in fact, win with the black pieces at top level. Proof that nice guys don’t always finish last.
But, most importantly, proof that you can love cricket more than chess and still get away with the odd million or two in chess prize money. There’s hope for us Aussies yet.

It is true that Svidler has a reputation (abetted by his own ironic and laconic remarks scattered throughout the interviews he has down through the years) for not working on his chess especially openings. His concrete play in games, very often heading towards quiet (or quieter) opening variations, support this assessment. But a few things belie the fact eg that he is recognised as an expert in the Grunfeld Defence (from Black side).

On the other side of the scale is the home preparation conducted with computers and chess engines (Houdini, Stockfish, Rybka et al). This, more than anything else, has levelled the playing-field so to speak. In addition, the rise and rise of chess publisher, Quality Chess based in Scotland, the brainchild of GMs Jacob Aagaard and John Shaw, and its flagship opening books, GM Repertoire (now up to GM Rep 9 with GM Rep 10 coming soon) has provided a godsend to ambitious chess players everywhere. Either it was serendipity (my favourite word) or it was deep planning (24 ply deep analysis) by Aagaard and Shaw, their GM Reps 1 and 2 by Israeli GM Boris Avrukh on 1 d4 opening revolutionised opening books. Their competitor, Everyman Chess, had to match their efforts and in the series, Attacking Chess, and especially, the two volumes on KID by US IM David Vigorito, is similar in intent and execution. This is the narrative that gets told around chessboards in chess clubs all over. It sounds good, does it not?

Or does it?

I have been following the US Chess League for a few years now and I read about the following game: NM David Adelberg (ARZ) - GM Mesgen Amanov (CHC) in Rd 3. There is a bit of a write-up over at the USCF and the game itself is annotated by GM Mesgen Amanov (see here).

I strongly encouraged you to go through the annotations by GM Amanov.

1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.g3 dxc4 5.Bg2 a6 6.0-0 Nc6 7.Nc3 Rb8 8.e4 Be7 9.Qe2 b5 10.Rd1 0-0 11.d5 exd5 12.e5 d4 13.exf6 Bxf6 14.Qe4 Bb7 15.Nd5 Nb4 16.Nxf6+ Qxf6 17.Qf4 c5 18.Qxf6 gxf6 19.Bf4 Rbc8! 20.Bd6 Rfd8 21.Be7 Re8 22.Bxf6 h6!(N?) 23.g4? [and Black went on to win 0-1]. (note: 23 a4 was previously played.)

According to GM Amanov, he learned of 22...h6 from playing blitz with GM Yury Shulman and later found the game by GM Barsov in his database.

GM Amanov made some points in his annotations about (over) relying on opening books providing a seemingly "complete" repertoire. You still have to check the databases and do your own analyses. He also emphasised home game preparation as including psychology preparation as well.

PS for those who like visual aesthetics, notice the Black pawn formation (!) on the Q-side after 27...b4. (GM Amanov called it "Pawn Power!")

So, what is the conclusion? Deep chess opening prep is the way to go? I think it is too simplistic to think of it in this manner. At a 2300+ level where you are going to face GM opponents, I think opening prep with computer databases and chess engines is a must. But some hard yakka and decent spadework have to be accomplished first. I think relying on an opening book like Avrukh's or even Vigorito's is fine but it must be coupled with understanding. Here a chess coach/trainer is invaluable. I remember reading the biography of Magnus Carlsen by GM Simen Agdestein where he related that Magnus used to spend hours playing through games and analysing the moves with an FM in GM Agdestein's chess school. Every move must be understood and a rationale provided. In GM Amanov's annotations, he says that g4 weakens the f4 square. I am sure his opponent knows of this as well and in spite/despite of the weakness, persisted with the move. But do you? Otherwise you are just relying on memory with no understanding. What do you do once you reach the Middlegame? One famous GM has put it thus: Conduct the opening in order to reach a playable middlegame. (Perhaps Svidler has taken this to heart!) I think this aphorism lies behind the playing style of GM Alexander Morozevich as well.

What else can we learn from GM Amanov's annotations? To be ambitious and reach greater heights in chess, you have to learn to be a strategical/positional player as well as a tactical/combinatorial player. The whole point of h6, and the plan to run the Knight to f4 ...... Technique in endgame is also crucial. For example, after 27...b4, do you know what to do with the pawn formation? Did you managed to spot the move 32...Bf3? Did you know the correct move order in exchanging pawns, ie beginning with 24...c3? Did you understand the importance of having the pawn on c2 and do you know the plan after getting your pawn to c2? Ie running your King from the K-side over to the Q-side preparing for c3?

Hope you enjoy the game.

FM Max Illingworth scores!!!

2011-09-15T11:34:00.004+10:00

Former top NSW junior FM Max Illingworth who is taking a gap year after finishing HSC last year and before beginning university studies, has travelling overseas playing in GM norms tournaments hunting for those elusive GM norms (three are required). After coming sooooo very close in the last few years in local tournaments in Australia, it looks like his hard work and persistence has paid off. Despite some very ordinary results at recent tournaments, Max scored his first GM norm (an undefeated 7/9, rating performance >2600) at the popular First Saturday Chess Tournament Series in Budapest, Hungary. If he continues his good form, he may be one of the rare group of chess players who skips the IM title and gains the GM title first. My best wishes on his endeavours.

For the GM norm result, see here and here and to replay games or download pgn, see here.

GM Adrian Mikhalchishin shares his training tips ......

2011-09-14T19:28:00.004+10:00

Over at Chessbase, there is this wonderful article by chess trainer GM Adrian Mikhalchishin on facing world champions over the board and the appropriate preparation (see here). GM Mikhalchishin has been involved as trainer and second to many World Championship candidates as well as World Champion Anatoly Karpov. He is now a Chessbase DVD author (very good DVDs on middlegames but bear in mind he tends to speak fast and assume some strategical knowledge, just pause and rewind) and also the trainer of the Turkish girls/women squad.

Excerpts:

[On preparing top women players] So, preparation was mostly psychological ,as she avoided main lines and tried to play for technique. Champs have a huge psychological weapon , which is their influenced on their opponents. I remember that I could not convince Alisa Maric, who feared no one, to play more active against Zhu Chen in her best year.

It was necessary to try to reach reasonable positions from the opening, to avoid technical positions, and to try to change the curse of the game's fourth hour.

[On the Turkish girls squad] Betul Yildiz played Hou Yifan three times in the last edition of the Grand Prix, and consistently got very favourable positions from the opening, but then started to make typical girl's mistakes - no more active moves forward. So,it was the first part of her general preparation - to explain, that her objective is just to press forward. Her opponent wants simple technical positions and will not be very happy with sharp play where the chance of making a mistake is much higher. I told her that top players hate pressure from the lower-rated players! Openings are not a problem, as her last level of preparation is sufficient to face even a World champion! It was partially psychological preparation as taught by Chinese table tennis trainers. Their psychological preparation is to convince (and to prepare) pupils, that their technical preparation is at the top.

There are two annotated games and the second is between Betul Yildiz and Hou YiFan. The annotations are quite revealing:

The first and most important problem is how to play a World Champion with Black? It is an important part of chess psychology as in women's chess it is more important than memorizing long opening lines. Preparation was to play very aggressively with Black, and never step back! The motto was "Russians and Turks never go back!" Geoffrey Borg, chief of the FIDE Grand Prix gave good advice, explaining that Hou Yifan plays technical positions like a computer! So,the only way to play her is to try be better prepared in the opening and to conduct very active strategy at every moment.

Hou Yifan looks more stable psychologically, as she can perform well even under stress and in uncomfortable situations. This means she has one of the important champion abilities: To be able to suffer and not crack under the pressure.

GM Evgeny Bareev Speaks ......

2011-09-13T08:08:00.002+10:00

GM Evgeny Bareev is a colourful character dropping witticisms at every media occasion (sometimes with less success). He is no longer the head coach of the mighty but underperforming Russian chess men team. But it seems he still is involved with coaching, with the juniors. At WhyChess there is a transcript of an interview he did waxing lyrical on junior chess. I thought this bit is very pertinent:

He also talked about the stresses of junior events.

Bareev said that Olga Girya’s recent experience in the World Junior Championship (she lost in the final round with White when a draw would have given her the gold medal) reminded him of his last appearance in the championship in Gausdal in 1986:

In the last game with White against Agdestein it turned out I only needed a draw. Granda Zuniga, who was my rival during the tournament, very quickly lost his game and Arencibia was half a point ahead. I got an extra pawn, and at that moment Anatoly Avraamovich Bykhovsky signalled to me that a draw was enough. My hands and legs started to shake, and I successfully lost that better position, shared 3rd place and didn’t make it onto the pedestal due to worse tiebreaks. Therefore I know what a test the World Championships are. In order to win a Swiss event you need to have experience and mental resilience. When children become champions and bring home medals people simply marvel at them. The only time I became World Champion it was a colossal stress. You give everything, but you obtain experience. Anyone can become a grandmaster with a certain amount of work, but not everyone’s capable of getting top results. You can’t have great victories without painful defeats.

GM Grzegorz Gajewski Speaks ......

2011-09-06T12:37:00.003+10:00

Continuing with interviews with GMs in the How to be a Grandmaster series by US chess player/coach William Stewart, here is the latest with Polish GM Grzegorz Gajewski (see here).

Excerpts:

When did you begin playing chess tournaments and how did you do?

When I was seven I started studying in school. There was a special chess class
so we had normal chess lessons (like math or science) – 4 hours a week taught by a teacher and chess coach (my first and only one) Boguslaw Boder. Those kids who clearly liked to play and had better results than others could be a part of the chess club and had additional trainings. Of course I was one of them. So when I was eight I started playing in tournaments and my chess life became – more or less – professional. I did good, but as always – there were better. I played my first Polish junior championship when I was 10 and I took a bronze medal. The winner was Mateusz Bartel, currently the polish champion. In my final game (the medal at stake!) I won a nice game against an eight years old boy – Radoslaw Wojtaszek. So I had quite a good company right from the beginning.

When did you begin making legitimate progress in your game and how?

Tough to say. It’s easy to say how – hard work. But when? My first big progress was probably when I was eight. When I was twelve I got my elo (about 2140) and as I remember in the next two years it didn’t change a lot. When I was about 14 my skills improved a lot and so on. Most young players make a big progress at some point then for the next 1-2 years they stop, and then another big progress…

Can you recall a specific turning point? (a game, event, working with a chess coach, etc..)

Meeting Boguslaw Boder, whose devotion to chess was really catching – this
was the biggest turning point and everything else was the result of it.

What was your exact study regimen when you were working towards GM? (What exactly did you study, what study materials do you recommend, how much were you working with a chess coach to prepare, etc..)

When I was 2400-2450 rated I started working with the computer a lot. I learned that – when working with engines – you need to direct them, argue with them, not just click the mouse. I also spent many hours watching the top guys playing each other, trying to understand all the nuances. Of course the openings were the most important at this time. Some say that you need to fight for advantage right from the beginning, play principle openings, find novelties. Others say that it is more important to understand your opening, know all the plans and ideas. And they are all right. Modern chess openings are aggressive – you won’t make a big progress always playing your trusted g3-Bg2 set-up and hoping that you outplay your opponent in the middlegame. On the other side what’s the point of spending many hours with Houdini only to get + 0.34 after 15 moves and then spoil it in the next few moves because you didn’t really understand what to do with your pieces?

Nature or Nurture: Do you think top chess players are born with a natural ability/gift or do they become so talented through hard work and the right environment?

Of course all the top players are more or less talented but there are hundreds, maybe thousands of mid level players who are talented as well. And here comes the hard work. That is what differentiates top players from the rest. The environment is also important, as well as the money you can or cannot invest in training and tournaments. But without hard work it is all for nothing.

By the way, he recommends lots of tactics, "Do a lot of tactics, thousands"! And he recommends Dvorestly and Jussupow's books as well as the Tournament Game book classic, Bronstein's Zurich 1953 (a must read if you intend to play the KID).

Now, in case you did not recognise the name, GM Gajewski (even at such a young age) is the populariser of the Gajewski Variation in the Ruy Lopez. He began playing it in 2007 taking it up to the elite GM levels. The game was Kuznetspv - Gajewski, Pardubice 2007, 0-1 (see here). According to author GM Sabino Brunella (Attacking the Spanish), English GM and no stranger to Australian chess players, GM Gawain Jones used the same Variation to stun Chinese GM Wang Hao in Wang Hao - Gawain Jones, Liverpool (UK-China) 2007 (see here). The moves leading to the Variation are:

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 5. 0-0 Be7 6. Re1 b5 7. Bb3 0-0 8. c3 d6 9. h3 Na5 10. Bc2 d5!?

It is this 10...d5 move that stunned GMs in 2007.

Our very own No 1 player, GM Zhao ZongYuan faced this Variation in the game at Gibraltar 2008 which gained him his 3rd and last GM norm.

Raja Nazrin Shah Invitational Masters and International Open 2011 (formerly the KL Open)

2011-09-06T12:13:00.002+10:00

After the Malaysian Open, the KL Open has begun, renamed as the Raja Nazrin Shah Invitational Masters and International Open 2011.

A number of Australians are playing. You can read a report on Rounds and 2 here. There is also a wonderful video of the opening ceremony and the rounds by Indian journalist, Vijay Kumar. I understand that the videos from the 2010 KL Open are being broadcast in India on its biggest Television Network Doordarshan TV as a promotion to the 2011 Open (see here).

You can follow updates by Simon Dale (?) at ChessChat here and also results at Chess Results here or of not updated here.

There is also an Invitational Masters (no Australian playing) and you check the results here. Recent Singaporean visitor, IM Goh Wei Ming, is playing, hunting for his 2nd GM norm.

In the video below, see if you can spot ACT ex-junior Alana Chibnall, juniors Ari and Finley Dale, and their super chess parents and chess tourists, the Dales.

Alana Chibnall at 6:37, the Dales at 2:35 and 5:02, Finley, Alana at 8:52.

Fencing and Chess and zen ......

2011-08-31T13:25:00.005+10:00

I viewed an interesting video on the psychology of success in the sport (art?) of fencing utilising lessons form chess and zen courtesy of Chesscafe. The video is below. I think it is worth the 6 minutes of your lief to watch it.

A few quick points:
1) The usual misconception of chess is displayed here although there are some good insights.
2) I found it more interesting how zen thinking could be of assistance in chess especially in time trouble and playing blitz or Armageddon games.
[Added: After reading about what happened to GM Alexander Motylev at the World Cup Rd 1, zen thinking is soooo required. See TWIC's Mark Crowther's report here.

But once the opening started he was afflicted by indecision and that's just so fatal in blitz chess.

Mark concluded:

Somehow in these games you need to get a good rhythm and when you don't get that force yourself to make moves and perhaps even work out a short term schedule if you start to waste time. Motylev was great once he started playing blitz chess, but it was just way too late to make time control (from 17 seconds left he did really well for a while!). With black just good enough is surely the way to go. This isn't chess, it is blitz chess.

I think what is required is zen chess!!!]
3) What the Olympic silver medallist, Jason Rogers, has to say about his changes in approach fencing over time is interesting.
4) what was said about intuition in fencing, I think, could also be applied to chess and the warning about overcalculation is apt.
Lastly, I wish we have sports psychologists who can volunteer their time to assist chess juniors in the psychological preparation.

In any event, watch and let me know what you think.

US Chess School 2011

2011-08-24T14:10:00.004+10:00

I have previously blogged on the US Chess School run by IM Greg Shahade with private sponsorship for the best 12 junior players in the US. The 15th edition (July) session was held in the Carolinas and FM Mike Klein has written an extensive report on the five days here (Chess Life Online). I suggest you read the report in full (beneficial for both parents and juniros). In addition to IM Shahade the main coach was GM Gregory Kaidanov. Excerpts on GM Kaidanov:

The grandmaster opened the camp with a critique disguised as a challenge. After polling the students on how much each studied (responses ranged from two to seven hours per week, with three hours the mode), he replied, “I hope that the numbers you gave are very modest. You are at such an age that even if you do nothing you’re going to get better. However, each one of you can become a GM at the end of high school. There is no question that it will require a huge commitment.

“To become a GM is something that will set you for life. Not in terms of a chess career, but in terms of success in life. [Colleges will see] you know how to organize your time and that you know how to study. To become a GM before high school (graduation) is more important than school itself. I’m not saying to drop out!”

Kaidanov placed emphasis throughout the entire camp on how to study, and how to figure out what to study. He advised students to laboriously analyze their own games and identify common weaknesses, making sure not to generalize. Kaidanov pointed out that many weaker players isolate the wrong reasons that they are losing games.

GM Kaidanov then focused ont he games of former world champion GM Anatoly Karpov:

“There is more positional chess than tactical,” Kaidanov said. “I know the world is unfair.” While everyone at the camp surely had heard of and occasional used prophylactic moves, Kaidanov wanted to make this the top priority. He cautioned never to improve your own position until you stifle your opponent’s play.

Kaidanov summed up Karpov’s entire career succinctly. One – What can my opponent do? Two – If my opponent can do nothing, how can I improve my position? “It usually takes forever but [Karpov] doesn’t mind,” Kaidanov said. [......] Channeling Karpov again, “OK, I have to do tactics, (sigh) if there is no other way.”

While the games of Tal and Nezhmetdinov may seem more alluring, Kaidanov said Karpov’s methods become more exciting the more they are understood.

Read the report to see what GM Kaidanov said abotu repeating moves as a legitimate game tactic: "He called repeating once a “tool, not a trick.”."

His reading list for advanced students?

In addition to the Mark Dvoretsky tomes, he especially liked “Imagination in Chess” by Paata Gaprindashvili, “Endgame Strategy” by Mikhail Shereshevsky, “John Nunn’s Chess Puzzle Book” by John Nunn and “Think Like a Grandmaster” by Alexander Kotov. Greg Shahade could not lavish enough praise on “Mastering Chess Strategy” by Johan Hellston.

On Day Three:

Later in the day Kaidanov played “solitaire chess” with his students, where the goal is to guess the next move. He said it is one of his favorite ways to study. “I love to do solitaire chess so much that I don’t like to look at games any other way,” he said. Unlike most teachers, Kaidanov usually does not scan through the moves before playing solitaire chess. He prefers to be on the same unsure footing of the others in the room.

Perhaps reacting to three solid days of Karpovian incrementalism, campers selected a Morozevich game from the recently concluded Russian Championship. The bold play of the dashing Morozevich flummoxed student and teacher alike. Kaidanov reacted with boyish delight at every mouse-click reveal of the super-GM’s moves.

On day Four the focus was on defensive chess:

Both trainers insisted on dogged determination in the face of a worse position.

On the importance of chess engines and database:

He also discussed the hugely important need for students to take advantage of database and engines. Kaidanov said he thinks Firebird, Houdini and Stockfish are just as good as Rybka. In what was the only proprietary part of camp, he gave the campers seldom-used “secret” techniques for maximizing the functions of chess software. Kaidanov arrived at camp with two laptops and had many more he left behind in Kentucky. “I have five computers at my house and they are constantly complaining that they don’t have enough work to do,” he said. “Please send me your positions!”

And the last moralising tale:

The final day, Kaidanov opened camp with a cautionary tale: the story of a former student whose talent was squandered in his formative years. Much later in life, during a brief return to chess, the student came to realize his ceiling was much lower than it could have been.

GM Wesley So speaks ......

2011-08-24T09:32:00.002+10:00

From Will Stewart's ongoing series of interviews with GMs, here comes an interview with a familiar name and closer to home, namely Pinoy prodigy and talent, GM Wesley So. Excerpts:

When did you begin making legitimate progress in your game and How?

The first local chess coach I had helped me choose the right openings for me and enhanced them. But when I got my FM title (I was 12 then) working with him wasn’t essential anymore and I started to work on my own. I got my IM title a year later. During those times, I tried to improve my openings and analyse my games. And it is also essential to practice and play regularly to improve.

Can you recall a specific turning point? (a game, event, working with a chess coach, etc..)

2006 was important for me because I qualified for the Olympic team. I was only 12 then. I experienced working with IM’s and GM’s and how they play and see chess. My rating jumped from 2216 to 2450 in that year.

What are your top book recommendations for beginner to intermediate players? (<2000)

“My System” by Nimzowitsch is a good book. And also some books of Dvoretsky. Opening books are also useful for starting players. It gives them ideas about each opening. It is also very good to incorporate your repertoire with computer analysis.

