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Advanced Lecture What it takes to become a Top Player “According to Capablanca, he learned the rules of the game at the age of four by watching his father play, pointed out an illegal move by his father, and then beat his father twice.” National Finals Lectures 2010 by IM Robert Jamieson

What it takes to become a Top Player - chessfinals.com.au · What it takes to become a Top Player “According to Capablanca, he learned the rules ... Victor Korchnoi - a highly motivated,

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Page 1: What it takes to become a Top Player - chessfinals.com.au · What it takes to become a Top Player “According to Capablanca, he learned the rules ... Victor Korchnoi - a highly motivated,

Advanced Lecture

What it takesto becomea Top Player

“According to Capablanca, he learned the rules of the game at the age of four by watching his father play, pointed out an illegal move by his father, and then beat his father twice.”

National Finals Lectures 2010 by IM Robert Jamieson!

Page 2: What it takes to become a Top Player - chessfinals.com.au · What it takes to become a Top Player “According to Capablanca, he learned the rules ... Victor Korchnoi - a highly motivated,

Start Early and Work Harder!

It’s generally accepted that it’s easier to acquire new skills the younger you are so if you want to be a chess champion start early.

Capablanca (World Champion 1921-27) learnt the moves at 4 years of age just watching his father playing chess. Paul Morphy also learnt the moves watching his father play and by age 9 years was one of the best players in New Orleans. Bobby Fischer learnt the moves at age 6 and was USA Champion by the time he was 14.

In Australia on Bobby Cheng (World 12 U Champion in 2009) would appear to be strong enough at an early age to become a really good player but will he keep improving or will he reach his “Jordan Strength” and stop improving before he becomes an IM/GM?

Back in the 1970’s not many young juniors played in national senior events but in the 1973 Australian Open I can remember that the youngest player was a 12 year-old boy named Ian Rogers. (Now grandmaster Ian Rogers). He started early.

You need also to understand also that you are in competition with your rivals to become a top player and that the one who succeeds best will probably be the one who puts in the greatest effort.

Have you all heard of Sir Donald Bradman - the best cricket batsman of all time? He record is 50% better than anyone else who ever played. What was his secret? When he was a boy growing up in country New South Wales he didn’t even have a cricket bat so he used a cricket stump to hit a golf ball against a water tank in his back yard. This gave him amazing hand-eye co-ordination that helped him go on to become a champion. Perhaps you could do something similar by playing heaps of lightning games at a very early age?

National Finals Lectures 2010 by IM Robert Jamieson!

Page 3: What it takes to become a Top Player - chessfinals.com.au · What it takes to become a Top Player “According to Capablanca, he learned the rules ... Victor Korchnoi - a highly motivated,

Fighting Spirit and MotivationIt’s very competitive at the top of any sport and those who succeed are usually confident, strong-willed people who have a burning desire to win.

- Don’t offer draws. I rarely did. There is no reason to be scared (of drawing). If your opponent outplays you he deserves to win, but you may outplay him! Knowing that your opponent won’t accept a draw places you under great pressure!

- Korchnoi v Karpov & Petrosian - the power of motivation.

Victor Korchnoi - a highly motivated, grumpy old man!

“Viktor Lvovich Korchnoi born March 23, 1931, in Leningrad, USSR, defected to the Netherlands, and has resided in Switzerland for many years, is a professional chess player, author and currently the oldest active grandmaster on the tournament circuit.Korchnoi played three matches against Anatoly Karpov, the latter two for the World Chess Championship. In 1974, he lost the Candidates final to Karpov, who was declared world champion in 1975 when Bobby Fischer failed to defend his title. Then, after defecting from the Soviet Union in 1976, he won consecutive Candidates cycles to qualify for World Championship matches with Karpov in 1978 and 1981, losing both.In all, Korchnoi was a candidate for the World Championship on ten occasions (1962, 1968, 1971, 1974, 1977, 1980, 1983, 1985, 1988 and 1991). Korchnoi was also a four-time USSR chess champion, a five-time member of Soviet teams that won the European championship, and a six-time member of Soviet teams that won the Chess Olympiad. In September 2006, he won the World Senior Chess Championship.”

Korchnoi very nearly won the World Championship aged 57 and 59 because he was incredibly motivated against the Soviets following his defection to the West. They in turn hated him and tried to boycott events in which he played. In his Candidates match against Petrosian they had to install a barrier under the table to stop the players from kicking each other! Korchnoi in theory was too old to be a World Championship contender but by will-power and motivation he very nearly rose to the top.

National Finals Lectures 2010 by IM Robert Jamieson!

