The opening Ceremony has been held and everyone is ready for the first round. The pairings were been made available last night and we can only imagine that across Batumi, many players spend their Monday morning in front of their laptops, preparing for their first game.
Festive celebrations at the Openings Ceremony
For the teams that have been ranked at the lower end – round 1 is the opportunity to play against some of the greats. For example, the women’s New Zealand team, will play India in round 1. The Ugandan Open teams plays against Russia, and the Women’s team from Tajikistan plays against power house Russia. Those opportunities don’t come along very often!
Indian IM Padmini
NZ player Vyanla
The Australian Open team, ranked 41st in the opening standings, will play against Qatar in round 1, while the Australian Women’s team will play against United Arab Emirates (UAE). Those facts in itself are not super interesting, it is when you dig a little deeper that you find some amazing stories.
Australia’s Women’s team
For example, the women’s team from UAE is one of the youngest playing teams in the tournament, with a 15, 16 and a 9 year old! Alserkal will most likely be the youngest competitor of the Olympiad. However, she is not the only player that is not a teenager yet; Rishon Bastienne from Seychelles is only 11 years old. We will be keen to catch up with them during the tournament. For now they have a rest for round 1.
Another interesting fact is that 17 year old Polina Karelina from the Bahamas is one of the very few two women playing in the Open category.
Polina Karelina
Another team we will be watching is Uganda. Our connection with this country is through our Rotary membership, where the Rotary Fellowship of Chess has been setting up chess programs at schools with the assistance of fellow Rotarian Christopher Major and the Ugandan board 2 player WFM Christine Namaganda. On board 4 there is 17 year old Gloria, who we will introduce to you later in the tournament.
Christine and Gloria from Team Uganda
Chess programs in Uganda – photo courtesy of Christopher Major
On board 1 they have the one and only Queen of Katwe playing! I am sure you have all seen the amazing Disney movie about a Ugandan girl, following her dreams through chess!
The real Queen of Katwe; Phiona Mutesi
In the Open category, the Iranian team is one to watch – not only has this country been smashing it at the last few World Youth Championships, their team is ranked 22nd and three of their players are under the age of 18.
So what do we think will happen over the next 11 rounds?
We expect the US to take out gold in the Open for a second time in a row. It is hard to compete with top players like World Champion challenger Fabiano Caruano, Wesley So, Hikaru Nakamaru and current US champion Sam Shankland. However, Russia, China and India are certainly going to give them a challenge to the top. Countries like Azerbaijan and Iran are also very likely to end up in the top 10.
US Champion Sam Shankland
In the Women’s category, the top positions will be dominated by Russia, China, Ukraine and India. Will the hometown advantage be enough for Georgia to take out another Olympiad? We think it is very likely!
We will of course be watching Australia very closely, as well as our friendly neighbours New Zealand. The battles fought by Australia will be fierce and they may end up slightly higher than their starting rank. So stay tuned for all the action!
You may be wondering, why have you travelled all the way to Georgia, south of Russia, to attend the Chess Olympiad? You are not an official player, you are not an official arbiter, you are not an official delegate – so why take the time away to go? Well that is easy! Let me tell you why!
1.Chess Community
People involved with chess instantly become a community of friends. We see that in the Adelaide Hills, the Campbelltown library chess club and the wider (South) Australian Chess Community. The same applies for the chess community around the world. We have made some fantastic friends over the years and the Olympiad brings them all together. It is a great way for us to catch up with chess friends from everywhere.
David with GM Vasily Papin
2.Seeing the world
Who doesn’t love to travel the world? It is healthy to plan a break regularly and take time out from your day to day activities so that you can recharge. These Olympiads take us to some amazing places every two years. We often take a week before the Olympiad start to discover the sites, before we settle in to report on the chess Olympiad.
Mount Kazbegi
3.Learning from the greats
Surrounding yourselves with the best, will allow you to grow and become a better person. Always try and learn from people that have already walked the path or are more experienced. At the Olympiad we learn every day, not just from the players, but also from the photographers, the reporters and the supporters. It allows us to see how others do things and how we can improve to make chess back home even better!
