From coaching to competition

The FIDE Trainers website (trainers.fide.com) has a number of documents, including a definition of the classification system used. Interestingly part of the 'mission' for each of the levels (from Developmental Instructor upwards), contains a requirement to bring students to a competitive level. Implied in this definition (at least to my reading) is an obligation to move students into competitive chess. Of course this makes perfect sense, as their seems to be little point to teaching chess otherwise. Unless of course that chess isn't being taught as an end to itself, but as part of a broader educational discipline.

So I guess one could ask the question. Are you a 'real' coach if your students don't play competitively?

How Andrew Brown almost made me give up chess

I was quite pleased when Andrew Brown won his last round game at the 2011 Oceania Zonal to clinch the IM title (and second place). Because a number of years ago I lost a game to Andrew that made me consider whether I was even competent enough to keep on playing. It didn't have anything to do with Andrew mind you, except that he was on the other side of the board when I simply blew a winning position by blundering a piece with check.
The loss of that game created a real crisis of confidence in me that affected my play for the next few months. I began to worry about every move, making sure I wasn't making the same mistake, but such "second guessing" can affect how well I play. It took a few months before my results began to recover. Eventually they did (I even won against Andrew in the 2005 ANU Open), and while it wasn't a happy experience, I can now look back and say "Don't be so hard on yourself, he was a future IM after all"

Brown,Andrew - Press,Shaun [D03]
Belconnen Open Belconnen Chess Club, 11.02.2005

1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 e6 3.Bg5 h6 4.Bh4 Be7 5.Nbd2 d5 6.e3 b6 7.Bd3 Bb7 8.c3 Nbd7 9.0-0 0-0 10.Qe2 c5 11.a4 Ne4 12.Bxe7 Qxe7 13.a5 f5 14.a6 Bc6 15.Bb5 Bxb5 16.Qxb5 g5 17.Nxe4 fxe4 18.Ne1 Rf6 19.Qe2 Raf8 20.Nc2 Qf7 21.b4 e5 22.b5 Rc8 23.Rfd1 exd4 24.cxd4 c4 25.Nb4 Nb8 26.Qg4 Rf8 27.h4 Rg6 28.Ra2 gxh4 29.Qf4 Qd7 30.Qxh4 Qxb5 31.Qh5 Rd6 32.Qg4+ Kh8 33.Rb1 Qd7 34.Qh5 Rf5 35.Qh2 (D)
Rg6 36.Qxb8+ 1-0

New FIDE Arbiters Website

FIDE have just announced a new resource website for FIDE Arbiters. It is arbiters.fide.com and is designed to be a central point of information for arbiters (like the FIDE Trainers website is for trainers). For the moment its main function is to consolidate the information that can be already found on the FIDE website, albeit with some searching required. I suspect it will expand in the future, with the website inviting questions from arbiters (and others) on the subject of the laws of chess.

(Interesting trivia point. According to the list of International Arbiters, the IA immediately prior to me in alphabetical order is turning 100 this year!)

Ivanchuk wins Gibraltar

Vassily Ivanchuk has won the 2011 Gibraltar Masters with a huge score of 9/10. He was chased all the way to the finish by Nigel Short who scored an almost as impressive 8.5/10, which may well have been a winning score in any other year. Ivanchuk conceded 2 draws during the tournament, while Short lost to Ivanchuk and drew one other game. Further down the field IM Aleks Wohl finished on 6/10, while WFM Vaness Reid scored 3.5

Kotronias,V (2599) - Ivanchuk,V (2764) [B78]

Gibraltar Masters Caleta ENG (5.2), 29.01.2011

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 g6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 d6 6.Be3 Bg7 7.f3 Nc6 8.Qd2 0-0 9.Bc4 Bd7 10.0-0-0 Rb8 11.Bb3 Na5 12.Bh6 Bxh6 13.Qxh6 b5 14.g4 b4 15.Nd5 Nxb3+ 16.Nxb3 e5 17.Ne3 Be6 18.h4 Kh8 19.Qg5 Rb6 20.Na5 Kg7 21.Nf5+ Bxf5 22.gxf5 Qc7 23.fxg6 fxg6 24.h5 Rc8 25.Rd2 Ra6 26.hxg6 h5 27.Nb3 Rxa2 28.Kb1 Ra6 29.Qf5 Qc4 30.Re1 Rc5 31.Rf2 Rca5 32.Re3 Qd4 33.Nxa5 Qd1+ 34.Ka2 Rxa5+ 35.Kb3 Qa1 36.c3 Qa4+ 37.Kc4 bxc3+ 0-1

Miniature of the month - January 2011

Based on the following game, the plan to blow the Modern out of the water with Be3, Qd2, h4 isn't the only successful idea in the position. In fact after 4. ... a6 such a direct strategy can backfire on White, which is probably why Weber chose the f4-f5 idea instead. Having broken up the king side pawns his pieces then went straight for the King, and Rudd resigned just as he was about to drop the rook on a8.

Weber,Tom (2310) - Rudd,Jack (2297) [B06]
Gibraltar Masters Gibraltar ENG (2.20), 26.01.2011

1.e4 d6 2.d4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.Be3 a6 (D)
5.Bd3 e6 6.f4 Ne7 7.Nf3 Nd7 8.0-0 b6 9.f5 exf5 10.exf5 gxf5 11.Nh4 f4 12.Rxf4 0-0 13.Qh5 Ng6 14.Nxg6 hxg6 15.Bxg6 fxg6 16.Qd5+ 1-0

Gibraltar Masters 2011

The Gibraltar Masters is one of the 'big' swiss events on the international calendar. It attracts a large number of GM's and is probably has the strongest field of female players outside of the Womens World Championship and Olympiad.