Page 4: What it takes to become a Top Player - chessfinals.com.au · What it takes to become a Top Player “According to Capablanca, he learned the rules ... Victor Korchnoi - a highly motivated,

EnvironmentUnless you are a prodigy, it is very hard to rise significantly above the level of your environment. This is why Australia’ better players invariable come from Melbourne, Sydney (or even Brisbane) but never Perth, Hobart, Canberra or Darwin for example.

In the early 1970s there was a very good junior named Bill Jordan who played at the Box Hill Chess Club (which in those days was an average suburban chess club). To further his chess improvement he transferred to my club Waverley Chess Club where there were more players of Australian Championship standard for him to compete against.

Also it was a better environment for junior as Box Hill was a club largely of old men - so Bill had no rivals his age. At Waverley there were many strong juniors who could form a group which competed against each other. If you want to improve make certain that you are a little fish in a big pond rather than a big fish in a small pond.

These days the circle has turned and you must go to Box Hill if you want a good environment for up-and-coming juniors - although I believe some of the old seniors are still there!

If you look at the Australian context when I was a young player, our top players were around 2350 standard and we had only one IM playing (Cecil Purdy) and he was an old man well past his prime. I came along and wanted to do better and in 1975 I won the IM title pushing up our playing standard to over 2400. Subsequently Rogers and Johansen came along and pushed the top of our chess pyramid up to 2500 by becoming grandmasters. Each new generation stood on the shoulders of those who had come before.

Why did Victoria produce so many good players in the 1970s and early eighties? We had a group of rivals (Rogers, Johansen, West, Solomon, Hjorth, etc) who competed against each other and drove each other to new heights. Two became Grandmasters and three became International Masters! Are you in a competitive environment where you have a number of rivals of your age and standard?

National Finals Lectures 2010 by IM Robert Jamieson!

Page 5: What it takes to become a Top Player - chessfinals.com.au · What it takes to become a Top Player “According to Capablanca, he learned the rules ... Victor Korchnoi - a highly motivated,

Understanding

Good players, through their studies and experience, develop an understanding of the game. See if you can match Karpov’s understanding in the following position.

Karpov v Spassky

What would you play here as White?

Karpov found 1.Nb1! (backwards moves are difficult to find) with the idea of c3 and if Black takes on d2 then White can play Nxd2 and follow up with Nf3.

Obsession!Most top players go through a period in their life when they are obsessed with chess and they devour everything to do with chess. For me this period had a special name .... it was called the 1970s!

Like most sports/activities, to beat your rivals you must work harder than them. A 12 year-old Ian Rogers already had 100 chess books when the other boys only had a dozen or so. I have 3000 chess books and I’ve read most of them! To be a good player you need to build up a database of chess positions in you mind so that your brain will recognise a familiar pattern in your own games when one arises. See diagram below for an example.

National Finals Lectures 2010 by IM Robert Jamieson!

I was quickly playing through the above game (without making any attempt to analyse) and play continued 1.b3 Rc3 2.Bd2 Rc7 3.e5 Nd7 4.f4 and Black eventually won. Did you notice anything funny about these moves? After 4.f4 my brain stopped me and said "hang on! I think one of the players may have missed a chance." I went back and analysed the moves again and my brain was right! After 1.b3 Rc3 2.Bd2 Black could have played 2...Nxe4! 3.Bxc3 (If 3.fxe4 Bxd4+) 3...Nxc3 4.Qd3 Bxd4+ and if 5.Qxd4 Ne2+ picks up the Q.

Page 6: What it takes to become a Top Player - chessfinals.com.au · What it takes to become a Top Player “According to Capablanca, he learned the rules ... Victor Korchnoi - a highly motivated,

Psychology

Good players understand their opponents and use psychology to help them in their games. Some examples.

- Jamieson v FullerUp to 1974 Fuller was Australia’s best player and I had never beaten him. Even if I had a good position he still managed to avoid losing. In the 1974 Australian Championship I declined to offer a draw and played on with K v K (I had the better King! and was ahead on time) to demonstrate that I was not content to draw with him. This gave me the psychological edge and I beat him in 1975 for the first time and most times thereafter!

- Rogers and the pen. Ian Rogers discovered that I did not play well following a

confrontation and was able to use this knowledge to put me off my game on several occasions. In one event I had written down my planned move and hidden it under my pen (as was often done in those days) so he came around to my side of the board and moved the pen to reveal my intended move. I lost quickly after that.