Hou Yifan, Olympiad Baku 2016
4.Promotion of Australian Chess
Chess is a big deal around the world. Many have made playing the game their profession. There are arbiters that travel from tournament to tournament and of course there are many professional chess reporters. Australia is only at the beginning of their journey, with the amount of GM’s doubled in the last few years and the amount of coverage about the Australian players growing. We are here to assist that growth and help wherever we can to promote Australian chess.
GM Anton Smirnov
5.Promotion of Junior Players
We love seeing the young legends rise to the top of their abilities. The Australian junior players have been showing us they have what it takes, it is just a matter of time. In fact, this year’s Open team for Australia is one of the youngest the country has seen playing. However, they are not alone, there are hundred and thousands of amazing young chess players around the world. We will showcase some of them, so you can be inspired and continue to follow your dreams.
GM Pragganandhaa
As you can see there are lots of reasons to attend the Olympiad. The chess community is a great community to be part of and we are proud to be able to represent Australia as official press. In fact, we recommend that you one day plan a trip to an Olympiad just to experience the atmosphere!
France is about to host the 1924 Summer Olympics. An idea, an unprecedented idea has been proposed: amongst the sailing of boats and the throwing of balls, the riding of horses and the shooting of guns, why not add Chess to the venue? After all, Chess is a duel of minds and a test of skill and ability.
Why not honour Chess with a venue in the Olympics?
Alas, it is not to be. There is an issue in determining which players are truly professional and which are merely amateur. When the Olympics went ahead, Chess, sadly, was left behind.
But the dream did not die there. As the 1924 Summer Olympics commenced, so did the 1st unofficial Chess Olympiad. Fifty-four players from eighteen different nations competed for the title of Amateur World Champion. The victor was Latvian player, and later World Champion, Hermanis Matisons.
But this was only the beginning.
From these humble origins emerged the World Chess Federation, a governing body of international chess competition. By 1927, it had organised the very first official Chess Olympiad, taking place in London and attended by sixteen nations. From there, a Chess Olympiad has been hosted every two years, to an ever widening international audience of Chess players, masters and enthusiasts.
Chess Olympiad in London 1927
At the time of writing, we are eagerly anticipating the 43rd Chess Olympiad, to be hosted in Batumi, Georgia. Mens and women’s teams from over one hundred and ninety nations are expected to participate, including an Australian team, captained by Melbourne born Grandmaster, Darryl Johansen. The full team composition is as follows:
And the Women’s team is as follows:
Also in attendance shall be Chesslife’s very own David and Sabrina, who shall have the honour of seeing it all play out first hand (take lots of pictures!). They will be there as part of the Australian press team and will return with their blog about Juniors at the Olympiad.
For everyone else, however, we may be rest assured that our chess community is forever on the grow. From a little, sidelined event, brought together by a collection of enthusiasts, the Chess Olympiads has grown into a century long, worldwide tradition.
It’s June, 1978. The Philippines are about to bear witness to a clash of titans. Anatoly Karpov and Viktor Korchnoi, two of the greatest chess champions of all time are set to play for the title of Grandmaster. The stakes are high and the tensions higher. Both teams are on their guard. Korchnoi has brought his own personal chair. Karpov’s team request it be searched, lest Korchnoi try to smuggle in prohibited items. The chair is dismantled and x-rayed. Nothing is found, and the games can commence.
It’s the second match, 25th move. Karpov receives a blueberry yoghurt from his team. He did not request any. Korchnoi’s team protests. They say it could be a code; instructions encrypted by yoghurt colour. Karpov’s team could be instructing him to offer a draw or play more aggressively. It’s all a blueberry flavoured ruse, an underhanded trick to steal the title. The games are stopped and arbitrators brought in. Though Korchnoi’s team later suggest it was only a joke, someone took it seriously. For the remainder of the Championship, Karpov is only allowed a certain flavour of yoghurt, to be delivered at set intervals.