What are your top book recommendations for advanced players? (2200+)

I think the same as above. Opening books, “My System”, etc. In my opinion it is quite difficult to study the endgame through books or computers. Because during the game tiredness will take its toll and each player cannot remember a lot of things they had studied. Experience through playing long games is essential to improve in the endings.

How did you become a Grandmaster? (What tournaments, did you have a chess trainer, etc..)

It is important to have a certain amount of experience playing GM’s (strong ones preferably), IM’s, etc. And to study and practice regularly. I got my GM title around 1 and a half years of trying to get it. It isn’t that easy because there is pressure when you are close to getting the norm. Sometimes its better not to think about it and just enjoy playing. And I did not have a trainer to become a GM.

What was your exact study regimen when you were working towards GM? (What exactly did you study, what study materials do you recommend, how much were you working with a chess trainer to prepare, etc..)

For me all I did was play and practice regularly. And it is also essential to prepare before an event (look at competitor’s games, prepare new openings, etc) to expect a good result. Around the time I became a GM I was going to high school, so I could only study 2-4 hours a day.

What is your study routine now? (how is it different?)

I analyse much deeper now than before. And the computer is getting stronger every year, so it means opponents are stronger and preparation is easier. These days I study between 2-6 hours a day.

Nature or Nurture: Do you think top chess players are born with a natural ability/gift or do they become so talented through hard work and the right environment?

It’s more of the latter in my opinion. These days,hard work (before and especially DURING the game) is essential in chess and not only chess, but in life if you want to succeed in something.

And his favourite player ...... of course it is Magnus Carlsen with whom he did some training sessions (at Magnus' request).

The new World Junior Chess Champions are crowned ...... and postmortem for Australians

2011-08-16T10:47:00.004+10:00

I know I am supposed to blog on Australian juniors but I could not resist the dramatic and thrilling news of the final round of the 2011 World Juniors at Chennai, India. In the Open section, GM Robert Hovhannisyan from Armenia seemingly was assured of the title as he headed into the final round. He was half a point ahead of GM Dariusz Swiercz from Poland. But he could only draw whilst Dariusz won his final round game and with a better tiebreak score, Dariusz emerged as the 2011 World Junior Champion. Congrats to him and his family in Poland and in Australia. That is the reason I was excited as Dariusz has visited Australia before and played chess in Australia (see my previous blogs here). I understand we were very close to getting Dariusz to play in the Doeberl Cup and SIO this year but negotiations broke down. But I do feel for GM Hovhannisyan, to have come so close and yet missed! And he was leading the tournament for a long while! In this picture in the Chessdom's report (here) you can see that he is not very happy. (I am having problems uploading photos. Have not been able to figure out why ...... sigh!) Also check out Whychess' report here.

Amazingly, a similar occurrence took place in the World Junior Girls Championships. Here two girls, WGMs Olga Girya and Deysi Cori were having a huge battle. Olga was half a point ahead of Cori going into the last round after leading the tournament for a long while yet again. Amazingly, Deysi won her game and tragically, Olga lost to Indian top player, WGM Rout Padmini. This meant Deysi emerged the clear winner. (I have also previously blogged on Deysi Cori here and use the search function.)

Now how did Australian juniors fare? WIM Emma Guo did not have a good tournament. She started at rank 41 and finished at 55th position (5.5/13) with a rating performance of only 1911 (she is Elo 2029). Savithri Narenthran began at 68th rank and placed 67th (4/13), playing to her strength at performance of 1755 (she was rated Elo 1693). According to GM Ian Rogers in his Sun Herald column, Savithri was doing well, let down only by her technical endgame proficiency.

Of the three ex-juniors who participated in the Open, FM Junta Ikeda achieved the best result with 7/13, a performance rating of 2347 but that was only a performance close to his rating of Elo 2349. FM Moulthun Ly performed worse than his ratings at 2272 (Elo 2369) whilst Fedja Zulfic performed at 1971 (Elo 2098).

I do hope that someone somewhere (much better qualified than me) will conduct a postmortem analysis of the Australian performance, not to find fault but to seek some concrete answers. I am going to put my foot in my mouth and go out on a limb and say that Australians need to wise up in these international Open events. They will face a lot of under-rated players who are extremely tactical in their play. These overseas players play differently as has been attested by none other than GM David Smerdon. Australians need to learn the skill of being able to "put them away" and gain that crucial point. You need to "Carlsen" your opponents. In these tournaments, every single draw is half a point lost, not half a point won! I know these are tough words but that is my considered opinion. In addition to actual chess, Australians need to have the mental and psychological toughness to grind out the win, game after game. Stamina, resilience, focus, and inner drive are required. Ultimately, you must have the belief in yourself. That is of course if you are there to play and win! Of course, if you are there to play and have fun, that is a different matter altogether. And before I get flamed, I am in no way suggesting that our representatives were not in Chennai to play and win.

Comments welcomed.

GMs speaks ......

2011-08-15T09:48:00.003+10:00

From the US, comes a series of interviews (Q&A) with strong chess players on the topic, How to be a Grandmaster. The series is at the blog of US National Chess Master (a national title ~2200-2300) William Stewart***.

So far he has interviewed GM Estratios Grivas (video interview here posted August 2011), GM Serjey Karjakin (interview here posted August 2011), GM Evgeny Postny (interview here), and GM Adam Tukhaev (interview here).

Some excerpts (but please visit the blog for the full interviews):
[Karjakin]
How did you become a GM?

I worked a lot with many different chess coaches, with father, alone with computer. It was result of big work and young chess players have to understand that with out big work it is impossible to became GM.

How does preparation and study vary among players of different levels?

Professional chess players mostly work on the openings, but at the beginning young chess players have to study endgame, and middlegame as well.

Nature or Nurture: Do you think top chess players are born with a natural ability/gift or do they become so talented through hard work and the right environment?

I think that top chess players are both talented and hard-worker. It is impossible to become top, with out this 2 things.

[Postny]
When did you begin playing chess tournaments and how did you do?

I started playing in official tournaments at age 8, and with fine success, because I already had enough knowledge, playing training games with my father and other players since age 5.

Can you recall a specific turning point? (a game, event, working with a chess coach, etc..)

There were some games, memorable and highly important, as well as chess coaches that helped me on my way, but I wouldn’t be so dramatic to recall a turning point. This is because the key to success is hard work on my own.

What are your top book recommendations for beginner to intermediate players? (Below 2000)

“My system” by Nimzowitsch is a must study book for players of every level. “My Great Predecessors” by Kasparov.

What are your top book recommendations for advanced players? (2200+)

In addition to above mentioned, “Endgame Manual” by Dvoretzky is very much recommended.

What was your exact study regimen when you were working towards GM? (What exactly did you study, what study materials do you recommend, how much were you working with a chess trainer to prepare, etc..)

I studied openings, checking the actual games by leading players, and then analysing them, improving my tactical skills by solving studies and exercises, as well as improving my knowledge in endgames, using old books (at that time the great Dvoretzky’s books about endgames hadn’t appear yet). I was working mainly on my own but also with a chess coach – it was about 80% working on my own, and 20% with my chess coach.

What is your study routine now? (how is it different?)

The only difference is that now it’s 100% working on my own.

Nature or Nurture: Do you think top chess players are born with a natural ability/gift or do they become so talented through hard work and the right environment?

It’s a combination of all the factors. The natural talent is important, but the key to success is hard work.

[Tukhaev]
When did you begin making legitimate progress in your game and How?
In the first years of learning, like from 5 to 10, I just couldn’t get enough of chess. I read many books – superficially, of course, but it was useful I guess. I loved the most reading “My System” by Nimzowitsch, and also Morphy’s games collection. For one thing, it was like taking in the chess culture, but also learning some typical positions and principles. But in my opinion, the most important thing that led to the progress was solving different combinations, problems, and studies provided by my chess coach. We also worked on endings and openings. As a result, at age 10 I won the Ukrainian championship U-10. Later I began to show some successful performances at the local events. But I think the progress substantially slowed down, as I as spending less time on chess, partly because of studies, and mainly because of my character – success makes me too happy and lazy. Then at 16, I began intensive work (well, at least it was intensive for me – 6-8 hours a day, I guess) trying to improve my chess. Mainly it was solving studies and studying theory. I also started to play more often, around 100 games a year. And of course analysing my games and trying to understand the weak sides was important. Next year (2005) I became an IM, and in 2007 – GM.

Can you recall a specific turning point?
I’m not sure about any turning points… But probably at the age of 16 I somehow realized that my progress depends on how intense my work is, so I began to practice seriously.

What are your top book recommendations for beginner to intermediate players?
Well, “My System” by Nimzowitsch is a classic. It gives a good overview of chess strategy. Some books with lots of exercises to solve are necessary. Of course, one needs to pick books with such examples that are challenging but at the same time not too tough. To mention one, Laszlo Polgar – “Chess: 5334 Problems, Combinations & Games” could be useful. I also think that biographical and tournament books are good to stimulate interest and motivate a player. I loved Bronstein’s “Zurich International Chess Tournament, 1953” – another classic.

What are your top book recommendations for advanced players?
For solving exercises I can mention John Nunn’s “Chess Puzzle Book”, Volokitin & Grabinsky – “Perfect Your Chess”, Kasparian – “Domination in 2545 Endgame Studies”, or just Combination, Studies, and Endgame sections of the Chess Informant. Kasparov’s “My Great Predecessors” and “Revolution in the 70′s” is a fine overview of how the game developed. Dvoretsky’s “Endgame Manual” is excellent, just as Shereshevsky’s “Endgame Strategy”. Oh, almost forgot my favourite – Rowson’s “Chess for Zebras”. It’s instructive, mind-expanding, and perfectly written.

How did you become a GM? (What tournaments, did you have a chess coach, etc..)
Since age 15 I worked on chess myself. I think when one reaches the level of, say 2400+, there’s no need for a trainer. I mean, having a good chess coach is fine, but one can do well without it. [......]

What was your exact study regimen while working towards GM?
I worked towards GM since from age 16 to 19, finally getting the 3rd norm in 2007. It was six hours a day on average, I suppose. Mainly I was working on openings, though I tend to think I was doing it in a wrong way since I used to get in worse positions anyway! The other crucial part of the preparation was solving different exercises, like studies (my favourite) and combinations. I also played a lot of tournaments. For example, I played six GM tournaments before finally scoring all three GM norms. The best part was the post-mortem analysis with stronger players, it helped a lot. So, from my experience, the openings are not so important to reach the level of GM. It is much more important to improve one’s game skills, like tactics, and feeling of harmony – or positional chess, if you like. And that can be achieved by everyday, persistent practice in solving different studies, problems etc.

How is your study routine different now?
[......] But generally, if we take the routine I followed before making good performances in the last two years, it consisted of three elements: openings, solving studies, and physical preparation. Average six or seven hours a day, five or six days a week. All this work should begin at least two months before a tournament, I think. Generally, I tend to focus on the opening stage now.

Nature or Nurture: Do you think top chess players are born with a natural ability/gift or do they become so talented through hard work and the right environment?

It’s 50-50, in my opinion. Some people work less extensively than others, and show better results. I believe there is such a thing, maybe such character traits that distinguish best players from others. And probably there’s a period in childhood when it’s necessary to immerse in chess in order to achieve top results later. But if we’re talking about reaching the GM level, hard work can cover all limitations. So it’s crucial to be determined to improve.

From the answers given above, it is evident yet again how important for success are hard work, self-motivation, and a balanced training regime focused, at the beginning and intermediate stages, on the endgame and middlegame, and later in the advanced stage on openings. See some of my previous blogs for examples of these.

It is heartening to note that GM Tukhaev considers achieving the GM title by hard work as a distinct possibility.

*** Caveat: The blog is a commercial blog advertising online chess coaching etc. No endorsement by this blog is to be implied.

How to be a Millionaire...... Chess-Style!

2011-08-05T14:14:00.003+10:00

It has been reported that GM Magnus Carlsen's business vehicle, Magnuschess, has reported earnings of >USD1.5 million for 2010, which was almost a 100% increase over 2009 (~USD650,000). See here. The pre-tax result was >USD900,000 which meant >USD690,000 was spent on wages for Magnus as well as fees for GM Garry Kasparov's services as coach. Now you know how much Garry charges if you ever wondered about engaging Garry as coach.

IM Jeremy Silman Speaks .....

2011-08-05T13:32:00.003+10:00

In a review of a book on positional chess using the games of GM Ulf Andersson (Grandmaster Chess Strategy — What Amateurs Can Learn from Ulf Andersson) by two chess players, FM Jurgen Kaufeld and IM Guido Kern, IM Jeremy Silman said the following:

A word about the many misguided fellows who think they know what they are talking about but don’t have a clue (yet they want to share their ignorance with anyone who will listen): Many of these people rave insanely about how players under 2000 should only study tactics and nothing else. This is simply wrong on many levels. The first problem is that if you don’t have any positional skills you won’t be able to enjoy (or understand) master games that feature anything other than basic sacrifices. The second problem is that chess strength is based on being well rounded – you need a bit of everything if you want success, and if you just focus on one thing you’ll find that you quickly reach a limit and never progress from there. The third problem is that tactical success is largely based on setting up a positionally sound game where tactics occur naturally. If you just play random moves and hope for a lucky knockout punch, you’ll find you’re going nowhere fast.

Personally, I feel that tactics, tactics, and more tactics are indeed what players under 1200 need. But once you master basic tactical themes it will be time to expand your horizons and absorb other kinds of lessons too (and, of course, you should continue to hone your tactical skills long after you go beyond 1200, but not to the detriment of all other chess areas). In my view, GRANDMASTER CHESS STRATEGY is a fun way for players 1400 to 2200 to push aside their lizard (attacking) brain and absorb some positional niceties.

GM Ray Robson — Book Review

2011-08-05T13:15:00.003+10:00

No, it is not a book review by GM Ray Robson, the junior who broke Bobby Fisher's long-standing record of the youngest US junior ever to become a GM. It is a review by well-respected chess player and coach, IM John Donaldson, of the book about the Robsons journey written by the father, Gary Robson. I have previously blogged about the book here but I have not read the book.

So here is a review to whet your appetite if you are that inclined (ie you are the chess parent of a super-talented junior chess player). Some excerpts form the book review:

Gary Robson writes movingly of the difficulties of finding the right person to help his son at the right time. This coach not only has to possess the necessary chess information and be ability to communicate it but also achieve the right rapport with young Ray.

Finding one coach is not enough. One of the more painful passages in CHESS CHILD deals with one of Ray’s first teacher, a Florida expert who has a been a good teacher and friend but who is unable to recognize that he has no more knowledge to offer. As Ray climbs up the ladder this need for stronger and stronger teachers doesn’t go away.
[......]
A reoccurring theme throughout CHESS CHILD is the sacrifices the Robson family (Gary, Yee-chen and Ray) make. There can’t be too many families in Florida that have spent several summers without air-conditioning! Giving a young talent a chance to thrive is not cheap. At one point the Robson’s are spending $25,000 a year out of pocket and they are not materially wealthy people.
[......]
Ray is a strong Grandmaster nearing 2600 FIDE as the book ends at the end of 2009. He has accomplished a great deal in chess, more than his parents could have ever expected, but what will the future hold? Ray clearly loves chess and has parents who realize that material success doesn’t mean everything, but few players below the elite (2750 on up) are able to support themselves by tournament winnings alone. Coaching, commenting and writing are all honorable ways to make ends meet but they take away from playing and many strong Grandmasters do them not out of pleasure but because they must. For many that is why they call earning a living “work” and leads to questions of why if one is going to “work” doesn’t it make sense to seek something that pays better. Still one does well to remember the words of the Canadian-American Grandmaster Peter Biyiasas who once said that a chess professional should never trade his freedom for a 9 to 5 job unless he doubled his pay!

One might think that Gary Robson would be bitter should his son choose to follow a different path than chess down the road. Think of all the sacrifices the family has made from sleeping on kind strangers’ couches, taking flights with multi-layovers to get the cheapest ticket to driving clunkers and more. But he wouldn’t be. He writes at the end of CHESS CHILD that it has all been worth it. The family has traveled all over the world from the Galapagos Islands to the far north of Norway from Brazilian beaches to bathing in thermal pools in Iceland and their son has been able follow his dream. That doesn’t sound bad.

PS. GM Ray Robson is currently playing in the 2011 World Junior in Chennai with 2.5/3.

GM Alexander Morozevich Speaks ......

2011-08-05T12:39:00.003+10:00

He is young, good looking, considered to be one of the most creative chess players, formerly World No 2 chess player, achieved numerous tournament results (Wikipedia: "His first win in an international tournament was in 1994, when at the age of 17 he won the Lloyds Bank tournament in London with a 9½ out of 10 score"***) ...... and he is El Moro!

Recently he came out of as self-imposed exile from tournament chess after a string of disappointing chess results and won the Higher League of the Russian Championship (ie the Semi-Finals of the Russian Chess Championships) and then came second in the 2011 edition of Biel (World No 1 GM Magnus Carlsen took first).

See summary of video interview here and enjoy video below:

*** IM Colin Crouch's book, Attacking Technique, 1996 ICE/Batsford, devotes an entire chapter to Moro's games from the Lloyd's Bank Tournament as exemplars of fighting chess.

Dominic Lawson Speaks ......

2011-08-05T12:27:00.002+10:00

Read this fascinating article/interview by/with Dominic Lawson who wrote a book about the World Championship Match between the World Champion GM Garry Kasparov and challenger GM Nigel Short, here. And also his recommended 5 books to read in chess.

Excerpts:

Do you have to be very clever to be good at it?

It would be difficult to be strong at chess if you had a subnormal IQ, but you certainly don’t need an IQ of above average. I’m sure you could find very strong grandmasters with IQs around about the 100 mark, which is the average. [......]
What I have noticed in very strong players, though, is an extraordinary degree of concentration. You really do have to concentrate very hard for long periods. There is a very boring phrase for that, which is hard work. That’s often underestimated, while the idea of effortless genius is greatly overestimated. And if it is hard work – and it is – then you must get something really quite special out of it, to put yourself through it. You need to really hate losing. Someone once said, “Chess is a battle between your aversion to the pain of losing, and your aversion to the pain of thinking.” Because hard thinking is stressful and difficult. Quite often, the reason why, as we get older, we lose more games of chess – certainly in my case – is that you begin to get more pain from thinking than you do from losing. Also, if you’re a young person, you’re probably rejecting other ways of occupying your time, which most people would think are more pleasurable, whether it’s watching Teen Idol or playing football or having a drink. It has to really excite you, so motivation plays a huge part. That’s often described as natural ability, but it may actually be a description of something that is more like desire, a really huge desire.
[......]
That was one of the questions I wanted to ask you – why did the Soviets dominate chess to such an extent? Are you saying it was a result of government policy, basically?

[......] Also, at the individual level, if you were a bright, intelligent young Russian, it was a very good way for the authorities to deflect people who might otherwise be quite troublesome, because it was entirely apolitical. I suppose the Chinese today have a very similar attitude to chess – they like it very much. Lots of them, including Bronstein, Botvinnik and Tal, were Jewish. Jews were discriminated against in more conventional areas of expertise because there was a lot of antisemitism in Russia. Chess was somewhere where they could be tolerated. Here they were innocuous, they weren’t exploiting anyone, they weren’t gaining power or money. Also, without being flippant, what would you do for many, many hours in the evening, if you were in the Soviet Union in the 1950s? How, as a young person, would you actually amuse yourself? It would be perfectly sensible to spend five or six hours at the Moscow Central Chess Club, because what would be the alternative? Not a whole lot that was very interesting or exciting. And what would be interesting or exciting might also be rather dangerous.

To be or Not to be .......

2011-08-03T09:52:00.005+10:00

That is to say, a chess professional. Many talented chess juniors are tempted but very few succumbed. Either they are strong in character to resist or family "guidance" says otherwise. Of course in Australia we have our very first two GMs living (and enjoying!) the life as a chess professional, namely GM Ian Rogers and GM Darryl Johansen. But none after. GM Zhao ZongYuan is busy in medical studies while continuing to play chess at a high level (albeit with a couple of recent setbacks (one in Adelaide) but a bounce back at the ANU Open). GM David Smerdon tells of the story of being offered coaching and training by a well-respected European professional chess coach when he was in his teens. He was sorely tempted but ultimately walked away and pursued a career in economics. (Read more from GM Smerdon on chess vs life here and here.)