Learn from Better Players

Cecil Purdy was growing up in Australia in the 1930s isolated from the rest of the world and he wanted to become a good chess player. He became World Correspondence Chess Champion after learning by playing over annotated grandmaster games and trying to guess their next moves. He didn’t have a coach.

I didn’t have a coach either but learnt from reading chess books.

The most immediate way to improve your chess is to immediately go over your tournament games with your coach and/or chess computer so that you can see where you could have done better. You need to get bad habits or incorrect ideas hammered out as soon as possible.

Try to play in tournaments where you will meet stronger players and be able to learn from them. In one chess Olympiad I had the pleasure of playing against the famous Yugoslav grandmaster Gligoric. I played my usual Dutch Defence against his 1.d4 and

National Finals Lectures 2010 by IM Robert Jamieson!

Page 7: What it takes to become a Top Player - chessfinals.com.au · What it takes to become a Top Player “According to Capablanca, he learned the rules ... Victor Korchnoi - a highly motivated,

played well enough to hand on for about 50 moves. I was told that that night Gligoric gave a lecture at a chess club on our game and after my 1...f5 he commented “After this move Black is lost!” I gave up the Dutch Defence shortly after that.

“The Airey King”I well remember another post-mortem after I had lost to the English Grandmaster Tony Miles (who once famously beat Karpov by playing 1...a6 against Karpov’s 1.e4) after I thought that I had a good position.

IM Jamieson v GM Miles, Doeberl Cup - Black to play.

What do you think of this position (Black to play)? I thought White was doing quite well.

White has the two Bishops and more space and if he has time could launch a King-side attack with h4 - h5.

In the postmortem Miles said “I thought White’s King was a bit airey.”

Obviously the lack of pawn protection around the King was a factor that Miles understood and I did not. Fourteen moves later I found out that he was right! 23 … Bc5 24 Rfd1 b5 25 Bxc5 Nxc5 26 Qf2 Qe7 27 b4 Rxd1+ 28 Rxd1 axb4 29 axb4 Na6 30 Be4 Nxb4 31 Qb6 bxc4 32 Rd6 Nd5 33 Qxc6 Qa7+ 34 Kh2 Qf2+ 35 Kh3 Rb8 36 Bxd5 Rb3 0-1

National Finals Lectures 2010 by IM Robert Jamieson!

Page 8: What it takes to become a Top Player - chessfinals.com.au · What it takes to become a Top Player “According to Capablanca, he learned the rules ... Victor Korchnoi - a highly motivated,

“Shock Tactics!”

Good players understand that you need to give your opponent the chance to go wrong. I found this out the hard way.

GM Oll v IM Jamieson - White to play.

Last round of Australian Open 1991.

Estonian GM Oll is leading the tournament.

He needs to beat me to win.

He is moving very quickly but I think his moves are bad.

He goes over to Tony Miles and whispers in his ear “I have a lost

game”. I am a pawn up with no weaknesses but make a mistake.

27...Qc4? (2 ... b4!) 28. Rxf6! This gives Black the chance to go wrong and Oll easily outplays me.28...gxf (now White’s game is easy to play and black loses his way) 29.Bd4 Re6 30.Qf4 e3 31.Qg4+ Kf7 32.Qh5+ Kg8 33.Qg4+ Kf7 34.Qf5 e2 35.Qxh7+ Ke8 36.h4 Qxa2 37.Bxf6 Rdd6 38.Qg8+ Kd7 39.Qd8+ Kc6 40.Qc8+ Kb6 41.Bd8+ Rxd8 42.Qxe6+ Kc7 43.Rxe2 Qb1+ 44.Kh2 Qd3 45.Rf2 1-0

National Finals Lectures 2010 by IM Robert Jamieson!

Page 9: What it takes to become a Top Player - chessfinals.com.au · What it takes to become a Top Player “According to Capablanca, he learned the rules ... Victor Korchnoi - a highly motivated,

“No Hurry ... No Fuss”

Finally, I’d like to show you a position from a Karpov v Korchnoi game that I was playing through that made a deep impression on me. I had always understood that “time” was very important in chess. It seemed that Karpov had a different understanding.

Karpov v Korchnoi - White to play.

What would you play as White.?It’s hard to find a plan.Karpov played 1 Rbe1. What does that do? I don’’t know.Korchnoi replied 1 ... b5.What would you do now?Karpov just went back again 2 Rb1.No hurry, no fuss! Clearly he understands the concept of “time” better than I do.

Thank you for attending this lecture. I hope that I have given you some ideas of what it takes to become a strong chess player and how you may take a few steps towards achieving that goal. Good luck!

National Finals Lectures 2010 by IM Robert Jamieson!