We may laugh at little stories like this (I know I did), however they underlie a more serious issue: Cheating. Advantage gained through dishonest means. It infects all forms of sport, and chess is no exception. Pieces are nudged to more favourable squares; advice is whispered, through phones and codes. Worse still, it taints even the very top of the chess player hierarchy. Gaioz Nigalidze, grandmaster title holder 2014 to 2015, used a smart phone, hidden in a bathroom, to elicit help from the outside world, during the 2015 Dubai open. Sergey Aslanov did something similar in the 2016 Moscow Open. The list goes on, though the story is the same; players resorting to underhanded methods get ahead.
If this is how adults play chess, how can we expect better from developing children? As a Chesslife Coach, I have personally seen (and reprimanded) kids for unsportsmanlike behaviour, some of which has strayed into the realms of cheating. So what is to be done?
The first thing we can do is ask a simple question: why? Why do kids do it? What compels a child to cross the moral boundary? Everything has a reason, and according Dr Elaine K. McEwan-Adkins, children cheat because:
They feel pressured to win, especially in competitions.
They feel unable to win otherwise.
They feel an overriding impulse to win.
They are influenced to cheat by the behaviour of others.
Now we know the main reasons, we need to know what to do when confronted by a child who cheats at chess. Father Val J. Peter believes in the following method:
Step 1 – Get the facts.
Ask the child about their cheating. Ask them what they did and, more importantly, why they did it. It is important to make sure this happens in a calm and controlled environment. Composure is key. Though the child has indeed done something wrong, they must be allowed to explain their actions.
Step 2 – Work with the facts.
Now that the child has given their reason for cheating, it’s time to take action.
Are the children feeling pressured by competitions? Remind them that winning isn’t everything. Celebrate their participation as well as their triumphs. Let them know that losing isn’t the end of the world. Assure them they have the right to lose, but not to cheat.
Do the children feel inadequate, unable to win by other, more honest, means? Just as before, assure them that winning is not the be all and end all. If they want to become better players, help them to do so. Let them join clubs, give them extra lessons and help them improve their game the proper way.
Do they form bad habits, or have an aggressive impulse to win? Teach them the value of honesty and hard work, earning your accomplishments and not taking moral shortcuts. The best lessons come from personal example. Become a positive role model. Children look up to their parents and will follow their example.
The most important thing to remember in all of this is that cheating, while bad, is not unforgivable. Like any other bad behaviour, it has both reason and remedy. While it is disappointing to discover that your child has engaged in cheating, it is more important to understand why, and help the kids improve their conduct. With some hard work and effort, your child will be spared from a life of cheating, lying and tampering with yoghurt.
As children grow up many of them will seek out and participate in competition sport. This is both a natural and healthy development that should be encouraged. Competition sport boosts our self-esteem, improves our confidence and develops our ability to work in a team. Many schools recognise the value of sport and offer their children a variety of sporting opportunities.
Children, however, require guidance. In almost every school and sporting club, there is a team coach, their job being to teach and to train the players in their team. The importance of this position cannot be understated. Children are dependent on their coaches. They look to them for direction and instruction. It is therefore imperative that the coach for your children be the right man or woman for the job, as your child’s experience in sport will be largely influenced, for better or for worse, by their decisions and treatment of their teams.
So, what do you look for when looking for a coach? How do you pick the good coaches from the bad? There are many things to consider. Some of the most important of these have been compiled just below.
Number One: What Is Your Coach Trying To Accomplish?
Each coach has a different coaching method and personal style; no two are exactly the same. Most coaches, however, can be characterized by how they answer this very simple question: How do you define success?
The coaches who would answer that success is defined by their team winning are often referred to as Transactional Coaches.
The most common traits found in a Transactional Coach include:
Making success the prime motivating factor, with their treatment of the players, parents and game reflecting this;
Focusing their efforts in increasing the skill level and performance of individual players;
Making team related decisions based on what will enhance the team’s likelihood of victory; and
Training children to win. How this is achieved is often a secondary concern.