Now Canadian GM Mark Bluvshtein has blogged about a similar decision-making process. I suppose Canada is closer in economic, social terms and conditions than China, India, Vietnam or the Philipines. So GM Bluvshtein's blog can provide a useful perspective. Read it here.

Excerpts:

So why leave the world of chess? A much harder questions would be: “why stay in it?” Before this year, it was clear to me that I did not want to be a professional chess player. This year was, in part, about not having regrets and getting my chess fix. A big part of my early life was spent playing chess and it just made sense to do it full time for a year before starting a career elsewhere.

The world of chess is not a thriving one for the chess professionals. The situation in certainly not getting any better. The top 20 in the world make a good living, with the top five making a very good living. It pays to be a chess professional in India, China and Cuba due to government support. Eastern European countries also offer different opportunities. But this is Canada, where career opportunities are endless. It never made sense to be a professional chess player.

While young, the life style could be exciting. If there is a family to support, excitement turns into a desire to make ends meet and see the family more. There is no stability.

PS. The grapevine indicates that GM Luke McShane (written in GM Smerdon's blog) the former great chess hope of England who left chess for a career at Goldman Sachs, who then left a glittering future as an investment banker to try the professional chess life, competing creditably at the 2010 London Chess Classic, has now returned to full time non-chess life. Hmmmm ...... wonder what's the story there?

Three (Four) Young Players and their (mis) fortunes .....

2011-07-23T11:28:00.008+10:00

Browsing the chess websites recently, I was struck by the different reactions of three (four) young but very strong chess players in the fickle game we call chess.

Firstly, the eponymous hero of this blog's title, GM Magnus Carlsen, played a very interesting game against another young player (Fide's top ranking junior in the July 2011 rating list), (Italian-US) GM Fabiano Caruana. Magnus played the Scotch with White and this is what GM Sergey Shipov had to say (see here), very droll but witty, very enjoyable commentary:

The Scotch - the refuge of those suffering in despair at breaking through Black`s bastions in the Spanish.

Here is ChessBase express report:

The Norwegian played his former mentor’s favorite Scotch, though truth be told, he had achieved little to nothing after nineteen moves other than a better pawn structure.

The point of the game and my blog is the extra-dimension to chess which junior chess players need to recognise, comprehend, and overcome (or find a coping psychological mechanism), the dimension of the psychology of chess. Again from Chessbase:

Carlsen played a great game against Caruana, and while it would be easy to just label it as a great ‘positional’ game, but it was a game that would have made Lasker or Korchnoi proud. The reason is that it was far more a psychological victory than pure chess. The Norwegian played his former mentor’s favorite Scotch, though truth be told, he had achieved little to nothing after nineteen moves other than a better pawn structure. He then opted for an inspired exchange sacrifice with 19.Nd4!?, which left the position balanced, but seriously changed the character of the battle. It was as much a positional choice as a psychological one in which his comfort zone was far greater than the Italian’s. One could argue that prior to Fabiano’s blunder 25…Re6?, no one had any big edge, but it is very likely that the circumstances played a big role in provoking the blunder in the first place.

And here is Shipov's summary:

The game turned out to be very rich in subtle nuances. The exchange sacrifice played by Carlsen had a powerful psychological effect on Caruana. He couldn`t compose himself and organise a defence - although his opponent gave him good chances. Unfortunately we didn`t end up with an interest-packed ending. As late as the 25th move Black had a path to salvation, and on the 27th he resigned. A sad occurrence. The Italian chess player still needs to work on himself, including on his mentality. You can`t trust your opponents so much! They`re very cunning and even liars. They regularly use deceptive manoeuvres, sometimes bluff and even simply miscalculate. Therefore you have to check everything they do...

So what was this exchange sacrifice/psychological gambit? It occurred at move 19 when Carlsen played 19:Nd4! (see here).

Later on, Carlsen played 25 f4!? and Caruana responded with 25...Re6? "A mistake. A very serious mistake! I think Caruana simply believed his fearsome opponent. It really was difficult to believe that the number one on the rating list, the winner of so many super-tournaments, the great Magnus himself, could miscalculate. As they say, first someone works for a name, and then the name works for them... (Shipov)". Shipov:

[re Carlsen's 25 f4] But isn't Carlsen blundering an elegant tactical blow?
[......]
Salvation [for Caruana] lay in 25...Ne3+! 26.Rxe3 (it was simply bad to play 26.Bxe3? Rxe4) 26...Bxf4 27.Rf3 Bxc1 28.Bd5 f6, for example, 29.c4 Re3! 30.b5 Rxf3+ 31.gxf3 axb5 32.cxb5 Be3 - and Black holds the defence with no problems.

Here is TWIC's Mark Crowther's summary:

After 25.f4 his position was critical. As it was he had one escape route, one that only involved very short lines of calculation but nevertheless is a line a computer finds easier to find than a human. With 25...Ne3 Caruana would have had full equality but he did not find it and resigned on move 27. Whilst this last chance doesn't make the game perfect we again see Carlsen's ability to squeeze the maximum from a position that others might allow to slide to a quick draw.

For Chessvibes analysis see here.

An obvious question is whether 25...Ne3+ is really that obvious to find OTB or is it something that the chess engines find easily but not humans? It seem according the Chessvibes, both players missed 25...Ne3+. Any comments?

So, this is an example of one young player messing with the head of another young player. After reading books on the psychology of sports, I have become a firm believer that chess players have much to learn from that discipline especially in learning to construct psychological fortresses. To further illustrate my theme in this blog, here are two further examples from recent games of young players.

Young Russian/Nepalese/Dutch GM Anish Giri is playing in the Sparkassen Chess-Meeting 2011 in Dortmund together with GMs Vladimir Kramnik, Ruslan Ponomariov, Le Quang Liem, Georg Meier, and Hikaru Nakamura. In Round 2, Anish faced former Ukrainian chess prodigy and former World Chess Champion, Ruslan Ponomariov (who also had his share of psychological battles which I will leave for another blog another time). Mark Crowther's summary (see here for replayable game viewer):

It seemed at first the young Dutch player was doing well but he too eager for exchanges and white really took over the initiative once the queens came off and Giri had no answer at all.

See here for an analysis. And WhyChess:

When Ruslan Ponomariov exchanged queens on move 24, the young super-GM Anish Giri perhaps breathed a sigh of relief – yes, his bishop is awkwardly placed and White has the d-file, but surely there’s nothing some gradual manoeuvring can’t solve. Instead, barely 3 moves later, he was lost, after fitting two apparent blunders into that short gap. A remarkable turn of events.

I think the photograph says it all:

But this pales in comparison to the aftermath of a tragic loss by young French GM Romain Edouard. The blog, The Streatham & Brixton Chess Blog, has this about the recent Benasque 2011 tournament in Spain (see here):

[......]I'd like to tell you about the top board game in the ninth round (a game readers of Chess Today will already have seen me describe.) The players were the experienced Romanian grandmaster Mihail Marin and the rather younger French grandmaster Romain Edouard.
[...... Blogger arriving to see Romain (Black) played 56...g5.] and hence elected to keep his last pawn and the winning chances that went with it.
[......]
and now Edouard, instead of playing the win which appears to be there (and which readers are invited to find) played 65...g4? and found himself in trouble after 66.e6. Not that much trouble, as he can draw easily enough, and in fact turned down a chance to do so by repetition after 66...Rf3+ 67.Kg2 Rg3+ 68.Kf2 Rf3+ 69.Kg2, punting 69...Bh6.
[......]
This should, however, have been anything but fatal: though obviously the chance of winning was long gone, it should be absolutely elementary to hold bishop and pawn against rook, provided that the pawn can be reached and defended. Which after 75...Kf6 it obviously can be.
[......]
Play proceeded - although the game was of course completely drawn Marin had no reason to accept this until he felt like it - and Edouard succeeded in moving the pawn to a Black square, which should really have clinched it. However, and - in any sense beyond the psychological - inexplicably, in this position [diagram] Edouard put his king on f4.

It was his eightieth move and I reckon he might be eighty before he plays another move as bad as that. I can only imagine that he was suffering the delusion that rather than blocking the defence of the g3 pawn, he thought he was reinforcing it.
[......]
Fine writes of the pawnless rook v bishop ending:
in the general case....this is a draw...

....the Black King should head for the opposite corner (i.e. one of the opposite colour to the bishop, so that in the event of, say, WK a6 BK a8 and BB b8, rook to the eighth rank produces stalemate - ejh) as fast as his legs will carry him, and once arrived there nothing can happen to him.
In principle, perhaps, this may be true, but in practice bad things can and do happen. There are still tricks and in the particular practice of this game - given what had already happened and the consequent state of his head - Edouard, though he did indeed head for that corner, was always likely to fall for one of them.
[......]
Black is still drawing (as Nalimov will confirm) in all sorts of ways, but none of them are 102..Bd6?? as played, because White has 103.Kb6! and now Black can't get safely back to a8, although he tried with 103...Ka8. Because this time, when the king is driven out of the corner with 104.Ra7+ Kb8
the placing of the White king on b6 means that there is still a mate threat ; and
the bishop has no check to drive the king away.
Hence after 105.Rd7 Black resigned.[read the blog to follow the full analysis as I have only excerpted bits which carry the narrative, so to speak]

Now here is the bit I am interested in:

After he resigned, he got straight up, scribbled his name on both scoresheets as fast as he could, grabbed his carbon copy, clutched it into a ball and started to run out of the hall, obviously in a state of some distress. Halfway down the aisle he tried to drop-kick the ball of paper, missed and then stopped, putting his head on a nearby table as if to start beating his forehead against the surface.

By coincidence my wife had picked precisely that moment to come into the hall and therefore had the best view of anybody: she told me later that her impression had been of a young player behaving petulantly. But I don't think it was, not at all. It was an individual in a state of distress, somebody who in a situation of high mental tension had inflicted a torment on himself, somebody starting to run because he wanted to and then stopping because he didn't want to, somebody who - from his face - didn't know whether to cry or whether to scream and who therefore did neither. It was somebody who really didn't know what to do. And I really felt for him.

Not much more to say ......

PS: In the Carlsen-Caruana game, another slightly interesting bit: After Carlsen played (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 exd4 4.Nxd4 Bc5 5.Nxc6 bxc6) 6.Bd3, Caruana moved 6...Qh4.

But nevertheless Black has created the threat of mate in one move. In my childhood I also liked to create the most serious threats possible. I always had the thought "And what if my opponent blunders? That`ll be great!". With the years my enthusiasm waned. And the opponents just weren`t the same...

So it seems you can still play for a checkmate in one even when you are over Elo 2700 and your opponent is the world's No 1 player. :)

PPS: Chessvibes in a very interesting move has started to broadcast postgame analysis in the style and mode of the old UK TV show, MasterGame.

check out the previous videos on Chessbase YouTube page.

Chess Improvement Again ......

2011-07-18T18:00:00.002+10:00

Regular readers of this blog know of my passion for facilitating the chess improvement of Australian juniors. In this day and age of the electronic media (including chess databases, chess e-books, internet tactics sites and internet gameplay sites), chess improvement is within the grasp of most Australian kids. Hence I regular post blog posts from Grandmasters on their opinions on chess improvement. This time it is GM Vladimir Tkachiev of certain notoriety and double infamy (with google it is easy to find out). A role model he is certainly not. But in an interesting move he has started a chess portal, if that is the right word although it harks back to the mid-2000s internet era, called WhyChess. He has managed to combine up-to-date chess news from around the world, with blogs by some prominent GMs such as GMs Alexander Grischuk, Levon Aronian and Yasser Seirawan. He has also incorporated some online chess lessons including a video series on the King's Indian Defence. You can spend some time and explore.

But in this blog I would like to highlight his post, "How to make progress in chess". He has also incorporated some short pieces of advice from other GMs such as GM Alexander Moiseenko. I would encourage you to read in full but he made the points:
1. Thinking skills which "involves calculating variations, tactical vision, positional understanding and endgame technique."
2. Training method which was popularised by GM Alexander Kotov, namely the "guess the moves from the games of great players".
3). "Practice, practice and yet more practice"!!!
But I like his last point the most:

And now, perhaps, the most important thing. Before getting down to all these time-consuming and far-from-simple exercises it wouldn’t be a bad idea to give some thought to the question: is this something I really want? I’ve got the impression that the overwhelming majority of players are deceiving themselves on this score. All the exercises I described above are far from a walk in the park, and you won’t get by with half measures.

This was reinforced by the advice from GM Sergey Shipov (his very first point):

In order to reach any level at all you have to take chess seriously – that’s the main thing. The lazy pupil’s attitude that you’ll catch up on the class at the last minute and get a B- on your report card (and that does the job!), is a recipe for a pointless waste of your own time. You need to want to achieve that goal from the bottom of your heart!

Alexander Moiseenko:

It seems to me that in order to make progress you need to love chess,[......]

Ivan Morovic

Perhaps there are some “methods”, but I can say that right from the very beginning I was a real chess fanatic. I remember reading dozens of chess books from the ages of 9 to 12, mainly analysing the games of the world champions starting with Morphy and Staunton and ending with Fischer and Karpov.

Sergei Rublevsky:

Books: “Akiba Rubinstein” (Razuvaev and Murakhvery), “Zurich International Chess Tournament, 1953” (Bronstein), “Montreal 1979: Tournament of Stars” (Chepizhny). I really liked to play through the games from those books on the board, getting into the spirit of the tournament myself. I think that was what really helped me.

Lastly, Joe Gallagher:

I started playing chess around the time of the Fischer-Spassky match (age about 8 or 9) when a teacher started a chess club in our school. I basically taught myself with books from the local library: some general basic books followed by 60 Memorable Games by Fischer, 50 Selected Games by Larsen and Gligoric's Selected Chess Masterpieces. I would just play through the games again and again. At age 11 I joined an adult club and finally had some contact with some decent players. By now I was one of the best for my age in the country though a long way behind prodigies such as Short and Hodgson. I progressed steadily improving a bit every year - nothing dramatic. I never had a teacher and just looked at chess with friends, but I could be fairly obsessive. For example, when I was 14 I won a copy of ECO B and searched through it for a line that didn't give White a slight edge. Finally I found it right at the back - the Polugaevsky variation of the Najdorf. So I just learnt it all by heart and started playing it. Those were the days. Now I can't even remember my games from yesterday!

The main theme? Are you sure you really want to improve in chess? Are you really, really sure? If yes, be prepared to put in the time and effort. Otherwise, as the GMs say, it is a total waste of your time.

Six Young Aussie speaks (blogs actually ......) ......

2011-07-18T11:17:00.003+10:00

Many of the regular readers (if there are actually any regular readers left??) will know of my wish that more Australian juniors will blog and write about their chess. I think analysing your games is a must to improvement in chess strength. Somehow some juniors have got it into their heads that they should not "show" too much of their chessic ability online in case their opponents "google" them and seek out all their "secrets". However, I think (and it is only an opinion) that this is short-sighted. As an ambitious improving junior, your style and opening repertoire are still developing and cannot be pin down. Chess is a grand mansion with many rooms. It is good to develop a broad chessic education (and a repertoire) thus achieving an understanding (and mastery perhaps) of the different middlegame plans from different openings as White and as Black.

It is therefore with pleasure that I draw readers' attention to the new(ish) blog started by six young Aussie players (ex-juniors). (Was going to call them the Young Guns but might just be a bit too cliche?) I have waited a bit to see if the blog is any good and my verdict: Yes! It is worth a read! There are analyses of their chess games as well and subsequently with a replayable board following a suggestion from a reader. (Check out their hilarious dig at the well-known arbiter/chess player/chess administrator, IA Dr Charles Zworestine - guaranteed to put a smile on your face.) I also like the seemingly irrelevant quotes epigrams at the beginning of each blog.

The blog is called figjam (and they even have a recipe for figjam on their blog!) but it seems the name is an acronym of the first letter of the names (sometimes first name and sometimes last name) of the six Aussies: Moulthun Ly, Junta Ikeda, Andrew Brown, Max Illingworth, Fedja Zulfic and Sam Grigg. (Go figure!)

GM Jan Timman speaks ......

2011-07-08T11:03:00.002+10:00

Over at Chessdom, there is a transcript/report of an interview with GM Jan Timman, once the World no 3 chess player after the 2 Ks, Kasparov and Karpov. He was the first non-Russian player, after Bobby Fischer, to challenge the Russian hegemony in chess. For interview, see here. Excerpts:

Q: When and how did you start playing chess?

A: I started when I was 8 years old. My father taught me, but he hadn’t much time to play because he worked a lot. He was a mathematician, but he loved the game. At home there were a lot of chess books, all bought by him, even if they were all written before the war, the newest were of 1938.

My older brother was fanatic for chess but when I began to beat him he didn’t like it and didn’t want to play anymore against me. So I began to go to the local chess club where I could play more but I was no fanatic in those first years. When I was 12 I played in a simultaneous game held by Max Euwe and I got a draw.

Q: I think that Max Euwe was (and is still) a legend in The Netherlands. Did you draw inspiration from him during those years?

A: Well, Euwe was really very much important for me but mostly for his human qualities. He was very close to my family because he was my mother’s professor of maths and when he understood that I could have had a future in chess he personally cared to find some financial help for me and managed to found the “Timman’s committee”, so I could study and take chess as a profession.

Q: Did someone train you in those years?

A: Yes, IM Hans Bowmeester started training me when I was 15. I went to him every Wednesday, in the afternoon, because in Dutch there are lessons at school only in the morning that day. He was very important for me, he appreciated a lot the games of Botvinnik and Smyslov and always showed and explained me all details.

I think he was the best master for me, he had a very good way of teaching because he was balanced, he taught well tactics, strategy, endgames and all sides of chess and I got improved much with him.
[......]
Q: Do you think chess has changed a lot since your golden years? Which suggestions would you give to a young player intentioned to raise his/her skill?

A: Sure chess has changed very much since ‘70s-‘80s. Of course computers had a lot of importance in those changes, but, in general, I don’t think that you can say that chess is now at a higher level. It is true that many opening lines have been improved and the endgames with six pieces were solved, but not always contemporary players show to play better than the past. I think that Spassky, for example, could still play now and be one of the strongest as well.

Changes to Future World Youth Chess Championships

2011-07-05T17:40:00.003+10:00

Dear All,

It was reported on Mondays on Fide's website that effective from 2014, the WYCC will be split into two different tournaments, namely "Lower Youth" (not sure who comes up with these names, ugh!!!) consisting of the U8, U10 and U12 competitions and the "Upper Youth" made up of the remaining U14, U16 and U18. It seems the Lower Youth will now be held in August (1st-16th) at the same time as the World Junior (U20) (but probably different locations). The Upper Youth will still be held at the usual time, October 16th-31st.

See news release here.

Commonwealth & South African Open 2011

2011-07-04T18:39:00.003+10:00

The Commonwealth Chess Championships has finished and Australian juniors did extremely well. The website is not really good with no information on final placings and medal winners but Thomas Feng, Victorian junior who played in the Open section has posted on Chess Chat the following:

Final Update!
Hey everyone!

Overall it was an amazing tournament by all the aussies! Smerdon ended up on 3rd place! Tristan Stevens scored 7/11, however unfortunately came up empty in the prizes! And finally myself who won a gold medal for Australia in the U16's section!

In the B section the 2 brother's performed extremely well! A gold and bronze medal for Kevin & Rowan in their age groups

All in all, it was an amazing tournament with successful results for all the aussies!

So, it look like we ended with 2 gold medals and 1 bronze medals.

