A Sad Day For Armenian Chess

YEREVAN, Armenia (AP) - Karen Asrian, an Armenian chess grandmaster who was the ex-Soviet nation's reigning champion and won the 2006 Chess Olympiad, died Monday after suddenly losing consciousness, the Armenian Chess Federation said. He was 28. Asrian was ranked 92nd by the World Chess Federation, or FIDE. Apparently feeling ill, Asrian pulled his car into a court yard in the Armenian capital, Yerevan, early Monday and lost consciousness, the Armenian Chess Federation said. An ambulance crew pronounced him dead at the scene, possibly of a heart attack, it said. A moment of silence was held in his memory before the opening of a speed-chess tournament in Yerevan on Monday after his death was announced by Armenian player Smbat Lputian.

Upon learning of his passing, Akopian, Sargissian and Aronian (seen in the picture above with Asrian holding the flag), who were playing in the Chess Giants Rapid in Yerevan, immediately made 10 move draws with their opponents and rushed off to pay respects to his family, highlighting the close bonds Asrian had with his fellow chess professionals. A truly wonderful gesture on their part.

I feel incredibly sad that for a player so young and talented and with still so much more to live for should suddenly just collapse and die.

A black day for Armenian chess.

Rest in peace, Asrian.

Back Again To The U1400s .... Or Not?

This Wednesday's U1400 match has Ryde Eastwood playing against North Sydney (?!). Deja vu indeed as my game last week was against the U1600 North Sydney team as well.

A quick look up shows the list of possible opponents from North Sydney (the numbers on the right are the Mar 08 ratings while the numbers in brackets are the Jun 08 ratings):

Carden, Matthew 1320 (1267)
Thippeswamy, Hareesh 1224 (1110)
Jennings, Andrew (Garry) 1172 (1263)
Smirnov, Anton 1110 (1371)
Palmer, Paul 691 (763)
Little, Nicholas unrated (unrated)

I played 6 year old Anton Smirnov last week in the U1600s. During our postmortem of the game, I could not help but be impressed by his level of understanding of positions, tactics and formations. He's fast developing into a dangerous tactical player and on his day, it can be a formidable task to face him. In a space of 3 months, his rating has jumped a massive 261 points to reach 1371. A very impressive record. Under his dad's guidance, I am certain he would break the 2,000 rating level before his teens. If he's on board 1 on Wednesday, then I get to play him again.

I have just been informed by my U1400 team captain, Greig that I have been rostered to play in the U1600s instead against Manly on Wednesday. Oddly, I've not received word from the U1600 team captain Les that I was playing in that group this week. *puzzled*

The list of possible opponents from Manly (the numbers on the right are the Mar 08 ratings while the numbers in brackets are the Jun 08 ratings):

Mejzini, Jack 1607 (1616)
Roberts, David 1605 (1565)
Miller, Gordon 1585 (1588)
Dimock, Chris 1549 (1581)
Schwandl, Hans 1505 (1477)
Roach, Owen 1479 (1458)

This group is definitely a tough challenge.

Thankfully, as the venues for both matches are at Ryde Eastwood RSL at the same time, it is just a simple matter of turning up and finding out which team I am supposed to play for. Talk about getting my lines crossed.

Yesterday, my brother-in-law Steven and I headed down to the Manly-Warringah chess club for a couple of rounds of chess. We met up with Tze Weng and had a chat with him. It was a rather quiet night with only a couple of players turning up but we still had a good time playing social chess at 10 minute time controls.

Steven and I have a tendency to start the clock at 10 minutes and allow the clock to run out of time and yet continue to play on because our games tend to lead to very interesting positions and it would be a shame to claim a win/loss based on time. As a result, our games normally runs to half an hour if not more. Never one to conform to openings, I played a huge variety of openings, including the Philidor, 2 Knights, Sicilian Grand Prix Attack, Sicilian Najdorf, King's Indian Defense, French, Nimzo-Indian, Scotch, Catalan, English Opening (phew, that was a mouthful) etc.

In at least half of the games, I noticed I have a tendency to miss stronger moves and it usually happens after I played it. This tells me that I really need to take more time and analyse more carefully before making moves.

Annotating Your Games

Alexander Kotov, in his book,"Train Like A Grandmaster" wrote,"A considerable part in chess coaching in the USSR is played by writing notes to games. The best notes are published in magazines and newspapers, but this is not the main aim. A developing player has to write notes to his games in order to develop the habit of having a self-critical approach to his play. By spotting the flaws in his play, he will more easily eradicate them."

But what kind of game annotations are required?

I found that with the rise in complexity of the silicon chip and computer chess programs, quite often, some of us are happy to let their favourite chess engine analyse their games and be done with it. Let the program run overnight with a top chess engine and by the morning, a fairly detailed analysis of the game is there, ready for you to peruse (Incidentally, imagine how much more accessible chess is now compared with 15 years ago, where to do this equivalent amount of work will require a team of GM analysts working overnight, and an updated book on openings).

However, it is not enough to just let the chess engine annotate.