Transactional coaches are often seen as ‘good’ coaches, because they are able to produce visible results, these usually taking the form of success on the field, winning streaks, trophies and medals.
“Each coach has their own personal style”
There is, however, another popular style of coaching, in which the coach does not see winning or even the sport itself as their primary concern. They see sport as a vehicle for children, not simply to have fun, but to also learn invaluable life lessons and skills. For these coaches, it is more important to inspire change in the player and not simply turn them into better players, but also better people. These coaches are referred to as Transformative Coaches.
Wanting their players to improve in all aspects of life, on and off the field;
Offering the team a role model, in him or herself;
Building a team;
Encouraging Teamwork;
Treating players with respect and dignity, regardless of the outcome of a game; and
Teaching life lessons – how to be humble in victory, courteous in defeat and the value of good sportsmanship.
Transformative Coaches have something of a mixed reputation. While they usually share a good rapport with their team and work hard on fostering a positive environment for their players, they do not always deliver the win that is expected of a ‘good’ coach. In fact, many Transformative Coaches downplay the importance of winning, especially in comparison to things like learning, participating and having fun. As such, Transformative Coaches are sometimes considered to be ‘bad’ coaches because their results do not always translate into wins on the field.
Finding out what your coach values is very important. On the surface, the Transactional Coaches seem ideal, because they promise and can deliver obvious results. However, as we shall find, these may not be the results children are looking for, or even need.
Number Two: What Do Your Children Want Out Of Sport?
When coaching children, we must remember why the child is there in the first place. Whatever our feelings towards competition sport, we must remember that this is ultimately about the children themselves. Why do they engage in sport? What do they hope to get out of it?
A study, conducted by George Washington University, sought to answer this very question. A youth soccer group were posed a series of questions about their participation in competition sport. When asked why they decided to engage in sport, 90% responded that they played sport to have fun. This is, however, a very broad term, and the children were further asked to provide explanations of what they considered ‘fun’ to be. They returned with 81 explanations, which were ranked in order of importance.
To these children, simply participating in the sport in a positive and encouraging environment was seen as the best part of a sporting experience. This isn’t to say that children didn’t at all value ‘winning’ or consider it a part of why they play sport. Winning was considered one part of what makes sport fun. The fact was, however, that ‘winning’ was rated at only 48 in terms of importance. Winning medals and trophies was rated at 67 and getting your picture taken was dead last at 81.
From this we can begin to understand that, for children at least, winning, and all that comes with it, is not a priority. Far from it, in fact. A coach needs to understand this and their treatment of the sport and the team needs to reflect this. If a coach is focused on winning, at the expense of things such as participation and a positive playing environment, then they run a serious risk of alienating their players from their sport.
Number Three: Does The Coach Engage Their Team?
Recent studies are showing a worrying trend: that many children will eventually drop out of youth sport programs. By the age of 13, a massive 70% of children will have dropped out of their sporting programs, with the likelihood of dropping out increasing by a third every year the child remains with the sport. So what triggers this sudden disinterest? Studies have suggested that much of this attitude can be attributed to the coach and their practices. When the coach emphasises that winning is the most important thing about sport, it can promote anxiety and depression for children when they fail.
It is important for a coach to treat their team with respect
Remember, only one team can win in competition sport. If the coach is demanding victory from his kids in every game, the pressure to always win can drive children away. Who wants to work, let alone play, in such a demanding environment?
It isn’t just the pressure to win that drives children from sport, but also a lack of playing time. When a coach is interested in fielding the best team they can, they can neglect or exclude the kids with lesser sporting capabilities. The key motivation for children participating in an activity is that they actually enjoy themselves. This doesn’t mean that coaches should abandon rules or scoring. The kids want to play sport! They want to learn it and become better players. But they also want to do it in a positive and inclusive environment that lets them enjoy it.