Results for Thomas Feng (Gold U16; 7/11; 51st placing; Rating Performance 2092) is here;
Rd. SNo Name Rtg FED Pts. Res.
1 277 Calitz Hananke 1399 RSA 3.5 w 1
2 233 Katz Adam C 1531 RSA 5.5 s 1
3 30 Makoto Rodwell 2166 ZIM 8.0 w 1
4 20 CM Cawdery Daniel J 2274 RSA 8.0 s 0
5 34 CM Gaealafshwe Barileng 2128 BOT 7.5 w ½
6 28 Mathe Lehlogonolo D 2222 RSA 7.5 s 1
7 36 CM Notha Moakofi 2123 BOT 8.0 w ½
8 42 van Rensburg Ryan P 2097 RSA 7.5 s 0
9 160 FM du Toit Stefan M 1690 RSA 6.0 w 1
10 29 CM Goosen Anton 2182 RSA 7.0 s ½
11 49 Foley Patrick J 2075 RSA 7.0 w ½

Kevin Willathgamuwa (Gold U8; 7.5/11; 21st placing; Rating Performance 1538) is here;
Rd. SNo Name Rtg FED Pts. Res.
1 137 Leong Ray 1142 RSA 6.5 s 1
2 81 Gopaulsingh Nadean P 1292 RSA 7.5 w ½
3 107 van der Westhuizen Donald 1234 RSA 6.5 s 1
4 47 Quist Marcus 1362 RSA 6.5 w 1
5 29 Niemann Petrus WL 1438 RSA 7.5 s 0
6 33 Stotko Joshua 1428 RSA 8.0 w 1
7 17 du Toit Hendrik P 1520 RSA 7.5 s 1
8 23 Varden Randall 1467 RSA 8.5 w 1
9 21 Forster James CC 1472 RSA 7.5 s ½
10 11 Kruger Ruben 1569 RSA 7.5 w ½
11 14 Theron Andre 1529 RSA 8.5 s 0

Rowan Willathgamuwa (Bronze U10; 8/11; 16th placing; Rating Performance 1567) here.
Rd. SNo Name Rtg FED Pts. Res.
1 138 Moolman Ruchelle 1140 RSA 4.5 w 1
2 54 de Gouveia Nicholas D 1347 RSA 6.5 s 1
3 38 Gopaulsingh Shivar 1401 RSA 6.0 w 0
4 84 van der Lingen Waldi R 1288 RSA 7.0 s 1
5 44 van Zyl Werner 1386 RSA 7.0 w 1
6 34 le Marrec Matthieu 1427 RSA 5.5 s ½
7 36 Engelbrecht Nadine 1409 RSA 8.0 w 1
8 20 Spirou Victor 1496 RSA 9.0 s 0
9 39 Gupta Dhruv 1395 IND 6.5 w 1
10 12 WFM de Bruyn Alida 1568 RSA 7.5 s ½
11 26 King Eduard 1452 RSA 7.0 w 1

Some games are available for download but none for Kevin or Rowan. Here are two some for Thomas' games where he defeated players higher rated:

(show chess board)(hide chess board)

(show chess board)(hide chess board)

AusJCL_Team for 2011 WYCC

2011-06-24T09:26:00.003+10:00

Dear All,

The deadline for appeals against the selection for 2011 WYCC in November has passed. In addition, parents and juniors have confirmed their participation or non-participation as the case may be.

The following is the Australian junior team participating at the 2011 WYCC (to date and subject to further possible changes). The players are listed in order of selection, the * indicates that this player is the primary selected player in that category (and whose name is also in bold).

17 Nov – 27 November World Youth Championships (U8 – U18)
Caldas Novas, Goias, Brazil

World Youth Chess U8
Kevin Willathgamuwa*

World Youth Chess U10
Rowan Willathgamuwa*

World Youth Chess U12
Karl Zelesco*
Daniel Lapitan

World Youth Chess U14
Justin Tan*

World Youth Chess U16 Girls
Leteisha Simmonds*
Abbie Kanagarajah

World Youth Chess U18 Girls
Sally Yu*
Miranda Webb Liddle

Commonwealth & South African Open 2011

2011-06-24T09:06:00.002+10:00

The Commonwealth & South African Open 2011 starts today with registration and GM lecture by GM Nigel Short as well as GM simultaneous exhibition. There are two parallel tournaments, the Championship section and the B-section.

Round 1 begins tomorrow after the Opening Ceremony. There is also a SA Blitz Championships in the evening. The full Schedule is here. There are 11 rounds. The games are 90 minutes for the first 40 moves followed by 30 minutes for the rest of the game with an addition of 30 seconds per move starting from move one for both Championship and B-Section.

The Player Lists are found here and here. We have Victorian junior Thomas Feng playing in the Championship section and NSW brothers, Rowan and Kevin Willathgamuwa, playing in the B-section.

We also have GM David Smerdon and Tristan Stevens representing Australia in the Championship section as well a Redeer Omer (?).

Here is wishing them all the best.

GM Wesley So speaks ......

2011-06-23T13:35:00.003+10:00

After that post on the future of this blog, let me again head overseas to the future Philippine chess. Philippine was for many years the leading chess country in Asia but no longer. With the rise of China and India and also Vietnam, Philippine is now a distant 4th. However, they do have an incredible 17 year old by the name of Wesley So who engenders a lot of patriotic (and fanatical!!!) pride in Pinoys the world over. Just log in to any chess forums and you will understand.

There is a very nice interview with Wesley conducted by WGM Alina L'ami (see here). As usual interesting excerpts follows:

Which is your priority now: chess or school?

For this year it is chess 100%. But sometimes I get lazy and work very little. On that topic, I like Gelfand's interview after his win in the Candidates Matches. He said that social networks (facebook, twitter), movies, some music (and I think computer games as well), are a waste of your time, which is mostly true I think.

What does chess mean for you?

I have been playing chess for almost 10 years already and if you have hold on long to something, it's not that easy to let go haha:) But I like playing chess. It's fun for me, although I realize it's getting more difficult each year.The computers get stronger and faster and opponents are more dangerously prepared. As an example, you could see my game in Malmo against Grandelius, where I was lost after the opening. And still...I love playing chess, I accept my defeats. It's just a game, either you win or lose.

How does a day look like in the life of Wesley So?

I mostly stay alone in Manila (my family moved to Canada,Toronto a year ago).
I go back and forth to Canada often,but Philippines has a better chess support in general, and I still want to play chess. I usually work around 3-4 hours a day but sometimes I work hard and I can do around 6-7. Besides, I read some books, some novels and I like reading the Bible. I also go to the cinemas quite often (my place in Manila is surrounded by malls!), especially after a tournament, to relax and forget about it. It makes me feel at home. I don't go online much nowadays, I think it is mostly a waste of time.

Do you have idols or people you admire?
Not necessarily chesswise. In chess, I'm a fan of Magnus Carlsen*. I like his style of play, sometimes he plays just brilliantly. And he is very kind as well. I think it's sad that FIDE does not really give him much attention, because, in my view, he should have been the World Champion some while ago.

[Note that this question is tied to The New Yorker article on Magnus Carlsen published recently. I do not have a copy as the New Yorker is a subscription only magazine. However, Alina has also included an excerpt from the article which is revealing and related to Wesley.]

* Extract from an article published on March 21, 2011, in The New Yorker: "Carlsen was already thinking ahead to the Amber chess tournament, which is being played this month, in Monaco. … “I really, really want to win and restore the power balance.” He added, “I just have to improve so much myself now.” He was even willing to let someone help him, if that’s what it took. In the days after Fashion Week, he had contacted Wesley So, a rising seventeen-year-old Philippine grandmaster, and offered to pay his way to Europe if he would train with him. In London, Carlsen had described So to me as his stylistic opposite. “I think his entire training has been with a computer,” he had noted with amazement. When I last spoke to Carlsen, he was in Majorca with So, and they had been working together. Carlsen once told me that if chess ever stopped being fun for him he’d “have to do something else.” He added, “If you have that feeling all the time, what’s the point of playing?” But, for now, he was appreciating the new training: “We’ll see if something good comes of it.” If he wound up playing more like other modern players, so be it.

There are of course many ways to improve one's chess level, but which do you find most rewarding?

On my level and on most levels, I think it is very important to not just study theory, but you have to understand the positions you play. You have to know where the pieces belong, how to improve your structure, you should know the typical plans and realize whether you are better in the position or not. Of course you will gain this by experience. I also think that, in most cases, it does not reward you long-term to play and change many openings at once. Because then you won't really understand why you play that opening.

I urge readers to read the entire interview as there are also interesting bits about being a 17 year old teenager and also life as a minor chess celebrity in the Philipine.

Very much preaching from the pulpit here but I thought the point made by Wesley about computer games and online social media was very interesting. In case you missed it, he said it was all a waste of time. The other interesting bit which I have blogged previously is the observation that Wesley is an autodidact in chess. The last autodidact in chess well known to most chess players is of course Bobby Fischer. But a huge difference between the two, something to do with the advances in technology and the world we live in now in the 21st Century compared to Bobby in 1950s USA. Bobby read a lot (and I mean a lot!!!) of chess books including a lot of chess books written in russian. Thus you could say he had a Soviet School of Chess education by one remove. Wesley taught himself via the chess engine. Is this the future? I believe so but as with everything there is a natural limit. I think the opinion amongst many is that Wesley has a reached a barrier in terms of what the chess engine can offer. He needs now the guiding hand of a human mentor/coach/trainer. But that is a problem for the Philippine chess community and Wesley to grapple with.

The ongoing future of this Blog ......

2011-06-23T11:35:00.004+10:00

In a comment to the previous post, an Anonymous said: "However I think it would be a good idea to cover the Australian tournaments played on the long weekend, where a number of young players had notable performances." I agree. Thanks, Anon.

You are absolutely right that this is an Australian juniors chess blog and should highlight the achievements of Australian juniors. In years past, I have done so and I have blogged about tournaments I have personally visited. But this year, two things militated against my good intentions: 1) I have been extremely busy at work and coupled with AusJCL and NSWJCL stuff, it was a struggle just to keep up with news let alone blog about it. 2) Of more concern is the fact my son has "given" up tournament chess and therefore I have not been present in any tournaments at all. It is very hard to blog about tournaments when you are not there physically. Just re-posting results are not very interesting (and quite boring).

So the solution? I can think of a few:

1)If there are any juniors or parents who attend tournaments and are willing to email me personal accounts, I will post them.
2) I will try to highlight Australian juniors achievements. Having said that, I am mindful that I do not wish to create a culture of highlighting only occasional "giant-killing feats". I know I have been guilty of this in the past. But the posts of Melbourne chess player Erik Teichman has persuaded to some extent that this practice has some dangers. I think it is more important to track a junior's achievement and performance over time, ie by saying he/she is playing at 1900 level now which means on a good day, the junior can defeat someone over 2000 but yet suffer defeat to someone below 1700. Mostly it means that the junior at 1900 is able to comfortably draw with others at 1900 level. I am not sure whether this is correct but that is my present opinion. Also remember that juniors (and to some extent adult chessplayers as well), make progress in the familiar step-like pattern: after some progress, there is a plateau until the next jump in skill and knowledge.
3) To fill the time in between blogs (of my own), I have taken the lazy bloggers' path of cutting and pasting from overseas blogs.
4) I would still like to blog on the use of chess engines in junior training and recommend some simple ways and methods to utilise the power of the chip. A second topic I would also like to blog is on the issue of psychology of competing and winning. In these two areas, nothing original but the distillation of my reading of "lots" of books in the two areas.

2011 US Closed Junior Championships

2011-06-20T11:36:00.005+10:00

It is that time of the year again and 10 of the strongest junior chess players in the US are battling it out in St Louis, USA for the 2011 Junior Champion crown. The Championships is run as a single round-robin tournament. The contestants are:
Gregory Young 2384
FM John Bryant 2486
Jialin Ding 2233
IM Conrad Holt 2473
FM Alec Getz 2398
Kayden Troff 2345
IM Daniel Naroditsky 2536
FM Warren Harper 2412
FM Victor Shen 2435
Raven Sturt 2375

Remember that IM Naroditsky (2007 World U12 Chess Champion and chess book author, see previous blogs here and here ) is 15 and Kayden Troff (see previous blog here) is only 12.

More info on the website here.

There are live games to watch as well as live commentary by GM Ben Finegold and FM Aviv Friedman.

So far 4 rounds have been played and Gregroy Young with very attacking chess has taken the lead with 4/4 (defeating IM Holt and FM Bryant) but yet to face favourite IM Naroditsky who is on 3/4. They will play each other in Rd 7.

For Round 1 report by Ken West and replay the games, see here. For Rounds 2 and 3 report see here with guest commentator, former World Champion, GM Garry Kasparov.

I think it will be instructive for Australian juniors to have a look at the games and see the standard of play over in the US. It is also interesting to see the opening repertoires of the US juniors.

GM Boris Gelfand speaks ......

2011-06-20T10:49:00.003+10:00

After his remarkable triumph at the 2012 Candidates Match in Kazan where he emerged as the winner of the Candidates Match to find a worthy challenger for the World Chess Championship and its current incumbent, GM Viswanathan Anand, Gelkfand gave a number of interesting interviews in Russian. These have been translated and posted at the excellent Chess in Translation blog. The interviews are collected in two posts, here and here. GM Gelfand also gave an extended interview/Q&A session at the Russian chess site, Crestbook, last year (see translated excerpts here and here, and original Q&A in Russian here (use Google translate)). As per my usual practice, I include excerpts here which I thought are interesting for juniors. But do go on and read the interviews in full.

[From the first set of interviews]
[SovSport] Where did your acquaintance with chess start?

There’s a wonderful children’s textbook, probably the best in history – “Journey to the Chess Kingdom”. My dad, who really loved the game, began to go through a diagram a day with me. One evening I told him that I wanted to study something else. Well, he thought the boy had cooled towards the chessboard and pieces. He told my mum that chess hadn’t interested Boris. My dad couldn’t even imagine that I’d gulped down the whole book in one day and therefore wanted something new. Unfortunately my father didn’t live to see my victory. We lost him one and a half years ago…

Did you soon realise that you’d become a professional chess player?

After school my parents insisted I received a professional education. But when I started to get into the semifinals of the USSR Championship, which was considered a great success back then, they left me alone. I enrolled in Physical Culture at university, so as to avoid the army, and gave myself up to chess completely. By the way, they still dragged me into the military for ten days – the most unpleasant memories of my life.

[ChessPro] Do you agree when people call you “a student of the Soviet School of Chess”?

If you add the essential “detail”: the Minsk School of Chess. That started with Boleslavsky, then passed through Kapengut to me, and other chess players living under the influence of Boleslavsky’s ideas. In Minsk they always played the most principled opening variations. In Riga, let’s say, they played in the style of Tal, in the Caucasus – in the style of Tigran Vartanovich [Petrosian]: offbeat systems, based on subtleties… In Lvov it all derived from Stein. In Belarus everyone played the Sicilian, the King’s Indian… And always the most challenging systems.

[From the second set of interviews]The interview moves on to the question of how Gelfand works on chess [......]

[Evgeny Surov of Chess-News] You expressed an interesting idea in one of your interviews – that you have a method of preparation which consists of working constantly almost every day, regardless of when the next tournament will be or when the last one finished. Did I understand you correctly?

Yes, that’s absolutely the case. And that’s also how it was in those years when there were no tournaments at all. I have to say there were tough years around the turn of the century – from 1999 to 2003, 2005, – when there were no tournaments, and no realistic chance of any. But still, I worked in more or less the same manner, with about the same intensity. I didn’t do anything very differently.

And could you – maybe not so much for me, as for young chess players – say what this daily work consists of? I’m not asking you for an hour-by-hour breakdown, but still, what is it you do? How do you prepare?

Well, how do I prepare… I review the games that have been played. If, for example, you don’t have much energy for creative work then you can sit and look through the games played, searching for some ideas. There are a lot of ideas you can draw on from tournaments. That’s become the norm for everyone now – reviewing other people’s games. Sometimes I look at old books, or read magazines. I flick through endgame books. You still have to refresh your endgame knowledge. If you don’t refresh it for a long time then at the critical moment it might not surface. It should be at the level of instinct.

I also sit, of course, and look at my own games. I try to advance opening theory. There are specialists who don’t consider that so important for the growth of chess players and think few games are decided in the opening, but it strikes me that’s not exactly the case. Take, for example, Polugaevsky. Or Geller. Or also Kasparov. They became great chess players precisely because of their work on the opening. Therefore it seems to me that working on the opening is incredibly important, particularly nowadays. If you don’t work on the opening you often can’t even get a playable position. Your opponent will be well-prepared and you simply won’t get any chances of making a game of it. Or you’ll do that at too high a price – you’ll end up with a bad position. I’d also formulate a concept that’s rarely seen now: how you set out to play the game. It strikes me as an incredibly important concept as it’s crucial you don’t simply look at opening moves, but the idea behind the play. That’s the area I think about and work on.
[......]
I’d like to return for a while to your daily preparation between tournaments. I’m still interested in whether you take a break from chess? I can’t believe you’re only involved with chess.

But that’s the secret. If you do something every day then you don’t need to make any, let’s say, extreme efforts. If you don’t work for a month then you need to make extreme efforts in order to catch up on what you could have done in that month. But if you work regularly then you can also do other things and lead a normal way of life, finding time for everything.

From the earlier Crestbook Q&A:

In order to become a good chess player do you have to have natural talent – or is hard work enough?

It’s a very interesting question, absolutely, of course, unexplored. But then, how would you explore it? What is talent? And what level of “good chess player” are we talking about? I think that practically anyone, if they set themselves the goal of becoming a grandmaster and work hard and consistently can achieve that goal, as long as they can organise their work well. But in order to become a top-class grandmaster – then, of course, you need a combination of many qualities – talent, and work, and an effective approach to work, and energy and a tough nervous system.

What distinguishes an IM from a GM?

I wouldn’t even know what to say. Before it was straightforward. Now there’s such title and rating inflation that it’s really difficult to know. It even seems to me sometimes that some players with a rating of 2500 play stronger than others with 2650. There’s so much corruption, so many people have bought the title of grandmaster, or at least one norm! By some counts – a third. Therefore the title has been devalued and at times I’m even ashamed to call myself a grandmaster. But in general – what distinguishes a stronger player from a weaker: the range of positions which he can play; the depth that he senses and can find in a position; and endgame understanding means a lot… Though in general there are different possibilities. Chess players have many qualities. At times a certain international master knows and understands everything, but he doesn’t have a fighting character, while another plays worse, but has a really strong sporting animus, and so achieves greater success, becoming a GM.

Do those who become grandmasters have an above average intellect and memory? Or can anyone who tries become a GM? Are these two qualities that can be developed, or do you need a certain mould of brain and talent?

I don’t think many of my colleagues have such a high intellect, and then what do you consider intellect? As for memory, it’s well known that Spassky, Alekhine and Karpov didn’t have exceptional memories, but they were the greatest of players. And then you can name a lot of players with exceptional memories who couldn’t get beyond the first category. You need a specific memory for grasping certain types of position, typical ideas, as I’ve already said.

Can anyone who wants to become a GM? It’s a complex question which I’ve already touched on. I’d repeat: it seems to me that it’s possible. Especially if you have unlimited opportunities to study 24 hours a day. Plus an enormous desire to do it – that’s the main thing – whatever it is in life you’re aiming for. On the other hand that’s not the most important goal. The main thing is, why do people play chess? It seems to me that it’s most important to do it for the pleasure it brings you.

Can the intellect and memory be developed? Let’s leave the intellect aside, it’s an abstract concept. While memory can in some ways be trained. At my level I pay more attention to systemising my knowledge. So as not to remember everything, but only the most important things. And as for development… I play the game “Memory” with my daughter and have it on my computer. If children can develop their memory then adults can too… No doubt there are some methods but here the question isn’t for me, a chess player, but for a specialist in the field of psychology.

[How to improve your chess]
I remember the Soviet Union Championship was taking place in Minsk and, as a candidate master, I went to all the rounds, sat in the hall and watched. It seems to me that this moment of empathy, sitting together with leading chess players and thinking, gives you a lot more than you’d think. If you’re on the internet and analyse with a computer, especially a lot of games at once, then it can distract you from immersing yourself in the position. I recall Alexander Sergeevich Nikitin told me at the time (he was with Kasparov at that USSR Championship): “don’t look at all the games, choose one and try to guess the move yourself, and then, at home, see whether you guessed the move or whether the grandmaster played better. And understand, why. Perhaps you were actually right”. And Boris Naumovich Postovski – also a second at that championship, I don’t remember for who. He also came up to me and gave similar advice. And I’d give the same. After all now there are on-line commentaries from all the major tournaments. So look at the games without a computer and then, after the game’s finished, compare it with what the commentator (a good commentator!) wrote. Let’s say, Sergey Shipov, who, of course thinks with his own brain, but nevertheless also switches on a computer. So first, think for yourself, and then the following day look at how the grandmaster commentated with the help of a computer. It’ll help you more.

Which older chess players influenced you most, and who made the greatest impression on you?