Kotov in his book, goes to list 4 main type of annotations:

1. Descriptive notes
2. Analytical comments
3. Positional comments
4. Synthetic comments

Let's here what Kotov says about them:

1. Descriptive notes

"Here the commentator writes out all the moves and then puts down an extended prose description of the course of the game. He notes the turning points in the battle and assesses the accuracy of the ideas shown. Such a verbal account devotes a lot of attention to the psychology of the struggle and the attitudes of the players. Actual variations may be totally absent or are restricted to just a few moves at certain points."

2. Analytical comments

[NB: I've omitted his comments here because they are outdated. Kotov mentions about having to need all the notes consisting of a mass of variations ala Chess Informant style. Thankfully, these days, powerful computer chess programs like Fritz can easily do the job for you in a matter of minutes.]

3. Positional comments

"....The commentator gives a limited number of variations, only using them to underline his view of the game and the value of the plans adopted. It is somewhat reminiscent of method 1 but the prose is not collected together, rather it is spread out throughout the game. This was the method adopted by many great players - Steinitz, Tarrasch, Lasker and Capablanca. Nowadays too it is favoured method among those grandmasters whose play is marked by a depth of strategy and logic...."

4. Synthetic comments

"This method of explaining a game combines both many deep variations and verbal descriptions of strategic ideas. The world of chess has come to recognise this method as best, and it is no accident that its principal exponent, Alekhine, was recognised in his time as the best annotator living." [NB:....and here Kotov goes on to list some works as excellent synthetic work as Bronstein's 1953 Candidates Match Tournament in Switzerland. It is true indeed till this very day. For example, the picture on the right shows Dutch GM Van Wely's own annotations of his game with input from Ftacnik.]

My favourite annotation format falls in an amalgam of all of the above and is probably in the last category. Immediately after a game, I input various notes and comments ala Method 1 and try to recreate as much as possible of the atmosphere surrounding the game and my thoughts. From then on, I go to method 3, stopping at particular points of a game to highlight my thoughts,variations and suggestions. Once all of this is done, I let the chess engine take over looking for where I deviate from book theory and side lines/variations and last but not least blunder-check.

It is hard work indeed to constantly annotate your own games. Unfortunately, if you really wish to improve your chess skills, this is one step you can ill afford to avoid.

Pre-Match Rituals, Superstitions And All That

Okay, own up.... how many of you chess players have a pre-match ritual or a keepsake that you bring along for every game for good luck?

Do you carry any items of good luck such as lucky charms ("They're always after me Lucky Charms!" - okay, I can't resist that line), any special pre-match rituals (see inset), that has no link whatsoever to chess at all?

What about my pre-match ritual?

Before I head down to the club:
1. Empty my bowels of all solids 1-2 hours before
2. Eat lightly from lunch onwards and a small dinner - Just enough to half-fill my stomach
3. Drink water in moderate amounts
4. Wear something that doesn't make me look like I haven't showered in months and comb my hair (if need be).
4. Pick a nice sweater to wear to ensure I'm nice and warm

10-20 minutes before the game:

1. Relieve the water pressure buildup in the body
2. Wipe hands dry after toilet business (hygiene, people! you don't want to look like one of those who hasn't bathed in months, do you? :) )
3. Switch off mobile phone

Well, unfortunately, due to the massive brain functions (or malfunctions) in the course of my job during the day, having a brain meltdown is not uncommon in my case like last week, where I gave away a free bishop.

And no, I don't have a good luck charm - I've never believed in it.

I can understand why chess players can be superstitious, much like athletes/players in some of other sports. Some people swear by rituals, lucky items and for me, I'm okay with that.

The idea is to put your mind at ease (having a placebo like effect) so that you start your game on the "right foot" as they say (and I don't mean a rabbit's foot).

The Grade Matches And The Ratings Game

This week is going to be a tough week for me. I've got a module exam on tonight (and hence, having to miss out the U1400 at Rooty Hill - apologies all round to the rest of the team) so there's no time actually to study chess.

Bill Gletsos has released the June ACF ratings. Moi currently has an unstable rating but that is expected to slide with last week's loss to St George. My brother-in-law Steven is sitting pretty at 1778.

The North Sydney Grizzlies opponents this Tuesday are (updated with June ratings):

Pepping, John M (1521)
Pike, Robert D (1508)
Greenwood, Norman (1496)
Smirnov, Anton (1371)

This means I'm probably scheduled to play either Norman Greenwood or Anton Smirnov on either Board 3 or Board 4.

Norman has always been a problem for me (kind of like Polly's King Kong) and young Anton Smirnov has been progressing rapidly under his father's tutelage - Vladimir Smirnov (2303) . Either way, it's going to be fun.

The rest of the U-1600 Ryde Eastwood team comprises:

Sitompul, Sotarduga (1625)
Hickey, James (1558)
Mikolajczyk, Les (1489)
Chiara, Vince (1410)

and all of them have made improvements. So congratulations to all of them. I just hope I don't disappoint them tomorrow night. *gulp*.