In the George Washington study, the same children surveyed in what they wanted out of sport were also asked what they wanted out of a coach. Their top five answers were:
Respect and encouragement
Positive role model
Clear, consistent communication
Knowledge of sport
Someone who listens
Take note that, while the children did want a coach that had knowledge of sport, they did not prioritise a coach that would ‘lead them to victory’. If a coach does not encompass these values, they will not engage the children.
A win-obsessed coach will distance and estrange their players from sport. Children may want to win, but it is not a priority. Having fun, being respected and enjoying your time with the team clearly is; and the attitude of the coach needs to reflect that. If a coach does not do this; their attrition rates can be high, with kids missing out on sporting opportunities as a consequence.
Number Four: Win At All Costs. What Is The Real Lesson?
Transactional coaches may put too much pressure on their players to win
Assuming that your child stands by the Transactional Coach, what can they expect to learn from them? The Transactional Coach acts to improve a child’s performance. In return, they expect the child to win games. This ‘win at all cost’ mentality may drive a child to improve their game, but it also promotes harmful behaviour. Dr Kim Taylor found that the coaches who pressure children to succeed can result in children seeking ‘shortcuts’ in order to improve as fast as possible. These shortcuts don’t simply undercut the merits of hard work, patience and perseverance, but they can delve into unethical and self harming practices.
This was the experience of former National Football League defensive lineman, Joe Ehrmann. A victim of multiple Transactional Coaches, he was often pressured into winning, sometimes using unethical practices. One such coach coerced Joe into knocking out an opponent with a basketball. Joe did as he was told and broke the opposing player’s nose. Though Joe felt ashamed of what he did, neither this nor the injury the other player sustained mattered at all to the coach. He boasted that this was the way the game was meant to be played. His team had won. In his eyes, the end had justified the means.
Dr Alan Goldberg has often spoken out against such coaching methods. In one such report, mention was made of a tennis program that was, outwardly at least, highly successful. The team enjoyed a high success rate and the program was considered one of the best in the nation. The coach was driven to making his team the best. He demanded triumph from his team and would become abusive towards his players if they were, in his eyes, ‘uncommitted’. He forced his team to play even when they were injured, unconcerned that this would make their injuries worse. He became verbally abusive if his players lost a game or questioned his conduct. His players were miserable. Many of them abandoned sport altogether. Those who stayed reported suffering from self-directed anger and anxiety. The coach had impressed upon them they had to win. The pressure to meet this unreasonable demand drove his players to their breaking point.
Under these Transactional Coaches, respect, appreciation and esteem were conditional. To be appreciated you had to win. Nothing else mattered. It is hardly surprising that these coaches and their methods lead to high numbers of dissatisfied children, high mental stress and depression. Your children deserve better than this. A Transactional Coach may be able to make your child’s team the winning team, but the price to pay is simply too high.
Number Five: Lessons Above And Beyond The Field
As we can see, the Transactional Coach, while successful on the field, is not the ideal coach for a growing child. Attention to the needs of the child and their personal development as people, not just as players, is essential and a Transactional Coach simply cannot deliver this.
A Transformational Coach is not an easy coach to find, but is well worth the search. While they may not always be able to deliver victory in competition sport, they can do something so much more important – they can teach children how to be healthier and happier people. By providing a positive environment to learn in and a positive role model to learn from, the Transformative Coach inspires and motivates children to not only develop their talents in sport, but to develop as human beings.
The best coaches foster personal growth as well as skill
As a parent, it can be difficult to find the right person for something as important as coaching your child. The important thing to remember is that the skill and quality of a coach should not be measured by their ability to deliver a win on the playing field. As the previous examples have demonstrated, the price to pay for the ‘winning’ coach can be all too high. It is better to aim for a coach who has their priorities on the betterment of their players, on and off the field and regardless of their individual ability. Those are the coaches that truly succeed.
So, what can you do?
Is your child losing interest in sport? Are they becoming less motivated to attend practice and games? Do they want to drop out? While some children will leave sport for alternate reasons, for others it will be because of how their lessons are being coordinated. Ask your child what happens during practice and how the coach treats them. Ask them why they are leaving or becoming less motivated. Attend a few practices yourself. See how the players treat each other and how the coach treats their team. Above all else, avoid judging the quality of a coach by his or her ability to produce a win. A coach centred on improving the child is far more important. Their results last far longer than any sporting season and are more valuable than any trophy.