I’ve tried to learn from all players but, no doubt, I was most impressed by Yury Razuvaev and Valery Myrachvery’s “Akiba Rubinstein”. I read it again and again in my childhood. And even today when I meet Yury or we talk on the telephone we often return to that book, to Akiba’s games. The striving to play deeply in the opening, and the so-called “long plan”, that is when a game’s played from the beginning to the end in one key… That’s what I like in chess, and it comes from Akiba.

I met my first trainer, Eduard Aronovich Zelkind, when I was 6 years old. He’d only been a trainer for a few years at that point. I was incredibly lucky because, as experience shows, a lot depends on what sort of trainer you come across first. The foundations that are laid out remain for your whole life. There are players at the very highest level who from their first steps in chess solved combinations – and only that! I think that’s how it was for Polgar and Mamedyarov. They have an incredibly well developed combinational vision, and they’ll have it all their lives… For us Zelkind, of course, also developed our tactical vision. I’ve still got a notebook with the first positions that he gave me. I still couldn’t write so either he or my parents would write down my homework. Bishop sacrifices on h7 are noted there… But he also taught us the endgame. At 9 years old I knew rook endgames to the same level as many current grandmasters, with no false modesty.

[On training sessions with Petrosian:]
What did I learn… Firstly, spending time with a player of such great standing is an incredible event for a boy, and some things from that time still remain with me. He said, for example: think about every move, even if you’re playing blitz – don’t simply bang out a move. Every move should have some sort of idea. I still try to follow that. Or some types of position that he would explain… I’d lose a game and he’d say: what was there to think about here, exchange one rook, leave the other, transfer the knight to here and white wins. A global kind of thinking.

[On openings]

Is it true that in games between top players 80-90% of the result depends on the opening – preparing for an opponent, catching him out with a novelty/variation and so on?

No, it’s not. At the very highest level losing or winning games in the opening is only likely if you play a very risky or rare line. But if you play normal openings even if your opponent catches you out then with white they’re unlikely to get more than +=, or more than equality with black, so that afterwards it still comes down to the ability to play chess. The higher the level, the more likely that is. Take Carlsen, who’s now one of the best players in the world: he doesn’t stake a lot on the opening but tries to get playable positions – with great success, as we’ve all seen.

How much influence do you think “opening fashion” has on the opening repertoire of the top hundred players (e.g. the universal devotion of elite, and not only elite, GMs to the Anti-Moscow Gambit)?

Fashion does have a great influence. Even Botvinnik (or was it Korchnoi?) said that there are chess players who move theory forward, and there are others who consume it. There are players-researchers, who love to analyse and work a lot on the openings. And others who look at a game by Kramnik or Anand – and immediately add it to their repertoire. Well, after checking it, of course, on the computer to see that there aren’t any particular holes. Probably about 10-15 people set the fashion and those, as a rule, are the very top chess players. While the majority follow. Actually the Anti-Moscow isn’t in fashion any more. In the past half-year after the Tal Memorial, where Leko lost two games, it’s barely been used. But now in Dagomys I managed to beat Grischuk, so maybe it’ll come back into fashion. We’ll see.

Do you find that in a particular tournament situation against a particular opponent you would choose (if, hypothetically, you had the choice) the black pieces instead of the white, or is the right to start always an advantage?

Overall the right to make the first move is always an advantage. With some opponents it has more significance, while with others – less. The drawing of lots at a tournament is always quite important. Sometimes you get white with a player who aims for a complex game with white while not trying to set particular opening problems. And you get black against a white specialist. If you take the very top, then it’s better to have black against Carlsen and white against Kramnik than vice versa. Because Kramnik is a clear case of a white specialist, while Carlsen, as mentioned, doesn’t go for a real advantage in the opening and simply tries to get a complex but playable position. You can find a lot of similar examples. But if it’s just in one game then I’d always prefer to have white.

In your opinion which first move is stronger: (1. e4) or (1. d4)? Have you changed your opinion in the last 10-20 years?

That’s a good question. I can tell you a funny story. About 8 years ago Sasha Grischuk said two things to me: “Do you really not see that e4 is stronger than d4?! Why on earth do you play d4?” and, “the Najdorf loses. It’s an incorrect opening”. And now he mainly plays d4 and the Najdorf. For a while myself, perhaps under his influence, I returned to e4, which I’d played for the whole of my childhood. Of course, both the one move and the other are entirely playable. It’s a question of style. One person likes the positions arising after e4, while someone else likes those after d4. Of course, ideally, a chess player can play both moves. It widens his range of weapons.

Do you think that after e4 the move d6 is a reasonable alternative to the replies e5, c5 and c6? Is the Pirc (Ufimtsev) a competitive opening, from your point of view?

Of course. Kramnik added it to his repertoire, and he doesn’t play bad openings. For the moment he hasn’t always succeeded with it – he’s won in classical chess, but lost a few games in Monaco. The thing is that it demands great understanding. It’s a very cunning opening and you need to play and observe it a lot in order to get a feel for it. As you’re giving up the centre one or two inaccurate moves are enough to end up in a difficult situation. But if you know it well, and white plays inaccurately, then you can get an immediate advantage.

Boris, can you tell us why you gave up the sharp Najdorf and switched to the duller Russian Game?

Firstly, I don’t agree with the evaluations. I’ve played a lot of lively games in the Petroff. Have a look at my book, at the games with Grischuk and Short. Or the defeat I mentioned to Leko in Nalchik. While Najdorf games are often duller, as it’s either a repetition of computer analysis (and a memory contest is not really something I want to get into at the moment), or it’s simply dull play. I’ve had a lot of such games.

Secondly, I base my opening choice on the degree to which it suits me, the sort of positions I might get. While the fact that its “sharper” or “duller”… I don’t consider that I have to play in the sharpest or liveliest fashion. I consider that I should play as strongly as I can.

BTW you need to read the excerpts in full to discover who are Gelfand's favourite football team and favourite football player (it happens to be one of my heroes as well! ...... which goes to show that Gelfand and I are from the same generation ......).

AusJCL_Selection for 2011 International events (edited Tuesday 14th June 2011 10:32 am AEST)

2011-06-13T17:20:00.006+10:00

AusJCL Selections for the 2011 International Junior Events

These are the selections for the 2011 International Junior Event_World Youth Chess Championships. The players are listed in order of selection, the * indicates that this player is the primary selected player in that category (and whose name is also in bold).

Important: Please read the Notes at the end of the list of selection.

17 Nov – 27 November World Youth Championships (U8 – U18)
Caldas Novas, Goias, Brazil

World Youth Chess U8
Kevin Willathgamuwa*

World Youth Chess U10
Glen Qi*
Rowan Willathgamuwa

World Youth Chess U12
Karl Zelesco*
Daniel Lapitan
Jamie-Lee Guo

World Youth Chess U14 Girls
Savithri Narenthran*
Clarise Koh
[note: Savithri Narenthran has subsequently withdrawn from the 2011 WYCC selection.]

World Youth Chess U14
Justin Tan*
Karl Zelesco
Andrew Pan
Ari Dale
Cedric Koh

World Youth Chess U16 Girls
Leteisha Simmonds*
Savithri Narenthran
Abbie Kanagarajah
[note: Savithri Narenthran has subsequently withdrawn from the 2011 WYCC selection.]

World Youth Chess U16
Justin Tan*
Karl Zelesco
Ari Dale

World Youth Chess U18 Girls
Emma Guo*
Sally Yu
Miranda Webb Liddle

World Youth Chess U18
Justin Tan*
Karl Zelesco
Ari Dale

Notes

All players have the right to appeal. See http://www.auschess.org.au/constitution/Selection_Procedures_By-law.txt

9. Appeals

9.1 An applicant may appeal the results of a selection within 7 days after having been informed, pursuant to clause 8, of the results of the selection.

9.2 Appeals shall given to the Selections Director and shall be accompanied by a $200 appeal fee which shall be refunded if the appeal is upheld.

9.3 Appeals shall be on the basis that either:

9.3.1 There was a material error or omission in the selection process that has disadvantaged the applicant.

9.3.1.1. Paragraph 9.3.1 does not apply to an alleged material error or omission relating to the eligibility of an applicant for selection, other than the eligibility requirement in paragraph 4.3.1.

9.3.2 That the applicant was clearly ranked such that no selectors could have reasonably given the applicant that ranking based on the information supplied to the selectors.

Note: It is not sufficient to appeal on the basis that a player thinks that he/she should have been selected. The ranking of the selectors has to be clearly incorrect and unreasonable.

9.4 On receipt of an appeal all players involved in the selection which is subject to the appeal shall be advised that the appeal has been lodged.

9.5 Each player against whose selection an appeal has been lodged shall be given a copy of the appeal and an opportunity to state in writing, within 7 days after having been given the appeal, his or her case with respect to the appeal.

10 Appeals Tribunal

10.1 The Council shall appoint a person known as the ACF Appeals Tribunal Convenor (ATC) who shall be an ACF Honorary Life Member, a former ACF President or an eminent person with appropriate knowledge of chess and of the issues involved in the appeal.

10.2 The ATC shall appoint two other persons, each being either an ACF Honorary Life Member, a former ACF President or Deputy President or an eminent person as described in clause 10.1 to form a three person tribunal with the ATC.

Appeals will close on (end of day) Monday 20th June 2011.

Additional Notes/Instructions

Players selected for World Youth and World Junior events!!

A. If you have a * next to your name and your names in bold, let me know on or before Sunday 19th June 2011 whether or not you are accepting your selection (sooner is better, as I can then pass the selection down to the next person on the list). If I do not hear from you on or before the Sunday 19th June 2011, I will presume you are not going and the next person on the ranked list will be offered the primary selection.

B. If you do NOT have a * next to your name, let me know by on or before Sunday 19th June 2011 one of the following three responses:

1) confirm you will be going regardless of whether or not you have the primary selection;
2) confirm you will not be going regardless of whether or not you have the primary selection;
3) confirm you will only be going if and when offered primary selection.

All other players

I will be giving you the email addresses of all people wishing to attend the events you are playing, as well as sending you the information (when it is put up by FIDE) and you can organise it amongst yourself - if there is free food/accommodation for a player in an age group, then it is the individual with the * next to their name who will get it. You may contact me for advice if needed.

Everyone!!!

Check your email daily, as I will be emailing you if there are any appeals regarding your selection, or if you are a person without a * and you become someone with a * (due to the fact the person(s) above you turned down their selection) to let you know this has happened.

Please note

U8-U18 divisions are held AT THE SAME TIME therefore you CANNOT be a player in multiple divisions in the one tournament. If you have a * next to your name in more then one division of the World Youths, let me know which of these divisions you wish to play in.

Firstever (?) Australian Chess Podcast ......

2011-06-01T09:19:00.002+10:00

I have been extremely remiss in blogging about this enterprising attempt by two Sydney juniors in the world of Net 2.0 publishing. After many blogs extolling the virtues of overseas juniors enterprise with internet mnedia publishing such as the excellent and long-running Chess TV (see here), on fair Australia shores, we finally have two intrepid high schoolers willing to dip their chessic toes in the murky exciting world of online chess journalism. [drum rolllllllllllll ...........} I give you ......

Chess Crazy Talk Podcast
Pete and Kev talk Australian Chess Players and Tournaments

They have produced 6 episodes to date of varying length and quality. There are chess tournaments reviews, both local and overseas, interviews with chess players, and a very brief talk on a selected Opening.

I have listened in my car driving to and from work (downloaded on USB and playing through my car stereo) the first 3 episodes thus far. Very promising but much more can be done.

One immediate improvement is to get the pronunciation of names correctly especially non-English names, eg GM Dejan Bojkov.

Perhaps Kev and Pete should check this out: Pronounce That Chess Word by Bill Wall.

AusJCL Application for Selection for 2011 International events (now closed)_Update on Selections

2011-05-30T19:30:00.003+10:00

Dear All Australian Juniors and Chess Parents,

Two things:

1) Selection for World Junior Championships (U\20) Chennai, India (1-16 August)

Due to the deadline for submission of entry imposed by the organisers, a separate selection was conducted and the selections were as follows:

The players are listed in order of selection, the * indicates that this player is the primary selected player in that category (and whose name is also in bold).

World Junior Championships (U20) Girls
1.Emma Guo*
2.Savithri Narenthran
3.Miranda Webb Liddle

World Junior Championships (U20)
1.Moulthun Ly*
2.Junta Ikeda
3.Fedja Zulfic
4.Frank Lekkas

2) World Youth Championships (U\8 – U\18) Caldas Novas, Goias, Brazil (17 Nov–27 November)

The Panel of Selectors have decided in view of the date to delay selection until and after the release of the ACF ratings on 1st June. After the date the following will occur:

Prepare information for Selectors;
Send information to Selectors;
Selectors to revert with selections;
Compile selections;
Draft selection to AusJCL Council and Selectors for final approval;
Release of Final Selection (hopefully by end of June if not earlier).

Please note the following from the WYCC organisers (to allay the fears of Parents and Juniors about possible deadlines):

Deadline
Friday, 29 April 2011 14:02 administrator

Due to Some Continental and National Championship the deadline for Registration was extended from 25 of August till 25 of September (For Example the European Youth Championship will be held in Albena, Bulgaria form September 10 till September 21) [emphasis added]

Brooklyn Castle

2011-05-23T09:25:00.004+10:00

Another story of chess as change agent, the catalyst, but one which is quite well-known (the school IS 318 in the USA) and is now a film. But yet again, it is the hunger in the children for change that is equally important.

The website is here and there is a promo:

http://brooklyncastle.com/see-the-film

Chess can change lives!

2011-05-23T08:57:00.002+10:00

Watch the video and read the news article for the extended story. Chess can change lives but I think there must be hunger first of all, then chess can make a change.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-mendota-chess-20110519,0,4978581,full.story

4th KL International Open Chess Championship 2011

2011-05-17T22:08:00.002+10:00

For juniors (and parents) intending to have a bit of overseas chess experience without the expense of flying to Europe or South America, here is a tournament nearer to home: 4th KL International Open Chess Championship 2011.

The Kuala Lumpur Chess Association (KLCA) is pleased to be able to announce, once again with sponsorship from the Masterskill Education Group Berhad, the 4th KL International Open Chess Championship for the Raja Nazrin Shah Challenge Trophy from 4th-10th September 2011.

Held under the auspices of the Malaysian Chess Federation (MCF) at the superior 4 star Swiss Garden Hotel & Residences Kuala Lumpur located between Chinatown and the city's main Bukit Bintang shopping district, the KL Open will be registered with the World Chess Federation (FIDE) as an international title and rated tournament and so be played over 9 rounds using the FIDE Swiss System with the time control used the FIDE time control of 90 minutes for the first 40 moves, followed by 30 minutes for the rest of the game with an addition of 30 seconds per move starting from move one.

We have increased the prize fund to RM 45,000 (approximately USD 15,000), restored the final day blitz event, and for the first time also included prizes for both women and juniors to recognise the huge support we have had from the fairer sex and young talent in previous editions.

Key information as follows:

Prize Fund

Open:
1st - RM 10,000; 2nd - RM 7,000; 3rd - RM 4,000; 4th - RM 2,500; 5th - RM 1,500
6th-10th - RM 1,000 each; 11th-20th - RM 500 each

Girls:
1st -1,500; 2nd - 1,000; 3rd - 500

Juniors:
U-16 - RM 1,000; U-12 – RM 500

Special Prizes:
3 x RM 500 Scholarships

Blitz:
1st - RM 1,000; 2nd - RM 700; 3rd - RM 400; 4th - RM 250; 5th – RM 150
6th-10th - RM 100 each; 11th-20th - RM 50 each

Entry Fees

GMs/>2500 No Entry Fee; IMs/>2400/WGMs RM 150; FMs/>2300/WIMs RM 300; >2200 RM 450; >2000 RM 600; >1800 RM 750; Others RM 900

Entries must be received in writing together with full payment of the applicable entry fee by 31st July 2011, after which a 50% penalty may apply. Participation of unrated players is at the discretion of the organisers who also reserve the right to refuse any entry without explanation.

For enquiries, please email the Tournament Director at peterlong@aol.asia.

Official blog is here for updates etc. Entry form can be found here.

2011 Asian Youth Chess Championship

2011-05-16T20:18:00.001+10:00

The 2011 Asian Youth Chess Championship started on Saturday, 14th May 2011 in Subic, Philipines.

Australia is represented by two juniors, Savithri Narenthran from Victoria playing in the U14 Girls and Daniel Lapitan from Queensland playing in U12 Open.

It is a 9-round Swiss with the following schedule:

15th May 11:00 Technical Meeting
15:00 Opening Ceremony
1600-2000 Standard Chess Round 1
16th May 0930-1330 Standard Chess Round 2
1600-2000 Standard Chess Round 3
17th May 0930-1330 Standard Chess Round 4
1600-2000 Standard Chess Round 5
18th May Free Day Organized Tours
19th May 1600-2000 Standard Chess Round 6
20th May 0930-1330 Standard Chess Round 7
1600-2000 Standard Chess Round 8
21st May 0930-1330 Standard Chess Round 9
1600-1900 Blitz Chess 7 Rds
2000 Closing Ceremony

Time control is 90 minutes for the whole game with 30 second increments per move from move 1.

Their results can be followed here: http://chess-results.com/tnr49852.aspx?art=25&fedb=AUS&lan=1&flag=30&wi=1000.

Thus far two rounds have been played and they have either finished or still playing their 3rd round games even as I typed this.

Savithri has managed 0.5/2 losing in the first round whilst Daniel has managed 1/2, drawing two games. However he faces Tin JingYao from Singapore in 3rd round who is an experienced chessplayer.

2011 European Women Chess Championship

2011-05-11T14:36:00.004+10:00

This is for all the Girlllzzzz! Look and eat your heart out! See a shooting star and make a wish that you can be there to play chess!!!

The 2011 European Women Chess Championship is presently happening over on the other side of the world in Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia. It runs from the 7th to the 18th May.

The event is open to any female player registered with a federation that is part of the European Chess Union. It is a swiss system with eleven rounds played at 40 moves in 90 minutes followed by 30 KO, with a 30-second increment as of the first move. The top fourteen players will also qualify for the World Cup.

The official website is here, filled with goodies to watch, live games over 26 boards, photos as well as live video feed of the playing hall. BTW, the playing arena is fantastic seeing as the event is held in Tbilisi Sheraton! Check it out!

After Round 4, GM Viktorija Cmilyte is in sole lead with 4/4 with many others either o.5 point or one full point behind. It is still early days. Some favourites are suffering, eg, GM Tatiana Kosintseva (2.5/4 (+1 =3) 33rd placing), GM Nana Dzagnidze (2.5/4 (+1 =3)34th placing, Alexandra Kosteniuk 2.5/4 (+1 =3) 44th placing. Tatiana's sister, Nadezhda who is top seed, lost the critical 3rd Round to Viktorija.

I am cheering on GM Kateryna Lahno (7th placed 3/4 (+2 =2)who is 2010 World Woman Blitz Champion and former European Individual Women's Champion (2005 and 2008). Also, in her younger teenage years, she was touted as the next Judit Polgar (see here) and together with fellow teenager, world's youngest ever grandmaster, Sergey Karjakin (16 days younger), were Ukraine top juniors. Sergey is now playing for Russia. Katryna is married to French GM Robert Fontaine, who nowadays, does a lot of reporting for Europe Echecs. In fact, I am including below the daily video reports which Robert has made for your viewing. Why am I cheering for Kateryna? Well, she plays the Worrall Attack! 'nuff said!

Games are available here for replay. (If I see any game analysis, I will post it.)

Round 1

Round =2

Round 3

Round 4

Do You Have What It Takes To be an IM or GM?

2011-05-07T23:44:00.004+10:00

IMs and GMs speak about chess, being a chess player, the nerves and stress (remember that our very own GM Ian Rogers retired because chess became "hazardous" to his health!! and a few chess players has collapsed from heart attack at the board including GM Vladimir Bagirov who died!!), the aesthetic beauty of chess, the humanity of chess, the intuition and the zone (as explained by an expatriate Aussie), chess as simulacrum of life, the rise of the silicon Frankenstein, and learning to cope with losses.

Watch and enjoy; see if you can also spot the Australians (Is that Shaun Press?) Can you identify the interviewees (a younger Levon Aronian?)? Is there a weaker sex in chess?

Chess Me Out - talk on board
by nulli versi

Chess Me Out - talk on board from nulli versi on Vimeo.

Chess Me Out - talk on board -
a 43' documentary about chess

12 professional chess players talk about their job. From the childhood to the feelings on board during the game, we listen to their thoughts mixed in 12 different chapters. This documentary tries to show a portrait of this amazing game called Chess.

