Chess notes

 

Chess is different today compared decades ago. The players however are not much stronger. In one hand they have perfect opening preparation due the help of computer programs, but in other hand this also makes the players more vulnerable. They rely too much on ready solutions and the ability to solve practical problems during the actual game is getting worse and worse.

The seconds and coaches are not helping the players to get better in chess improving their understanding of chess. Instead they are downgraded to do the robotic work just supervise the computer analyses. Even here they are not up to the task. In the last fall during and after the World Championship match seconds of Caruana denied their miscalculations during their preparation for the match when asked if the Sveshnikov line used by Magnus Carlsen was kind of missed opening in their preparation.

Definitely it was and Fabio Caruana lost his battle in the opening phase, which was crucial in the match. He however behaved as nothing happened and did not fire his seconds during the match and also after the match. One can admire his patience, but in chess like in soccer the coach usually takes the responsibility of the failure.  Years ago during the matches between Karpov and Kasparov being a coach was a risky business.

The most famous scandal was the Kasparov’s accusations to one of his seconds that he was stealing and selling their opening preparations to Karpov. Nowadays we live in friendly atmosphere. Everybody is doing high five and criticism is not tolerated. The coach must quarantine that children have fun with chess and the luggage of the superstar is safe. Yes, there are cases when the second must deal with the luggage instead of teaching the student good manners.

In ongoing US Championship few games got my eye. In the following game Gareev missed some interesting ideas and lost without a battle.

Nakamura had some unexpected rare move in his sleeve and he got serious opening advantage against Caruana, but then suddenly made mistake after mistake. In the past the coaches forced the students analyze the position at least one week before they could make some conclusive argument about it. Now the computers help with the evaluation, but still one should work a lot himself as well.

 

Jaan Ehlvest