Some Final Thoughts!
Here at Chesslife, we believe very strongly in the power of Transformative Coaching. We certainly celebrate achievements and train our students how to play their very best game of chess, but our core values go well beyond what a Transactional Coach tries to achieve. We see chess as so much more than a simple game or a distraction. There is so much that chess can teach us; and we consider it a priority that our trainees get everything they can out of our coaching lessons. We do not simply teach children how to play the game or even how to play the game well, but we teach them how to be better people.
Chess is the game that simply keeps on giving. Studies have shown that a steady diet of chess increases your attentive spans, improves your memory and enhances your capacity for logical thinking. Chess truly is a workout for the brain! What, however, can it do for our social lives? If chess can improve how we think, can it play any part in how we interact with one another?
Believe it or not, but one of the many benefits of playing chess is that it enhances our sense of sportsmanship and improves the way we treat one another. This cannot be undervalued; teaching sportsmanship isn’t simply about learning proper manners, but an important life skill, especially for developing minds. Just ask physical educators Christine Nucci and Kim Young-Shim of Indianapolis, who found that a healthy and fulfilling life requires that we find ways to positively interact with the people around us. Sportsmanship, and a good social ethic, helps to guard against the destructive ‘win at all costs’ mentality – which, if left unchecked, can develop into aggressive, antisocial behaviour and habits.
It may seem odd that a game like chess could do anything to promote social development. Chess is a game that is usually played in silence, with a bare minimum of interaction between the players during play. It is, however, these very conventions and demonstrations of etiquette that build a culture of sportsmanship.
Shaking your opponents hand is customary before the start of every game
In chess, respect and integrity are as important as the pieces on the board. We shake with our opponents, before and after the game, regardless of whether the result was favourable or not. All participants, including spectators are silent so that players can concentrate on their individual games. When a game concludes, we are not boastful in victory, nor ungracious in defeat – we treat our opponents with respect at all times.
Ethan concentrating hard during his game
As Douglas Williams of the National-Louise University will tell you, these are formal conventions – and compliance with these conventions along with respectful communication with our opponents, before and after the game, in turn promote good sportsmanship. Even the smallest things, like helping one another set up a board or deciding who will be which side are all positive social interactions that boost our ability to socialise and build us up as social beings.
When looking at other boards, you need to be respectful and quiet.
This is exactly what chess did for me. When I first started playing competition chess for my school, I was only 9 years old. I’m not too proud to admit it, but back then, I was lacking in proper etiquette. If I won – I would happily brag to anyone unfortunate enough to be nearby. As a spectator, I would make unflattering comments about other people’s games – even while they were still playing them! Worst of all, I was bitter in defeat and considered a game lost as nothing more than time wasted. At the beginning of my chess journey, I was an obnoxious player and unpleasant company.
Some behaviour is unacceptable in chess and would surprise players
The good news is that sportsmanship, like any other skill, can be taught, practised and mastered. I played competition chess until I was 17. The more I played, the more I became accustomed to the sensation of winning, losing and simply interacting with other people. With the help of my coaches, chess arbitrators and even my fellow players, I learned not simply how to be a good sport, but the value behind it. I came to realise that a civil game with a pleasant opponent was a far more enjoyable experience than anything I had done previously. I improved my gaming ethic and soon realised that the best part of chess was playing the game, not necessarily winning it – and that better company usually made for better games.
Chess improved me as a person. It taught me the value of sportsmanship and enhanced my ability to socially interact with other people. It taught me that there are more important things than winning and how to treat other people, even opponents, in a positive and civil manner.
If you give it a chance, with practice and patience, chess can teach you how to play a better game and become a better person.
Actually, HuiSi has been with us at Chesslife for over five years, starting her chess journey at the Campbelltown Library where she is now coaching and we are thrilled to have her with us.