This years event is no exception and after 8 rounds Vassily Ivanchuck leads with 7/9, just ahead of Nigel Short and Victor Mikhalevski. And further down, demonstrating one of the attractions of an event like this, Viktor Korchnoi and Australian IM Aleks Wohl are both on 5/8 and drawn to play each other in round 9. So far Wohl has had a solid tournament, although his opponents have been 2100 untitled players or 2500+ GM's.

The tournament website has links to all the results and live coverage. I'm assuming the Wohl game will be viable, either on the DGT page or on the Monroi link.

Goal Oriented Chess

or "Do as I say, not as I do."

One advice I give to junior players is to play the game in front of you, and not worry about your tournament finish. It is advice based on a saying I once heard which goes "The man who aims to win the competition will not, it is the man who aims at the bullseye who will".

Of course having passed this advice to others, I have not applied it myself.

Before the 2011 Oceania Zonal I had a couple of goals. The first was to reach 50% (which I did), and the second was to finish first amongst the Pacific island players (which I did, tying with Manoj Kumar and Sam Goundar from Fiji). I did this in part by reaching 50% with a win in round 7, and then coasting home with 2 draws. However I may have achieved more by trying to win either of those games, but consciously decided not to.

The reasons why I did not are easily explainable, although not justifiable. Part of it

was a reaction to the results from the first Olympiad I played in in 2000. There were a number of games where I thought I was better, from a club/hacker point of view, which I then lost due to better defensive technique than I was used to facing. As a result I adopted a more cautious approach in future Olympiads, deciding that a half point gained was more important than a half point lost. However this resulted in a mind set where an equal position became the end of the game (ie I was happy to offer/accept a draw), rather than the start of the game (ie It was up to my opponent to defend an equal position). The resulting change of style then carried over to my general play, where I found it harder and harder to create winning chances. Of course the fact that I dislike losing more than I enjoy winning is the other significant factor.

There was also the importance of personal pride. Having not played a zonal before I decided that 4.5/9 was an 'acceptable' showing. Of course focusing on the score like this ignores the fact that I should have scored more (based on rating) than I did. But when I look at the results 50% will still be 50%.

Having said all that, I went away from the tournament happy with my result. Partially this was a result of the feeling that I played better than at the 2010 Olympiad (4/11 was my score there). I put a lot more work into my opening prep, and most of it 'worked', in the sense that the deviations from theory were after 12 or 15 moves, rather than 6 or 7. I was able to predict a lot of my opponents opening choices, and prepare accordingly, although I did have a couple of malfunctions (rounds 3&4 weren't so great, and I mixed up a prepared line in round 6). But when it did work I mostly got to the middlegame in one piece, and in a couple of instances held a clear advantage.

The bestt example of this was the game where I got back to 50%. Although it was aided by some interesting opening moves from my opponent, it was the sort of position I had prepared for, and gave me the kind of kingside hack I used to play in my pre-olympiad days. (Note: Most of the fun happens in the first 20 moves, and I am up a rook before move 30, but my opponent had a reputation for fining tricks in the position and I don't begrudge his decision to play on)

Press,Shaun P (2067) - Dolejs,Dan (1892) [B06]

Oceania Zonal Rotorua (7.21), 29.01.2011

1.e4 g6 2.d4 Bg7 3.Nc3 d6 4.Be3 b6 5.Qd2 Nf6 6.Bh6 0-0 7.h4 e5 8.Bxg7 Kxg7 9.0-0-0 exd4 10.Qxd4 Nc6 11.Qd2 Qe7 12.f3 Be6(D)

13.h5 Nxh5 14.g4 Nf6 15.Qh6+ Kh8 16.e5 Nxe5 17.Ne4 Nh5 18.gxh5 Bf5 19.Ng3 f6 20.Nxf5 gxf5 21.Qf4 Qe6 22.Kb1 a5 23.Ne2 a4 24.Qe3 a3 25.Nf4 Qf7 26.Ng6+ Kg8 27.Nxf8 axb2 28.Qb3 Qxb3 29.cxb3 Kxf8 30.Bd3 Nxf3 31.Bxf5 Ng5 32.

Kxb2 Kg7 33.h6+ Kf7 34.Rc1 Ra7 35.Rhg1 Kg8 36.Rce1 Kf8 37.Re3 d5 38.Rd3 c6 39.Rc1 Rc7 40.Rxd5 Nf7 41.Bxh7 Nxh6 42.Bd3 Ng4 43.Rh5 Ne5 44.Bf5 Rg7 45.Rh8+ Kf7 46.Rh7 Rxh7 47.Bxh7 Ke6 48.Rf1 Ke7 49.Kc3 Ng4 50.Rf4 Ne5 51.Kd4 Kf7 52.a4 Kg7 53.Be4 Kf7 54.Rf5 Ke6 55.Rh5 Kd6 56.Rh8 Ke7 57.a5 bxa5 58.Kc5 Ke6 59.Re8+ Kd7 60.Rxe5 fxe5 61.Bxc6+ Kc7 62.Kb5 Kb8 63.Kxa5 Kc7 64.Be4 Kd6 65.b4 Kc7 66.Ka6 Kc8 67.Ka7 1-0