12 giocatori di scacchi professionisti parlano della loro professione. Dagli inizi fino alle sensazioni durante un incontro, sentiremo i loro pensieri intrecciati in 12 differenti capitoli. Questo documentario vuole tracciare un ritratto di quel complesso gioco che è gli Scacchi.

Technical Info CHESS ME OUT - 4:3 - pal - 2006/2007 - 43 min - starring ENNIO ARLANDI, LEVON ARONIAN, FABIO BRUNO, MARTHA FIERRO, DANIELE GENOCCHIO, MICHELE GODENA, RUSUDAN GOLETIANI, ANATOLIJ KARPOV, ALEXANDRA KOSTENIUK, ELIZABETH PAETHZ, MARK QUINN, ALEX WHOL - produced NULLIVERSI cr2- written, edited & directed DAVIDE FASOLO

IM Bryan Smith Speaks (heartbreak and despair and ...... hope) .......

2011-05-04T12:20:00.002+10:00

This series of amazing articles written by US IM Bryan Smith came via a post by Dana Mackenzie's blog. I thought the story is really relevant as we have a group of recently ex-juniors heading overseas to hunt down their various IM and GM norms.

I won't excerpt anything (and if you want a precis and background, read Dana's blog here). But you need to read Bryan's story as it unfolds:

Part 1 here;
Part 2 here; and
Part 3 here.

Hopefully there is a Part 4 and more to follow.

PS, I have to admit that this is a much more beautiful story to read than GM-elect Sam Shankland's spitting the dummy last year. Much much better!

AusJCL Application for Selection for 2011 International events (now closed)

2011-05-04T10:10:00.004+10:00

Dear All Australian Juniors and Chess Parents,

I have received the following applications from juniors for the honour to represent Australia in 2011 International chess tournaments (second group of events),

1-16 August World Junior Championships (U\20) Chennai, India

12-23 August FISU University Olympiad Shenzen, China

23 October - 1 November World U/16 Olympiad Sanliurfa, Turkey

17 Nov – 27 November World Youth Championships (U\8 – U\18)
Caldas Novas, Goias, Brazil.

If I have made any mistake inadvertently, please email me to rectify. Application is now closed as the deadline was the 2nd May 2011.

1-16 August World Junior Championships (U\20) Chennai, India

World Junior Championships (U20) Girls
Emma Guo
Savithri Narenthran
Miranda Webb Liddle

World Junior Championships (U20)
Junta Ikeda
Frank Lekkas
Moulthun Ly
Fedja Zulfic

17 Nov – 27 November World Youth Championships (U\8 – U\18)
Caldas Novas, Goias, Brazil

World Youth Chess U8
Kevin Willathgamuwa

World Youth Chess U10
Glen Qi
Rowan Willathgamuwa

World Youth Chess U12
Daniel Lapitan
Jamie-Lee Guo
Karl Zelesco

World Youth Chess U14 Girls
Clarise Koh
Savithri Narenthran

World Youth Chess U14
Ari Dale
Cedric Koh
Andrew Pan
Justin Tan
Karl Zelesco

World Youth Chess U16 Girls
Abbie Kanagarajah
Savithri Narenthran
Leteisha Simmonds

World Youth Chess U16
Ari Dale
Justin Tan
Karl Zelesco

World Youth Chess U18 Girls
Emma Guo
Miranda Webb Liddle
Sally Yu

World Youth Chess U18
Ari Dale
Justin Tan
Karl Zelesco

Schedule of Steps to be Taken:
Prepare information for Selectors;
Send inforamtion to Selectors;
Selectors to revert with selections;
Compile selections;
Draft selection to AusJCL Council and Selectors for final approval;
Release of Final Selection (hopefully by end of May).

No email or queries prior to end of May will be entertained.

AusJCL Application for Selection for 2011 International events (Updated 28 April)

2011-04-28T10:04:00.002+10:00

For the second group of events (Updated 28th April 2011 and please note I have corrected my previous error re WYCC dates):

1-16 August World Junior Championships (U\20) Chennai, India

12-23 August FISU University Olympiad Shenzen, China

23 October - 1 November World U/16 Olympiad Sanliurfa, Turkey

17 Nov – 27 November World Youth Championships (U\8 – U\18)
Caldas Novas, Goias, Brazil

Deadline is 2nd May 2011.

I have received to date the following applications:

World Youth Chess U8
Kevin Willathgamuwa

World Youth Chess U10
Glen Qi
Rowan Willathgamuwa

World Youth Chess U12
Daniel Lapitan
Jamie-Lee Guo

World Youth Chess U14 Girls
Clarise Koh

World Youth Chess U14
Cedric Koh
Andrew Pan
Justin Tan

World Youth Chess U16 Girls
Leteisha Simmonds

World Youth Chess U16
Justin Tan

World Youth Chess U18 Girls
Emma Guo
Miranda Webb Liddle

World Youth Chess U18
Justin Tan

World Junior Championships (U20) Girls
Emma Guo
Miranda Webb Liddle

World Junior Championships (U20)
Frank Lekkas

AusJCL_Applicants for Selection for International events (Updated 14th April)

2011-04-14T22:07:00.003+10:00

For the second group of events (Updated 14th April):

1-16 August World Junior Championships (U\20) Chennai, India

12-23 August FISU University Olympiad Shenzen, China

23 October - 1 November World U/16 Olympiad Sanliurfa, Turkey

12 Nov – 22 November World Youth Championships (U\8 – U\18)
Caldas Novas, Goias, Brazil

Deadline is 2nd May 2011.

I have received to date the following applications:

World Youth Chess U8
Kevin Willathgamuwa

World Youth Chess U10
Glen Qi
Rowan Willathgamuwa

World Youth Chess U12
Daniel Lapitan

World Youth Chess U14 Girls
Clarise Koh

World Youth Chess U14
Cedric Koh
Andrew Pan
Justin Tan

World Youth Chess U16 Girls
Leteisha Simmonds

World Youth Chess U16
Justin Tan

World Youth Chess U18
Justin Tan

World Junior Championships (U20)
Frank Lekkas

2011 Thailand Open_News Flash!

2011-04-13T22:05:00.002+10:00

Rounds 4 and 5 have been played and Max Illingworth drew with GM Jan Gustafsson! (game here) and James Morris defeated IM Guy West! and drew with GM Niaz Murshed! Game here. Ari Dale lost in Rd 4 to a Elo 2063 player.

A Passionate Chess Coach speaks ......

2011-04-13T21:45:00.002+10:00

Chessbase has run an excerpt of a magazine article from the British chess magazine, CHESS Magazine latest issue focusing on FM Emine Yanik Süral. Emine originally hailed from Germany but moved to Turkey in 2001. She has started a chess school without much governmental support. [I find this puzzling and both Chessbase and CHESS Magazine do not explain. Why? Because the news coming out of Turkey in the last few years has been of an explosion in chess in Turkey, how it is a compulsory school subject, and how much support the government is giving to chess in schools and communities.]

Excerpts:

WFM Sabrina Chevannes:
The school focuses on children aged 5-13 years old but welcomes people of all ages. Emine trains the children from beginner up to intermediate level. As well as teaching chess technique, she also ensures that they play chess in a sporting way and with the right attitude.

Emine takes the children on trips to tournaments for a day or two at a time. In addition to coaching, the children get to eat out and have fun: Emine has found that the social aspect of trips produces better results and happier children.

The centre’s main problem is lack of funding. Low fees are charged so it doesn’t take in much revenue. Emine runs two classes a week, an hour and a half long each. In wealthier places in the world this would rake in substantial fees, but Salihli (about 100km inland from Izmir, which the middle of the west coast – ed) is a small place and people are not prepared to pay a lot for chess.

Turkish schoolchildren also have a lot of exams. Schools focus on these, as the better the grades, the more respected the school is. Thus time for studying chess is much reduced.

Despite these problems, plus competition from another rival chess school nearby, the centre is very successful, with 25 pupils attending regularly every week. However, Emine’s concerns are not about money, or making the children into champions, but about encouraging as many children as possible to play and love chess. Even so, Emine still believes there are students at her school who can become chess masters.

[The interview:]

Did you always want to become a teacher?

Not a chess teacher, no. At the time I was just a player, but now I love and enjoy it very much.

Did you ever want to become a professional chess player?

No, not professional, but I would like to become a Women’s International Master.
Do you have much time to study chess on your own?

I am married with a six-year-old daughter as well as being involved in some complications with my mum since my father died, so things are not easy for me. However, I still try to study and still play actively.

Do you think your chess standard has deteriorated since you began teaching?

Yes, of course! Working with kids is absolutely different. You completely forget all your chess theory!

Describe a typical day at your chess centre.

First I have to plan what I am going to do that day. I work alone so I have to think about absolutely everything. Is everything in order? Chess sets, prizes (when the children are successful, I sometimes give them candy or chocolate), etc. You cannot believe what a child needs during just one hour! Water, tissues, pens, exercise book. I then have to go through all my notes. I have a dossier for each study group – what level are the children at now? Who learned everything last lesson, who did not? When the children arrive, I greet them with a big smile and begin the teaching. Sometimes I am their teacher, sometimes their mother, sometimes a comedian! I try and do my very best for them. This is just an ordinary day for me.

What do you think has made the chess centre so successful?

Love and hard work. I love the game and the children. Teaching chess to children is the best combination for me. And of course, I work very hard when needed.

Do you think about teaching adults as well?

Yes. I have thought about it and have told the parents of the children I teach to come along to learn to play chess as well, so that they can play against their children. However, they prefer going shopping and doing nothing!

Chess can be a brutal game. What do you do when a child gets upset?

I always try to teach them that losing is not a bad thing and that it is a part of chess. I show them that I often lose games and nothing bad happens to me. We just have to work hard to get better at it.

Do you prefer teaching boys or girls?

I don’t see any difference between boys and girls, but boys are more active when making trouble! When I look at either a boy or a girl, I see only their shining eyes and raw brains. When I see their improvement, they are very excited and this makes me very happy. Especially in Turkey, boys are liked very much and always have priority. That is why Turkish girls are very important to me. I show them how I feel about chess and how many opportunities chess has given me.

What is your ultimate goal for the school?

I want to make my school an attractive chess centre in Turkey. I do not want to earn more money – I just want more children to catch chess fever, and to enjoy the game. I want to see the happiness in their eyes when they play chess.

Do you think there is anything holding you back from achieving your ultimate goal?

Time and money, of course. When I was young I had more time for playing and talking to people about chess. Now I am married, I have a daughter in school – I have more responsibilities. Also, I do not want to earn more money from chess but of course I need money in order for my school to stay open. Opening the school and maintaining it are very costly.

What do you think could be improved about the school?

I live in a small district. I don’t have many opportunities to test my students’ progress. I have some promising students but I can’t find suitable tournaments for them near my school. Maybe I should try to find people to organise tournaments in my district because it is not easy for the children to travel to other places, stay in a hotel and take part in tournaments. Also, I hope to invite some good players to come to my school and talk with my children. They need heroes.

Hmmmmm...... so can we conclude that chess coaching is hazardous to your chess strength, chess parents prefer to shop and holiday and not learn chess ...... :) :) :)

Perhaps we can conclude that we actually need more passionate chess coaches who truly love the game and who love to teach children to appreciate and play the game well.

My favourite player speaks ......

2011-04-13T21:27:00.005+10:00

Yes, my favourite chess player, who is none other than GM Judit Polgar, gave an interview to the Russian Chess-News after her remarkable comeback at the 2011 European Individual Chess Championship where she finished joint first but third on tiebreaks. The interview has been translated and posted at Chess in Translation here. Excerpts:

Judging by what you said about your main aim being to qualify for the World Cup, that seems to explain why you decided not to fight Potkin for first place in the final round?

[In the last round Judit played the eventual winner, GM Vladmir Potkin, and the games ended in a draw after White's 12th move, see here.]

Yes, the last round is always tough, when you’re considering what to do, how to play. It depends on whether you’ve got enough energy left. I’d previously won four games in a row, and didn’t have much energy left for the last round. I didn’t know how exactly to play for a win in those conditions, to fight for 4-5 hours. Meanwhile, I could see that Potkin was in very good form. When someone wanted to beat him… for example, in the ninth round Jobava really wanted to win but things went badly and he lost in a very beautiful manner. So I felt that perhaps this wasn’t the tournament in which to play sharply for a win against Potkin. Maybe ten years ago I’d have played for a win, but now I realised that the tournament had gone well, and if I played for a win with Black then it would in any case be a very long struggle. Losing definitely wasn’t something I wanted, and somehow I felt that in the given circumstances a draw was a good result. After the tournament it would become clear if that was enough for second or third place. I was very pleased with how I’d played my games, and therefore I felt that such a result could be considered good.

You said that ten years ago you’d maybe have played for a win in the last game.

Maybe!

Does that mean that as time’s gone by – ten years or even more have passed – you’ve perhaps become a wiser player, or you’ve somehow matured?

No, I think experience is very important both in my own life, and that of other chess players. I now spend more time wondering what’s going to happen next. When I was young – 16-18-20 years old – back then I didn’t think a lot about how I’d feel if something didn’t work out. And now I wonder: what can I lose and what can I win in the last round? Of course, if I’d won it would have been fantastic both for me and for the press, and so on. But I felt that given the way I’d played recently, it was enough for me that I’d previously won four games in a row in good style. And I thought there was no need to take risks in the last round. It’s simply experience. Perhaps it’s good, but sometimes, of course, it can also have a negative effect.

Tell me, Judit, your sisters are also famous players, but nowadays they no longer play chess. Or at the very least we don’t see them in strong tournaments. While you’ve given birth to two children, are a mother, and now probably have a lot of other concerns, but nevertheless you don’t only play chess but, as we can all see, you’ve practically returned to your previous level. Why? Why put yourself through that?

I think it’s because I love chess. I love chess and I love to play. Of course, in 2007, 2008 and to a degree in 2009, I perhaps didn’t love chess quite as much given that I’d started playing badly. The quality of my games was low, and my results were bad. After that, of course, it was tough to play a lot. But then my children grew up a little – my youngest, Anna, is now 4.5 years old, while Oliver’s 6.5. Anna’s about to go to kindergarten, and in September Oliver’s starting school. And somehow I’ve started to work more in the last year and a half. It started with preparing for the World Cup, where I managed to win an interesting game against Gelfand. And then after that I wanted to play more. Perhaps it wasn’t noticeable as I haven’t played in a lot of tournaments. But then when I do play, I feel I’ve got a hunger for the game.

Tell me, Judit, in your day you’ve beaten chess players of all levels, including both Kasparov and Karpov. I’m curious simply in human terms: what does a woman feel when she’s beaten Kasparov and Karpov? What did you feel at that moment? Can you express it in words?

I don’t think it’s entirely right to talk about “as a woman”. When I played them I was already a good player. I was very small when I looked at the games of Karpov and Kasparov in the 80s. Of course, at that point I never thought that I’d get to play them. Yes, it was a very good feeling when I won, for example, a rapid chess match 5-3 against Karpov in Hungary. And, of course, I was very pleased when I beat Kasparov at rapid chess in Moscow. But for me the two games against him in Linares 2001 were much more memorable. With Black I played what he was playing himself – the Najdorf line with 6. Be3 Ng4 – and made a draw. And with White things were going badly, I sacrificed a piece, but Kasparov didn’t feel good and went for a draw. Those two games, for instance, have left a much greater imprint on my memory. Though of course it’s always nice to win, and particularly against legends.

I like the way Judit smashes the way she has been typecast as just a woman! I urge you all to head to Chess in Translation where Judit games (7 wins from 11 games)from the European Individual Championships are replayable as well as the two games with Kasparov mentioned in the interview. In addition, you should check out GM Sergey Shipov's annotations of Judit's spectacularly played game with GM Levan Pantsulaia, also translated and posted on Chess in Translation here.

14 year old IM-elect relaxes after a tough tournament playing computer games all day ......

2011-04-13T21:08:00.005+10:00

Fourteen year old Darwin Yang from the USA, whom some Australian juniors may remember from World Youth CC campaigns (see my previous blogs here), recently completed two tough tournaments back-to-back (18 games in 2 week period). But it was worth it as he managed to achieve his final IM norm. His first IM norm was achieved at the 2010 SPICE Spring Invitational and his second norm at the 2010 SPICE Cup. Now his third and final norm came at the 2011 SPICE Spring Invitational after he came third with 5.5/9 (TPR=2525). This came after he competed at the 2011 Saint Louis Invitational where he finished with 4/9 in a very strong field and he was the lowest rated player (but did not come last).

ChessCafe's Scholastic Chess column has a piece on him where Darwin shared some of his experience in getting to this achievement as well as annotations to two of the games.

Excerpts:

Before the tournaments, I understood that the St. Louis Invitational and the following SPICE Invitational were incredibly important especially considering the lack of strong competitions upcoming. The preparation was conducted accordingly. This was a good opportunity to gain an excellent result. Nonetheless, in my previous tournaments I had played below my typical strength, and my trust in myself was shaky. As the St. Louis tournament began, I managed to surprise my opponent GM Perelshteyn in the opening and finish the game in good style.

I was satisfied with my level of play despite the large numbers of draws. When I arrived in Lubbock for the SPICE, I once again found myself not quite confident in my ability. There was no doubt that a similar start was vital for my tournament performance. In the first round I faced GM Anatoly Bykhovsky with White in what would surely be a tense and difficult battle. In this respect, the game did not disappoint.

After this emotional booster [Darwin won the game with Bykhovsky], I found in myself the strength to arrive at the last round in a tie for first and with a chance for a GM norm with the IM title already secured. Playing for a win, I lost. Despite this setback, this tournament and the St. Louis one were immensely successful. I emerged with my final IM norm, valuable experience, and reinvigorated motivation to improve, which is more than anyone could ask from two tournaments.

I suggest you head to ChessCafe and go through the annotated games. To play the same games, go to TWIC here and here.

Thailand Open Chess Championship 2011 begins the "Silly" Season ......

2011-04-13T08:02:00.004+10:00

The "silly" chess season has started and for some young (and maybe not so young) fool-hardy chess player, they might actually aim for the Triple-slam*** consisting of the Thailand Open (11th-17th April), the Doeberl Cup (21st-25th April) and the Sydney International Open (27th-1st May).

There are a number of Australians including Australian juniors competing. Well, the chess parents can enjoy the beach whilst their offspring plays in the air conditioned rooms. But that is only if you are that special species of chess parents who can actually relax whilst their children plays.

The juniors are spearheaded by IM James Morris and Ari Dale in the main event, the Open, and Finley Dale and Jack Puccini in the Challenger section. (Note FM Max Illingworth is playing in the Open as well but Max is now a newly minted-ex-junior. Sorry, Max, cannot comment about your tournament success anymore. :) :))

Today is Round 4 and James is doing well on 2.5/3 but faces fellow Australian IM Guy West in Rd 4. James drew with GM Abhijit Kunte in Rd 2 and defeated IM Torben Sorense in Rd 3. Ari is struggling a bit in this very strong field losing his first two games but won in his 3rd Round game.

Results are here. More up-to-date results from TWIC here.

There is no link that I can see to the results in the Challenger section.

But I really have to do this last plug for Max as he faces GM Jan Gustafsson in Rd 4 which game is being streamed live (should be at http://bangkokchess.com/round4/tfd.htm). (Max defeated GM Gerhard Schebler in Rd 3 and you can catch the game here).

To replay the action on top 4 board games only, click below:
Round 1;
Round 2 (Australia's FM Tim Reilly in action against GM Jan Gustafsson);
Round 3.
More games and summary are available at TWIC, see here.

***I won't call it the Grand Slam. Not sure whether anyone has said or written about this before but following Tennis, we could have a similar Grand Slam in Australian Chess. Surely the obvious present candidates are the Australian Championships/Open (in alternate years), Doeberl Cup and the SIO. Any others you think merit as being included in the Grand Slam list, the main criteria being, playing strength and prestige?

There is an official Grand Slam in International Chess organised by Fide which has been mostly successful but encountered problems when the GFC hit the financial world. There is an unofficial Grand Slam, much more in the spirit of the Grand Slam in Tennis, consisting of the Wijk Aan See (now the Tata Steel Chess Tournament), the Linares, the Dortmund Sparkassen Chess Meeting chess tournaments, the so-called chess super-tournaments. However, Linares is not on this year. Hmmmm ...... wonder whether any chessplayer has managed to grab the Grand Slam in any single year or in any consecutive sequence?

