Chess Trainer

World Chess Championship updates from Moscow by IM Saravanan

noreply@blogger.com (Chess Trainer) — Sun, 20 May 2012 12:10:00 +0000

There is a huge countdown clock on the screen, flashing the number of minutes remaining for the start of the game. Switching the clock on and getting ready with business, the Arbiters start fussing over the last minute details.

Not exactly scurrying for vantage points, the dozen or so photographers gradually start arriving, taking positions. Whether you are going to snap Anand or Gelfand in particular, you choose your vantage points accordingly.

Whoever designed those glass walls definitely doesn’t have a clue about photography. Like foldable doors, they obstruct the view of the stage, and breakup the view into a series of rectangles, not giving a single plain vision of the players. You can’t have it all, can you?

Boris Gelfand always arrives first. For almost all the games, he invariably strides to the board early, as early as 10 minutes to go. He brings with him a whole lot of stuff to get settled – Water, glass, a cup of coffee (Tea?). Clearly, he has a routine to `settle down’…

It is a somewhat an amusing situation, with photographers slowly crowding around the stage, most standing in the auditorium behind the Glass wall protecting the player from noise from the audience. A couple of privileged ones get onto the stage, being allowed close quarters selectively.

Boris is all alone to click for a long time to come.

`The Boris’ sits on the board, writes the score sheet, pours water from the bottle to the glass, and slowly gets into the groove. He notices all the photographers, but chooses to remain silent. Rarely, he may give a half smile at a known face, but the `business’ is of course, serious.

Often, he characteristically folds his lips and gives a grump like expression. But you do know that he is a nice guy. (So boring compared to The Vaselin `I-know-you-I-shake-your-hand-but-I-No-talk-to-you’ Topalov!).

And then, he keeps going to the players’ arena and returning back to the board randomly, trying to look at the pieces with concentration when sitting on the chair. Vishy Anand arrives at the board just in time, all the games. `The Boss’ strides to the board with purpose, with just a couple of minutes to go.

Vishy gives a small smile to Boris (who returns it), both shake hand matter-of-factly, and get down to business. Without any exaggerated `playing out’ for the audience. (Hey! After all, it’s the World Chess Championship, you have been seeing your rival in your mind for the past year or so – no need for niceties, after all…) And yes, the Moscow crowd applauds enthusiastically.

Not looking at the photographers or the arbiters but obviously aware of their presence, he concentrates on writing the score sheet, adjust his pieces, and settles down to quietly stare down the board.

By this time, the auditorium is full to its capacity.

As the count-down clock on the demo board touches 0.00, the Arbiter nods at the players and starts the clock. Unlike between us the lesser souls often, there is no second handshake as the game starts, as the business of fighting for the $2.55 million gets underway busily…

As the game starts, the Electronic Demo board on the background comes to life brilliantly, showing the current position on the board.

For the first five minutes, the shutterbugs click away merrily. There is no shoving around as yet, but there is a clever and silent warfare on getting the right vantage point and sticking to that position, pretendedly oblivious to the guy behind you wanting a better view. But there is no real aggression, as most are polite to each other, and understand that everyone needs to take their snaps.

The Cameras keep clicking / filming away. They come in various sizes and models. Some of them pros have dangerously huge Zoom Lenses and covers and caps and what-not’s attached to their devices, scaring the shit out of me, making me and my DSLR feel decidedly inferior. Are these monsters going to leave enough of Anand & Gelfand after their devouring, for me to compose my simple little picture? Sniff, Sniff…

After five minutes, a solid guy appears, touching everyone’s cameras with his hand, murmuring in his Russian English, `Thaime, Thaime’. Funny thing, the burly guy is immaculately dressed – only in India you find the security in shabby uniforms. In the west, Yessir, they come in real scary suits and ties. Take a look – one of those guys is guarding a known face giving a Simultaneous Display…

You of course nod to him, pretending as if you never noticed that the allowed five minutes to take your photographs are done. As you turn back to leave, and take one last look at the stage, it sinks in you that you are at the World Chess Championship, and it is a great place to be…

As you gather yourself – not any gadgets otherwise to gather, buddy – and leave the auditorium, you notice Anand’s team - wife Aruna with Hans Walter Schmitt, or Eric van Reem (blogger at http://mateinmoscow.wordpress.com/), - sitting quietly in the last row settling down to watch the games. A thought flashes in your mind – Vishy has seconds from Uzbekistan, Poland, Denmark and of course, India, and has a burly German and a mischievous Dutch guy in his `entourage’ to complete the complicated picture!

You nod at them, smile, and hurry away to the Press / VIP Room, reminding yourself you have somehow landed yourself here as a `Journalist’, a much more respectful term than `Spectator’. And journalists are always busy, aren’t they? After all, there is so much food (and beverages) for thought in the Press Room…

By International Master V Saravanan

How to build an opening repertoire

noreply@blogger.com (Chess Trainer) — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 12:37:00 +0000

Every tournament player should have a sound opening repertoire. He has to decide what to play from either (white/black) side and prepare a line against each of opponent’s replies.