AusJCL Johns-Putra JETS 2011

2011-04-07T18:49:00.000+10:00

Here are the 30 selected AusJCL Johns-Putra JETS for 2011:
David Cannon
George Carolin-Unkovich
Michael Chan
Alanna Chew Lee
Max Chew Lee
Ari Dale
Finley Dale
Callum Gray
Emma Guo
Jamie-Lee Guo
Eddie Seong Hun Han
Harry Hughes
Martin Jack
Michael Joseph Kethro
Clarise Koh
Cedric Koh
Daniel Lapitan
Zachary Loh
Alex MacAdam
Joanne Mason
Stuart Mason
Savithri Narenthran
Matthew Pyper
Glen Qi
Caroline Shan
Leteisha Simmonds
Anton Smirnov
Justin Tan
Miranda Webb-Liddle
Karl Zelesco

And on the Reserves List(in no particular order):
Ethan Derwent
Joshua Devarajh
Ege Girgin
Emily Lin
Janaki Narenthran
Ryan O'Rourke

Thanks everyone for your patience.

14-22 May Asian Youth Championships (U\8 to U\18) Subic Bay, the Philippines

2011-04-06T21:33:00.002+10:00

Dear All,

I am re-opening the selections for the Asian Youth Championships (U8 to U18) Subic Bay, the Philippines (14-22 May 2011) for the following categories:

Under 12 Open

Please submit your applications by 5 pm AEST Friday 8th April 2011. For applications please see here.

AusJCL Application for Selection for 2011 International events

2011-04-04T16:28:00.002+10:00

For the second group of events:

1-16 August World Junior Championships (U\20) Chennai, India

12-23 August FISU University Olympiad Shenzen, China

23 October - 1 November World U/16 Olympiad Sanliurfa, Turkey

12 Nov – 22 November World Youth Championships (U\8 – U\18)
Caldas Novas, Goias, Brazil

Deadline is 2nd May 2011,

I have received to date the following applications:

World Youth Chess U8
Kevin Willathgamuwa

World Youth Chess U10
Glen Qi
Rowan Willathgamuwa

World Youth Chess U12
Daniel Lapitan

World Youth Chess U14 Girls
Clarise Koh

World Youth Chess U14
Cedric Koh
Andrew Pan

World Youth Chess U16 Girls
Leteisha Simmonds

AusJCL Application for Selection for 2011 International events

2011-04-04T15:55:00.003+10:00

For the first set of tournaments:

30 April – 8 May World Schools Individual Championship Krakow, Poland;
14-22 May Asian Youth Championships (U\8 to U\18) Subic Bay, the Philippines;
1-11 June Asian Junior Championships (U\20) Colombo, Sri Lanka
12-21 June ASEAN+ Age Group Championships (U/8 – U/20) Tarakan, Indonesia
24 June – 4 July Commonwealth Championships (Open and Junior) Johannesburg, South Africa;

(with the exception of the Commonwealth Championships, of which see later in the post below) which are earlier in the year, these are the endorsed (and primary selections)AusJCL representatives:

14-22 May Asian Youth Championships (U\8 to U\18) Subic Bay, the Philippines
Savithri Narenthan U14 Girls

12-21 June ASEAN+ Age Group Championships (U/8 – U/20) Tarakan, Indonesia
Daniel Lapitan U12 Open
Cedric Koh U14 Open
Clarise Koh U14 Girls

On the Commonwealth Championships, on a re-reading of the Regulations, please note the following:only one male and one female player from each Commonwealth country is entitled to be nominated as "official entrants to the tournament. All official entrants will be exempt from paying entry fees. [......] Official entrants [......] may then apply to the tournament convenor, Mr Graham Jurgensen (gjurgensen@deloitte.co.za) to be considered for further
conditions, including free accommodation or contributions towards travel expenses." This condition applies to the Championship section and applies to both adults and juniors as medals are awarded in the Championship section to best U20, U18, U16 and U14 players. Medals are awarded to U12, 10 and U 8 juniors when they participate in the B-section. But no conditions are granted to player sin the B-section.

Please check the full Regulations here: http://www.chessa.co.za/tournament_websites/CWCC2011/index.html, click on Tournament Information under Useful link to the right menu bar and you get a zip file of the Regulations. Or click here to view.

I have received the following applications for Commonwealth Championships:
Kevin Willathgamuwa U8 Open (B-section)
Rowan Willathgamuwa U10 Open (B-section)
Miranda Webb Liddle U18 Girls (Championship section)
Thomas Feng U16 Open(Championship section)

Please note that ACF Selector has opened the Selections procedure for the Commonwealth Games at this thread here. I will be forwarding the latter two applications to him for consideration.

AusJCL Johns-Putra JETS 2011

2011-04-01T23:53:00.001+11:00

Update: I have a draft final selection of 30 and reserves list of 6. Once I have confirmed with selectors, I will release the lists. Thank you for patience.

IM Daniel Naroditsky Speaks ......

2011-03-25T10:02:00.004+11:00

From USCF Chess Life Online comes a video interview/presentation with/of the youngest participant in the forthcoming 2011 US Chess Championships (Saint Louis, April 14-28), IM Daniel Naroditsky. Daniel has recently achieved his last IM norm. See my previous blog on him here. His website here. But for now enjoy the video:

Meet IM Daniel Naroditsky from Ice Hat Creative on Vimeo.

PS I am looking for anyone who has experience in producing videos and in particular, juniors who has an interest in video production.

AusJCL Application for Selection for 2011 International events

2011-03-24T16:30:00.000+11:00

The first deadline of 15th March 2011 has passed. I will collate the information and passed onto the Panel of Selectors. Thanks for your patience.

AusJCL Johns-Putra JETS 2011

2011-03-24T16:27:00.000+11:00

My thanks for everyone's patience. I have been waiting for the Panel of Selectors to revert with their selections. Should be able to finalise by early next week.

GM Jan Gustafsson and GM Peter Svidler speaks ......

2011-03-15T13:55:00.003+11:00

Chess Base has a new "publication": Ask the experts Vol.1 video talk show with the two grandmasters, GM Jan Gustafsson and GM Peter Svidler, with very good English I must add, first broadcasted on Playchess and now uploaded on YouTube by Chessbase.

This is a sample of the show "Ask the experts" broadcasted on the playchess.com server. Viewer can ask questions directly to our experts, for Vol.1 Gustafsson and Svidler answered a lot of questioned concerning the Mainz tournament, endgame techniques, 1.e4 e5, Sveshnikov and Rossolimo and the Russian Superfinal. The whole show is avalaible on the playchess.com server in the Premium section.

The next show is on march 17th with GM Victor Bologan! Don't miss!

If you cannot view properly then view on YouTube here.

GM Hikaru Nakamura speaks ......

2011-03-04T12:25:00.002+11:00

Fresh from his success at Wijk Aan See (the greatest tournament victory achieved by an US chessplayer since Bobby Fisher (maybe? not sure whether GM Gata Kamsky did better or just as well)), GM Hikaru Nakamura visited Washington University Chess Club . The visit was organised in association with Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis. Hikaru conducted a 42-board simul as well as bullet chess and also participated in a Q&A session. You can read about the visit here and the Q&A here. Extracts from Q&A:

SL: When did you get into chess?

HN: I started when I was 7 years old. When I first started, I was reasonably decent. I wouldn’t say I was great because I wasn’t. In fact, the first tournament I played in, I lost all of my games….It was after that point [breaking Fischer’s record and becoming a grandmaster] where I realized that I had the potential to become something more than the average grandmaster in chess.

SL: You were homeschooled and lived a very different life than the average child or teenager. How did chess change your childhood experience?

HN: One of the great things about traveling around the world [is that] you meet so many people from so many different backgrounds. In many of these tournaments, I’ve made friends with people from all over the world….Especially now, it’s great to go to one of these countries and look someone up…I think it broadens your view of the way the world is.

The drawback is that at the same time…you don’t have the same life when you’re not traveling and competing. It’s very much a mixed bag. Everyone you know is in different countries. When you’re back at home for long periods of time, you didn’t make the friends that other people normally did.

2011 World Youth Chess Championships

2011-03-03T16:16:00.004+11:00

The organisers of the 2011 WYCC has launched their website and published their invitation (and regulations). The website is http://www.wycc2011.com/.

The Brazilian Chess Federation (CBX) , the WYCC 2011 Organising Committee and companies participating, have the honour to invite all the FIDE member Chess Federations around the world to participate in the World Youth Chess Championship 2011 (under 8, under 10, under 12, under 14, under 16 and under 18 years old - open and girls) which will take place in Caldas Novas-Goiás, Brazil, between November the 17th, 2011 (arrival) and November the 27th, 2011 (departure).

Every Federation can register one invited player in each category (under 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18 years old, open and girls), that is a maximum total of twelve (12) guest players that will be hosted by the Organizers, plus one trainer for each Federation participating.

The players placed 1-3 in a previous World Youth Championship, and the champions of Continental Open (Girls) Under 8, 10, 12, 14, 16 and 18 championships, shall have the personal right to participate in the World Youth Championship.

Any Federation can register additional players as well.

In order to provide appropriate tournament conditions, the Federations must complete carefully the official registration form (attached to this file) and send it back to the organizing committee by 25th August 2011. Any other form will not be accepted.

In accordance with the FIDE regulations, an entrance fee of 70 € (Euros) is asked for every guest player (mentioned in 2.2 and 2.3 above) and must be sent directly to FIDE by the national Federation before the event.

In accordance with the FIDE regulations, an entrance fee of 140 € (Euros) is asked for every additional player and must be sent directly to FIDE by the national Federation before the event.

The deadline for registration is 25 August 2011. After this date a penalty of 100 € (Euros) for each late registration will be charged to participants till 1st November 2011 latest. After this date, organisers reserve the right to refuse or decline late registrations or charge higher hotel costs for participants.

All guest players should make their application by the above deadline (25 August 2011). After this date no guest player application will be accepted and their application will be treated as if they were an additional player.

For full details please check out the regulations here. Information about hotels and accomodation costs are available as well on the website (see here).

The Story of Matthew Herman (US)

2011-03-02T14:35:00.005+11:00

US Chess Online has published an interview by its Chess Life Online editor, Jennifer Shahade, with US chess player Matthew Herman. I thought Matthew's story was quite inspiring and a bit different from your usual chess prodigy come good/bad stories. I think it also provides a model for Australian juniors who are good at chess, maths and other things and who does not necessarily wish to pursue chess as a career. Also, it is another example of a pathway whereby a junior gives up chess to concentrate on studies but comes back to chess at a later age. Anyway, you should read the full interview here and play through an annotated game by Matthew Herman himself. Matthew's story was also picked up by New York Times chess blogger/writer here. Excerpts (including a comment on the Tiger style of parenting:

JS: Wow, what a great run. When did it all start? Who taught you chess?
MH: I started in 1994 when I was 7 going on 8. My dad taught me to play, he's probably around 1200 strength. I would lose to him every game, and I had the personality for which that was not a satisfactory outcome. I was going to continue to study and play until I could score against him. Then I started going to clubs and playing on the ICC, which was a great lab for developing my game. I probably played thousands of blitz games.

JS: When did you really begin to feel you were getting a lot better?
MH: The summer of 1998 was very successful. I won three class sections in a row, and at the end of the summer my rating was 1950. Although I did lose to you that summer, in the last round of the US Junior Open in Ithaca.

JS: Tell me about how it came to be that you entered college and graduated so early?
MH: A combination of really high SAT scores and a supportive family. My family was living in upstate New York. I think very few parents would be willing to send a kid across the country at 12 years old. If I did well (in college), I'd continue. If not, we'd re-evaluate. I ended up graduating in three years. I went to grad school, and pursued a PHD in math at Brown. I enjoyed it, but it brought to me a similar decision as in chess-where I realized academia was not what I wanted to do. So I started looking for other career opportunities after getting my Masters in Math, and then landed at Goldman as a strategist in January 2005.

JS: How were you able to reach such a high degree of academic success at such a young age?
MH: I had a stay-at-home mom who was very highly educated and loved to teach (she went to Cornell pre-med and later got a master's degree). I started to read at around two years old. I really enjoyed learning. There was recently a Wall St. Journal about Amy Chua's new book on the Eastern style of parenting.

JS: Yes! The Tiger Mom style of parenting...
MH: In essence, I think she (Chua) said that kids are not motivated to learn, that you have to have a parent pushing. It's possible that's true in the majority of cases. But for me, I really enjoyed learning. If I was interested in a subject, I'd go to the library and read every book on it. I was doing that a lot at the age of 5-6-7.

I was always one to speak up and my parents were really good at being advocates for me. Fortunately, I had the flexibility to go to a higher grade. Actually that was around the time that I started to play chess. I spent a lot of time on chess, six to seven hours a day, studying and analyzing-the same algorithm that I used to learn other subjects I would apply to chess.

JS: Did you ever feel sad that you didn't get to hang out as much with kids your age?
MH: That stuff is always a trade-off. It's not that I didn't enjoy kicking a soccer ball around with people my age...but it was always more interesting to me to interact with people that were at the same grade level than the same birth year. I spent a lot of time three younger siblings.

On talent and hard work ......

JS: What do you think about the perennial debate between genius and talent?
MH: It's impossible to get to a high level in almost any discipline without hard work. It helps to start with a high IQ or however you want to classify it. However, you have to have both to get to the elite level. Clearly someone like Anand or Aronian is a genius in addition to a hard-worker. You can probably get to 2500 with hard work. I don't think you have to be a super-genius to get 2500. To get to the stratosphere, you may have to have some genetic disposition.

Still, I think genius is over-rated. It can even hurt...one thing I always had to watch out for was getting lazy, you have a slight edge because you have a good memory or spatial ability. There always comes a point where that's not enough, and you may not be prepared for the drop-off.

JS: Is there anything you can pinpoint that your talent for chess really helps you in that someone who put in an equal amount of work might have trouble attaining?
MH: If I could point to one thing, it would be the ability to make cross-applications. For instance a theme that would normally come up in one position, you're able to recognize it in another position. But of course part of that can be trained by looking at a wider list of candidate moves.

JS: Does the word genius make you uncomfortable?
MH: I hate being called that. I think it's a word that has kind of lost meaning, because it's overused in the English language. Feynman and Einstein, I'm picking examples from physics-but it could be from any field, people who are creating revolutions in their field. They are seeing things that no one saw but afterwards is obvious. I see this as genius. I think of myself more as a smart guy who works hard and occasionally has flashes of insight.

On chess as a career ......

JS: Do you ever regret not going the route of a pro chess player?
MH: It pops in my head from time to time. On balance, I'm happy with how things turned out. I am able to live in New York and support myself and I recently got married. At the same time, the reason I decided to focus on chess during my break, and am excited about the US Chess League every year is that I love the game. I feel fortunate that I'm able to play at a competent level and thankful that I have the time and opportunity to see what I'm capable of.

AusJCL Johns-Putra JETS 2011_Applicants_Applications now closed

2011-02-24T00:23:00.004+11:00

I have now received all applications for Johns-Putra JETS 2011 which were either handed or posted to GM Rogers as well as those sent by email to GM Rogers or myself. The list below contains the names of all applicants for Johns-Putra JETS 2011 in my possession. Please check the list to see if your child's application has been received.

There is a slight delay this year due to overseas travel of both the Grandmaster and myself in Jan-Feb. Since we are very close to the release of the ACF March ratings, I wait until after the 1st March before preparing the relevant and requisite information for the Panel of Selectors. I am aiming to finalise selection by mid-March.

Here is the final list of applicants (54 in total) for the Johns-Putra JETS 2011 (in no particular order):

(1) Matthew Pyper
(2) Michael Chan
(3) Zachary Loh
(4) ZhiLin GUO (f)
(5) ZhiXin GUO (m)
(6) Jamie Fay
(7) Leteisha Simmonds
(8) Emily Lim
(9) Miranda Webb Liddle
(10) Joel Lee
(11) Alex MacAdam
(12) Nicole Chin
(13) Chloe Chin
(14) Clarise Koh
(15) Cedric Koh
(16) Emma Guo
(17) Jamie-Lee Guo
(18) George Karassoulos
(19) George Carolin-Unkovich
(20) Anton Smirnov
(21) Callum Gray
(22) David Cannon
(23) Michael Joseph KETHRO
(24) Glen Qi
(25) Caroline Shan
(26) Grace Shan
(27) Thumula Gamage
(28) Tomson Qin
(29) Ethan Derwent
(30) Hannah Derwent
(31) Daniel Lapitan
(32) Bill Yuan
(33) Ege Girgin
(34) Baris Girgin
(35) Joshua Devarajh
(36) Kyle Gibson
(37) Tom Slater-Jones
(38) Eddie Han (SeongHun)
(39) Denny Han (JungHo)
(40) Savithri Narenthran
(41) Janaki Narenthran
(42) Karl Zelesco
(43) Veda Mitra
(44) Ryan O’Rourke
(45) Joanne Mason
(46) Stuart Mason
(47) Harry Hughes
(48) Alanna Chew Lee
(49) Max Chew Lee
(50) Jack Puccini
(51) Martin Jack
(52) Finley Dale
(53) Ari Dale
(54) Justin Tan

PLAY LIKE A GIRL! TACTICS BY 9 QUEENS

2011-02-18T20:18:00.004+11:00

Here is one for all the grrrrlszzz! out there.

From Mongoose Press:

Play Like A Girl!, the first book of its kind, is a collection of tactical positions from the world’s best women chessplayers. Profiled players range from Hungary’s Judit Polgar, the best woman chessplayer in history, to Abby Marshall, the teenager who became the first American girl to win the Denker High School Tournament of Champions.
Chess lovers of all levels can enjoy the puzzles, as the difficulty goes all the way from one-move killer blows to deep, complex combinations. The crushing tactics in this book show that “playing like a girl” is something to aspire to!

When you purchase Play Like a Girl!, you\'re also helping charity. All author royalties go to the Tucson-based non-profit organization, 9Queens. The book is edited by two-time U.S. Women\'s Champion Jennifer Shahade, a co-founder of 9Queens.

And from the editor, Jennifer Shahade:

My new book, Play Like a Girl! Tactics by 9 Queens has arrived. The book is filled with chess puzzles and combinations, all executed by female players and is a perfect “prequel” to my first book, Chess Bitch: Women in the Ultimate Intellectual Sport. All the author royalties go to 9 Queens initiatives to bring chess to inner-city youth and girls. Find out more on the Mongoose Press homepage and look for more details coming soon.

And see here for more photos.

GM Daniel Stellwagen speaks ......

2011-02-15T16:52:00.004+11:00

Here is a link to an interview with young Dutch GM Daniel Stellwagen conducted by Alina L'ami. It is especially interesting for some Australian chess juniors as Daniel is presently engaged in his PhD studies in chemistry at Utrecht University. Some excerpts:

Alina: Have you ever had doubts which one to choose, chess or chemistry?
Daniel: I briefly considered life as a chess professional when I finished high school, but I didn't want to specialize so early on in my life. Instead, I went to university to expand my horizons. For a while I combined both chess life and my chemistry studies, trying to divide my time equally between both subjects. At the moment my priorities have shifted toward my chemistry work, since a PhD project obviously requires much time than undergraduate studies. In any case, whenever I find time, I like to fill it up with chess.

Alina: Are you considering to come back as a professional chess player?
Daniel: I hope to first get my PhD, so if I will decide to come back to chess full time, it won't happen in the next few years. I simply enjoy my life more when I do other things besides chess. Anyway, it would have been, practically speaking, more appropriate to decide upon a chess career a few years ago, to be able to reach the very top.

Alina: If you could start all over again, what would you choose between chemistry and chess?
Daniel: Difficult to say, I have more experience as a chess player but it's nice to do them both and experience as much as possible. It brings you a nice perspective.

Alina: What do you miss most from chess, besides playing?
Daniel: The tournament atmosphere, seeing my friends, it's a really pleasant life. that's why it's a pity that I don't have so much time to play anymore. Of course, I am a bit more relaxed now with chess because I am less concerned. We know that when we lose a game, it's not good for your inner peace; the more serious you are on chess, the more disturbed you get with bad results.
Now I am much easier on myself, it's not the end of the world if I lose a game and my life is more pleasant. So, I do miss the nice atmosphere but not the soul crushing defeats which sometimes appear:)

Alina: A final chess advice?
Daniel: When things go wrong in a game, many players don't enjoy it anymore and, as a consequence, they no longer make an effort to fight. They should be aware of the following fact: for the better side, for the player with a winning position, it's extremely annoying to face a tough defence. It's so frustrating that you cannot easily turn your advantage into victory that, quite often, a winning position changes into a lost one. Keep fighting and be as resilient as possible!

And comparing chess and chemistry:

Alina: Which one is more difficult: chess or chemistry?
Daniel: Difficult to say because they are different from each other; but if I have to choose one...I'd say chemistry is more difficult because it is a much bigger field. On the other hand, chess is a very competitive game, you have to beat someone, you have to train hard and there are a lot of emotions, stress and pressure involved. In chemistry, you also have the competitive element, because you have to publish your work, you have to come up with better ideas than other people, but you don't have to face and fight against somebody. This is what makes chess a difficult game.

Alina L'ami nee Motoc on ......

2011-02-15T14:07:00.007+11:00

This is a blog on a blog, specifically the blog of WGM Alina L'ami. I guess I am lazy!!! BUT there are really some useful things said on the blog ...... So this is a blog on a guide to another blog ......

Australians may be familiar with Alina L'ami nee Motoc as a chess player as she was here in this part of the world playing in the 2009 Queenstown Classic. As her name implies, she is married to Dutch GM Erwin L'ami. She has her own blog and she has posted some very interesting blogs on chess and playing chess as a professional or semi-professional or as a serious amateur. I guess coming through as part of a power-chess couple, her thoughts are quite instructive and useful. I thought Australian juniors will benefit from these. I have included links below to the blogs specifically helpful to tournament chess players. But you can also check out her chess jokes and cartoons, brief interviews with international chess juniors (such as Anish Giri) as well chess-themed cooking.

Also coming very strongly through her blog is her constant emphasis on solving chess puzzles, whether tactical, endgame or middlegame or otherwise.

I still get a lot of messages on facebook where people ask me how to improve their chess strength.
The biggest secret of all secrets is: work, work, work and...when you really feel like throwing the pieces out of the window, work just a little bit more:) Besides, you will always have my chess psychology articles, under the label: Boost your career and some exercises.
Talking about work, here you have 3 more endgame studies, with the domination theme, one of my favourite. Soon you will start recognizing the patterns and successfully use them in your games! But, very important also, solving studies will improve you creativity, imagination and...it's fun:)

She has also blogged on these puzzles. Check it out (click on Studies in the labels menu to the right).

Boost your career blogs:

Dealing with Stress and Life-balance - The Chess Wheel: see here.

Sports psychology: see here.

Critical mental skill - concentration: see here.

Memory and improvement: see here.

Failure: see here.

Dealing with stress of travelling to chess tournaments: see here. Those ex-juniors taking a gap year from University and playing chess overseas in Asia and Europe may wish to read this.

On the Women World Championship Finals between GM Hou YiFan and Ruan LuFei: see here. Alina analyses the last of the classical game where Hou YiFan needed to only draw to become Women World Champion.

What I want to point out is that there are two bad habits out there that kill confidence:
1. Setting unrealistic expectations: strict or high expectations can undermine and suck the life out of confidence!
2. Letting self-doubt run wild: pessimism and/or perfectionism might be the cause in derailing performance.

Another big problem is that we tend to live either in the past (What a stupid move I did yesterday...Why couldn't I make just a simple draw?!), either in the future (I must win! I have to win! How great it would be to win!), and only occasionally in the present. And then again...the real winner is the one who stands up after falling (see my post on Motivated by Fear of Failure?).
[......]Tiebreak time! Great for the public but a hell for the players. They are both tired, stressed and yet, they have to play rapid games, maybe blitz and, who knows, maybe even Armageddon! All on Christmas Eve!
Chess is not a game for weak-hearted people...

Is it worth playing chess?! A blog on the positives and negatives of playing chess. Read it and use it as a review of the reasons why you play chess. Read it to become aware of the "dark" side of chess.

Goal Setting. A blog on the mechanics and psychology of setting goals.

Goal setting is not just about identifying what you want to achieve but also how you will achieve it (process goals) and measure that achievement (performance goals). Goals must be set according to the age, stage of development, confidence, ability and motivation of the individual. Beginners require very short term, easily achieved goals to boost their self-confidence, whereas the experienced individual need more challenging, yet realistic goals.

And lastly, my favourite blog thus far: Chess in Paintings. Lately I have been absorbed in abstract painting and I have been dabbling in it. Might even consider entering a competition of two. So this blog on painting styles and chess was great. For those who like painting and chess as well, there is another blog which regularly talks on the same: The Streatham & Brixton Chess Blog and its series on Chess in Art.

GM Efstratios Grivas lectures ...... Lecture II

2011-02-14T13:34:00.003+11:00

Getting to Know Ourselves
By GM Efstratios Grivas

It is essential to become acquainted with ourselves chesswise so as to be able to identify and codify the assets and weaknesses of our chess personality. Many trainers and trainees have asked me how this can be done properly. Well, as when you ‘feel the pain’ you make the necessary examinations to identify the problem, the same you should do with your chess!

But how can this be done? Our basic source shall be the recent games we have played so far. We must re-examine this valuable and important material (yes, you should write down all your games!) and produce an 'X-ray' image of our chess-self. This examination must include all three parts of the game, opening, middlegame and endgame, for each of our games.

Starting with the opening, we shall fill up two charts, one for the white and one for the black pieces. These charts will provide very clear-cut information about ourselves (provided of course that we do this work with strong self-criticism) and will show how well we understand the openings we have chosen or, in the bottom line, whether these openings really suit our style (difference between opening outcome and game result). The bigger the sample, the more accurate the conclusions (it is advisable to twice photocopy the following – one for white / one for black).

Now it is best to click here to go to Chessbase for the charts used by GM Grivas. [I am too lazy to re-create the charts. :)] He propose creating analytical charts of openings, middlegame and endgames.
[......]

After completing this work we will have a much clearer picture of both our weaknesses and our strengths. It is recommended to repeat this process at frequent intervals, provided of course that we have gathered enough material from recent games. In this way we can evaluate our improvement or discover other hidden aspects of ourselves.

GM Efstratios Grivas lectures ...... Lecture I

2011-02-14T13:05:00.004+11:00

Courtesy of Chessbase and GM Efstratios Grivas, here are two lectures (here and here) by GM Efstratios Grivas. Here is Chessbase's little blurb on GM Grivas:

Efstratios Grivas is a grandmaster and highly experienced chess trainer and chess author.

He lives in Athens, and he is also a FIDE Senior Trainer (Secretary of the FIDE Trainers' Commission), an International FIDE Chess Arbiter and an International FIDE Chess Organizer. He has represented his country on a great many occasions, winning the fourth position in the World Junior Championship 1985, an individual gold medal at the 1989 European Team Championship and an individual silver medal at the 1998 Olympiad.

In 2010 he was awarded the worldwide highly important FIDE TRG Awards – the Boleslavsky Medal (best author) for 2009.

His personal website is here.

Training by GM & FST Efstratios Grivas
Schedule – Hamburg, 22.01.2011

10:30-10:50
Physical and Psychological Factors; Getting to know Ourselves
11:00-11:50
Building a Repertoire; Chess Literature
12:00-12:50
Activity of Bishops and Knights
Break
14:00-14:50
The Backward Pawn
15:00-15:50
The Art of Exchanges
16:00-16:50
The Golden Rules of the Endgame; How to Think in Endgames

The aim of this series of lectures is to enable participants to teach young and gifted players in schools and chess clubs, and to educate trainers and chess teachers not only in their own countries but also on an international basis.

The material started to develop in early 2004 and was used Grivas' personal training sessions, where he developed a system based on serious sport (chess is treated like a sport) and chess material (focusing on middlegame and endgame). In 2005 this material was first printed in Greek, in a series of training books called ‘Skakistiki Proponisi’ (six volumes, 680 pages). It then appeared in an improved version in an English series ‘Chess College’ (Gambit 2006, three volumes, translator Sotiris Logothetis) and ‘Practical Endgame Play’ (Everyman 2008). It was also translated (in another improved version) into Turkish in 2009. Finally a further improved version appeared in the latest FIDE book for training the trainers called ‘Syllabus’ (FIDE 2010, proofer Andrew Martin).

"I use this material to make my students understand that health and other sport assets are valuable for a chess player's improvement, and not just never-end analysis in openings," says Stratos (as his friends call him). "For example in Turkey, where I am working on my program, all my trainees exercise some physical activity in accordance with their chess education." Since middle of 2006, when he started training youthful Turkish talents, three players have made their grandmaster norms and two more are close to this goal. And a number of IMs have also arisen in the process.

In the meantime Grivas, Adrian Mikhalchishin, Alexander Beliavsky and Georg Mohr are cooperating to produce a total training system, which will appear in 30 books (around 3,000 pages) based on the idea of full training in the middle and endgame. The work is being edited by the Turkish Chess Federation (which has the rights) and for the moment it is printed only in the Turkish language. The project started in early 2010 and it will be completed in 2012.

Trainers (and players) all over the world can use the series presented on the ChessBase news page freely. Any question can be addressed directly to the author: GrivasEfs (at) yahoo.co.uk.

Lecture 1
Physical and Psychological Factors

Which physical and psychological assets are necessary for a successful chess career? Well, in the next pages we will be well informed on various subjects concerning a healthy sportsman’s life.

Chess Assets

On the basis of relevant research conducted since the beginning of the previous century, these assets are split in two main categories, innate and attainable.

Innate Chess Assets

1. Self-control
2. Ability to think on subjects
3. Intense mental activity
4. Obedience of will
5. Proper distribution of attention
6. Perception of position dynamics
7. Combinative creative skill

Attainable Chess Assets

1. Good health condition
2. Strong nerves
3. Perception of data conveyed by our senses
4. Objective thought-process
5. Powerful memory
6. High mental level
7. Self-confidence
8. Control of emotional urges
9. Feeling for the position (combination of thought and emotions)

The innate assets can be further enhanced and developed, but the attainable ones are purely a matter of education. Endless work and systematic training in order to improve our personal traits and the 'required assets' is essential for our overall chess improvement and the climb up to the highest title; that of grandmaster.

Naturally, without the help of a specialized trainer or advisor, the trainee finds it difficult to understand or try to improve the above-mentioned assets. After all, these assets are exclusively related to chess and have no direct bearing on our other interests. For example, 'powerful special memory' may refer exclusively to chess-related matters (data), as opposed to other matters; naturally, the opposite is also possible. Each of us is unique.

Health Sports

Chess-players tend to grossly ignore the proper state of their health, consequently being in serious danger of suffering heart problems due to the combination of lack of physical training and daily stress stemming from preparation for and participation in competitions. Therefore, workout or sport activities in general is essential, not only to protect our precious health but also to ensure better results over a longer period of time.

Man's first kinetic activity, walking, does not require any specialized equipment, can take place everywhere and brings several dividends. It is one of the simplest methods of aerobic training, improving cardiac and respiratory functionality, and our physical condition in general. A routine of half an hour of walking and two hours at the gym can turn our biological clock six to eight years back. At the same time, it contributes to proper maintenance of weight and forestalls obesity. Finally, it helps reduce the amount of bad cholesterol (LDL) in our body. Research conducted by American universities has proven that this activity improves memory and mental focus, while the production of endorphins (substances that reduce physical and emotional pain, as well as creating euphoria) reaches extremely high levels.

Training time-frame

Another topic that must be addressed is the 'time-frame' of training in relation to the scale of our mental activities, and how we are able to attain maximum performance in it. Science almost unanimously accepts the following categorization of people:

1. Larks: their mental processes are most efficient during the first half of the day, falling off during the second half. Approximately 25% of the world's population belongs in this category.
2. Owls: their mental processes are most efficient during the second half of the day and especially during the evening hours. They usually go to sleep late and wake up accordingly late. Approximately 30% of the world's population belongs in this category.
3. Arrhythmics: for these people mental processes do not display any special ups and downs during the day or night. Approximately 45% of the world's population, the largest part, belongs to this category.

In practice, all top chess-players belong to the 'Owls' category! The explanation is simple and is directly related to the standard time-frame of chess competitions, which mostly take place during the second half of the day. Therefore, the chess-player 'must' place himself in this category (as far as possible) and adapt his training schedule accordingly.

But of course, if it is not easy to be adjusted in this ‘new’ time-frame, solutions exist. One of the most ‘used’ one for chess-players who are fundamentally larks is to take a nap in-between lunch and play, usually for 1 to 1½ hour. Then the mind is fresh again and ready to fight!

Nutrition

Another important topic is the chess-player's nutritional habits. In general he should not deviate from his customary diet as regards the type and quantity of food he consumes (no exertions!), as each organism has different needs and habits.

What can chessplayers do in order to improve and/or maintain healthy habits? Some very simple rules to be followed by young people are: proper lifestyle, proper sleeping patterns, consumption (in logical portions) of a variety of vegetables, fruits and natural fibres, along with one's favourite dishes involving fish, beef, chicken, ham and turkey. In other words, a healthy diet based on a variety of food, based on a weekly schedule. Soy milk, filtered water, tea (especially black or green), coffee, dairy products (such as butter, milk, eggs and cheese) should be rarely consumed within each week.

In our times, one dish rarely contains sufficient amounts of vitamins and minerals. Normally, a specialized food shop can provide a nutritional supplement to meet one's specific needs. Although these supplements are costly, just consider how much harm an illness or sickness can do to your game. So, a question is been borne by all the above: what is the best diet for a chess-player, a sportsman? According to Rebecca Scritchfield (among others), following a healthy diet can be a key method of preventing heart disease. We can highlight five heart-healthy foods that can literally save our health. We recognize that these are not the only five foods that protect our heart, but they stand out as star performers and great additions to any diet.

1. Garlic: This herb is ideal for heart health. Numerous studies have shown the potential benefits of regular garlic consumption on blood pressure, platelet aggregation, serum triglyceride level, and cholesterol levels – all of which keep our heart performing. Garlic also makes a great seasoning for food so we can greatly reduce salt.
2. Salmon: Make the swap from a saturated fat burger to a salmon fillet. While some saturated fat is fine, a little goes a long way. The average cheeseburger has more than half a day worth of the artery clogging fat, which will increase our risk for a heart attack. Conversely, salmon lowers that risk thanks to heart healthy fats. Omega-3s can prevent erratic heart rhythms, reduce likelihood of blood clots inside arteries, improve the ratio of good cholesterol to bad cholesterol, and prevent cholesterol from becoming damaged, at which point it clogs arteries. Also, a combination of Omega-3 (fish oils), Omega-6 (borage oil) and Omega-9 (olive oil) looks excellent!
3. Berries and Cherries: Props must be given to nature’s candy. These sweet treats are high in polyphenols, which prevent cell damage that creates unhealthy blood vessels and heart. During the winter we can opt for frozen berries. Try thawing a bag of frozen strawberries in the refrigerator. Then, add unsweetened, steel-cut oatmeal with the berries their juice and your heart will say thanks with each beat.
4. Quinoa: Often mistaken as a grain, this tiny sprouted seed is an excellent source of magnesium, the mineral that relaxes blood vessels. Low dietary levels of magnesium lead to some scary health issues like increased rates of hypertension, ischemic heart disease and heart arrhythmias. Quinoa cooks quickly and makes great leftovers. Toss with grilled veggies and roasted chicken for a delicious one-pot dinner, or try the Red Curry Quinoa recipe.
5. Hot Cocoa: Hot cocoa is brimming with antioxidants – two-times more than red wine and three times more than green tea. The cool temperatures are no match for a mug of hot cocoa. A tip: since hot chocolate mixes are full of sugar, use 100% cocoa and combine with a teaspoon of sugar. Plus you'll sweeten with the natural sugars in the milk.

Special attention must be paid to the fact that many chess-players mistakenly support the concept of the 'empty stomach' during competitions. Consumption of food should take place 60-90 minutes before the start of play, as this time ensures the possibility of adequate absorption of the food, consequently providing the brain with 'fuel'. During the game one may consume small amounts of caffeine (1-2 cups of coffee or tea) as well as chocolate, which is quickly absorbed by our metabolism (in 2-3 minutes); this does not mean that any other light food is less useful. It is self-evident that alcohol is strictly forbidden.

Conclusion

You may be wondering how all this is related to your chess. But think about it. When you feel healthy, full of life and in spiritual upheaval, the four main emotional attributes of self-confidence, experience, concentration and adaptability strongly come to the fore. When your body and mind are in perfect shape, so will your chess.

AusJCL Application Procedure for Selection for 2011 International events [Updated]

2011-02-11T13:07:00.004+11:00

Dear All Chess Juniors and Chess Parents,

I inform that applications for selection to represent Australian Chess at International events in 2011 will be accepted beginning today. There are two deadlines for close of applications due to the scheduling of the events.

(1) If you intend to apply for selection to the following events:

30 April–8 May World Schools Individual Championship Krakow, Poland;
14-22 May Asian Youth Championships (U\8 to U\18) Subic Bay, the Philippines;
1-11 June Asian Junior Championships (U\20) Colombo, Sri Lanka
12-21 June ASEAN+ Age Group Championships (U/8 – U/20) Tarakan, Indonesia
24 June–4 July Commonwealth Championships (Open and Junior) Johannesburg, South Africa;

the Deadline is end of day on 15th March 2011.

(2) For the rest of the international events on the Calendar (see here), the Deadline is end of day on 2nd May 2011 [UPDATED].

Applications to be made via the AusJCL website, see here. Please note that ALL PARENTS and JUNIORS have to read and agree to the contents of the Advice page on AusJCL website in making the application. This applies to all notwithstanding you have previously apply to represent Australian chess.

For further information on application and ACF regulations, see here.

2011 Calendar of National Junior Chess Events

2011-02-11T12:45:00.000+11:00

Here is an updated version of 2011 Australian Junior Chess League Calendar_National prepared by GM Ian Rogers, Vice-President AusJCL:

21-25 April Doeberl Cup Canberra

27 April- 1 May Sydney International Open

28-29 May Adelaide Education Expo

20 June ACT Junior Championships U/12

27 June – 1 July Queensland Junior Championships, Gold Coast

2-3 July Victorian Junior Championships U/10 and U/12

4-9 July Johns-Putra JETS Camp, Melbourne

11-14 July Victorian Junior Championships U/14, U/16 and U/18

10-15 July NSW Junior Championships

14-15 July SA Junior Championship U/12 – U/18

28-30 September ACT Junior Championships U/18

29-30 September NSW Girls Championship U/18, U/12

5-7 October City of Sydney Junior Championships U/18, U/15, U/12

6-7 October Adelaide Junior Championships U/12 – U/18

30-31 October ACT Championships U/14

[14-22 January 2012 Australian Junior Championships]

2011 Calendar of International Junior Chess

2011-02-11T12:36:00.000+11:00

Here is an updated version of 2011 Australian Junior Chess League Calendar_International prepared by GM Ian Rogers, Vice-President AusJCL:

3-9 April Kuala Lumpur Open, Malaysia

11-17 April Thailand Open
http://bangkokchess.com/archives/813

30 April – 8 May World Schools Individual Championship Krakow, Poland http://www.wscc2011.pl/en

14-22 May Asian Youth Championships (U\8 to U\18) Subic Bay, the Philippines http://www.fide.com/images/stories/NEWS_2011/tournament_news/Asian_Youth_CC_2011/Asian_Youth_2011_Invitation.pdf

1-11 June Asian Junior Championships (U\20) Colombo, Sri Lanka

12-21 June ASEAN+ Age Group Ch. (U/8 – U/20) Tarakan, Indonesia
http://www.fide.com/images/stories/FIDE_Calendar_2011/Asian_events/ASEAN_Age_Group_Championships_2011_reg.pdf

24 June – 4 July Commonwealth Championships (Open and Junior) Johannesburg, South Africa
http://www.chessa.co.za/tournament_websites/CWCC2011/index.html

1-16 August World Junior Championships (U\20) Chennai, India
http://www.indianchessfed.org/

12-23 August FISU University Olympiad Shenzen, China http://www.fisu.net/medias/fichiers/Participation_Forms.pdf

23 October - 1 November World U/16 Olympiad Sanliurfa, Turkey

12 Nov – 22 November World Youth Championships (U\8 – U\18)
Caldas Novas, Goias, Brazil