Example:

A player decides to play 1 e4 from white side. To plan a repertoire from white side he will have to consider all possible replies to 1 e4 that his opponent can play from black side. Against 1 e4 the opponent has following main replies:

1 … e5 the Open Game

1 … c5 Sicilian Defence

1 … e6 French Defence

1 … c6 Caro Kann Defence

1 … d5 Scandinavian Defence

1 … Nf6 Alekhine Defence

1 … d6 Pirc Defence

1 … g6 Modern Defence

These are the most popular ways to meet 1 e4.

He will have to choose a line against each of the above systems. If he decides to play the main line against Sicilian for example, he will have to prepare a line against each of black’s choices like Scheveningen, Dragon, Pelikan, Najdorf, Taimanov, etc. because black can play any one of these variations against him. If he decides to play English Attack against Scheveningen, he will have to prepare against each of black’s set ups against English Attack.

From black side, he will have to prepare a line against the most popular first moves 1 e4 and 1 d4. If he decides to play French Defence against 1 e4 for example, he will have to prepare lines against all the variations that white can play against French Defence. In addition to this he will have to prepare against less popular first moves like 1 c4, 1 Nf3 and also against sidelines like 1 f4, 1 b4, 1 b3, etc.

How to choose lines

It is completely your choice. Normally choice of openings will be based on:

1 Your playing style: Are you comfortable in closed positions? Do you like to take risk to get attacking chances? Would you mind sacrificing material while conducting attack? Are you good in endgame? The answers to these questions will help you choose openings. Normally a player should choose openings that suit his playing style.

2 How much time you can devote: Some openings are highly fashionable while others are not so popular. Some of them require exact move orders and memorizing of variations while a few others can be played by applying your chess understanding. You don’t need to memorize lengthy variations. If you know the typical playing methods and plans in such openings, you can face any tough opponent. For openings like Sicilian Dragon and King’s Indian you will have to spend a lot of time on opening preparation. These lines demand exact move orders. Sometimes you play theory until move 30. You need to update your knowledge frequently and continuously.

Another important decision is whether to play main lines or sidelines.

Popular lines are played by top Grandmasters and normally take time to prepare and involve too much of theory. They are popular because they give good results at that level. Normally you will get different types of positions with so many variations in these openings. They take time to prepare but give you good results even at a higher level.

Less popular lines (sidelines) have a surprise value and you don’t need to spend hours learning complicated variations. But if you play the same sidelines always, most of your opponents will know what you are going to play. You will find it boring if you play the same type of position every time. Sometimes sidelines can be a good choice at school level and also at club level. If you choose good sidelines that are not unsound traps, you can try them even against senior players. There are some Grandmasters who always play sidelines, even at the highest Grandmaster level. So they can’t be bad.

As you become a stronger player, you can widen your repertoire by learning more than one line against each of opponent’s choices.

Your coach can actually help you in choosing and preparing openings.

Prepare openings in 5 easy steps

noreply@blogger.com (Chess Trainer) — Sun, 09 Oct 2011 14:15:00 +0000

Opening preparation is important for a tournament player because it gives him confidence, saves time on the clock and really makes a big difference in tournament results. There are some players who spend hours every day to learn opening lines and variations but they still don’t get satisfactory results in tournaments. Knowing ‘the book’ is not enough to win the game. Here are 5 simple steps to prepare openings:

1 Understand the opening

Try to understand common ideas and plans in the opening that you want to prepare. There are typical playing methods in all openings. Try to learn them from games annotated by masters. Search for games played in the opening that you want to prepare and study annotated games with comments in the openings. Get the books dedicated to particular openings. Read and understand ideas behind that opening. Learn how pieces of both the sides are developed, what type of pawn structure you get from that opening and common tactics that occur frequently. Do not hurry to learn so many variations by heart at this stage. Just try to learn the main variations and common plans in them.

2 Practice games

Try to play a lot of practice games, even blitz and semi serious games in that opening. You can try this in your local chess club and also online. Try to follow the playing methods and plans of that opening in your games. Analyze games with friends, opponents and coach without going deep into opening variations. At this stage you should try to understand how you could play better and after each practice session compare your moves with the book moves and study a few lines in that opening variation.

3 Study games

See a lot of games played by Grandmasters and strong players in that opening. Search for games from books and databases. Try to understand ideas deeper and also try to learn lines while studying games. This will help you gain better understanding of that opening. Study full games and do not skip moves after one side gets advantage in the opening. It is important to understand how a strong player plays that position after opening.

4 Learn lines

Now you can start learning opening lines from books and opening tree from a chess program. Try to remember ideas like “ This move is good if opponent develops his bishop on d7 but not so effective if he develops his bishop on b7” or “Black should play this if white moves his bishop to c4 but not if he keeps his bishop on f1.” Try to understand and remember key variations.

5 Keep learning

Keep learning and trying new ideas in the opening and update your knowledge by downloading and studying the latest games played in that opening. Try your own ideas in practice games and tournaments, analyze and find improvements, continue working.