HuiSi started playing Chess when she was ten years old. She loved the challenging nature of the game, it’s individuality and the new friends she made (and still continues to make) in her Chess journey.
As you’ll all know, the Chess Club at Campbelltown library has grown from strength to strength. There are always new people joining, new teams being built and more people to compete against. Hui Si still loves playing Chess at Campbelltown and will be part of the secondary team in the Inter school Chess Competition.
“The real highlight was being part of a team for the first time. It made me realise that chess could be a team game, rather than an individual game.”
HuiSi loves to play chess and learn something new every time she plays. She loves the atmosphere and the competitive edge at the chess club, but points out that
“…at Campbelltown it is a very welcoming and friendly environment where people can learn .”
HuiSi is looking forward to helping the younger members of the Campbelltown Chess Club to learn the basics of Chess.
“It’s great to see so many children start chess at such a young age and to be able to help them at the start of their chess journey and see their progress is very exciting.”
Chess is arguably the oldest game still played globally today. And it’s changing more rapidly than ever before. Chess has evolved for thousands of years from early Indian variants, to the modernized strategies of the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries respectively. But chess is not done. In fact, it’s still changing – thanks to computers.
For several decades, computers have exceeded human players in skill due to their incredible calculating ability. The age-old question posed to chess players amateur and professional alike, ‘how many moves can you see ahead?’, can now be answered with reference to the power of your chess engine.
But even computers haven’t ‘solved’ chess yet, with its variations of possible positions extending into the billions (fun fact: there are more variations in a chess game than the number of galaxies). And their ‘brute force’ approach of looking at every single move and every single move in response to that and so on stands in stark contrast to the strategies employed and advocated by most coaches. Coaches and top players alike believe in assessing the position and making calculations, using only a few logical looking moves conjured from experience and intuition. Simply put, we don’t have the ‘engine’ power to calculate if pawn h3 is a good or not move every single game.
But the power of the computer cannot be denied, even if it’s not always logical. A computer is a tool that has ushered in a new era of chess, the computer era, where preparation before the game aided by your infallible digital coach (Stockfish or Komodo or Fritz etc) is increasingly important.
Magnus Carslen, current World Chess Champion, has admitted that the rise of computers has ‘take[n] a bit of the mysticism away. But… we’ve known for a long time that computers are better, so the computer never has been an opponent. It’s a tool to help me analyze and to help me improve at chess.”
For younger players just coming into chess, this increasing dependence on computers is less important in their early years. The reliance on computers should never be allowed to replace the multi-faceted role of a chess coach. A computer will never tell you why a certain move is good or bad (because it doesn’t really ‘know’), and won’t tell you what openings, endings or middle game strategies to practice. And of course, as most parents know, a computer cannot instill practices of good sportspersonship or confidence, either.
Nevertheless, chess computers can provide valuable educational, social and recreational benefits for those who care about bettering their game. Interestingly, man and computer have become one in the app ‘Play Magnus’. Players all over the world can test themselves against a virtual version of the Norwegian world champion Magnus Carlsen at various stages of his chess career, as early as 8 (quite easy to beat), and up to his twenties (for the majority of humans, impossible).
The computer has seen chess change in other ways too, perhaps most importantly the introduction of online competitions. Playing online on websites like Chess.com can be a light afternoon of fun, or for more serious players, a chance to cut their teeth and test out new moves and variations.
Former Australian chess champion, Guy West, has commented on the rise of the internet as a tool of the next generation of chess players, saying, ‘In the part, the advantage of experience has been greater because experienced players would have travelled around the world. Nowadays you can travel around the world via the internet.’
The internet is also a valuable tool when considering the abundance of resources out there, available for free for anyone who cares to listen and has an active connection. Young players are getting world class coaching from contemporary greats like Yasser Seirawan, Daniel King and Roger Svidler, who go through games or play ‘live’ blitz to an enthralled audience.
Chess is a global community and the use of computers and online gaming is only strengthening chess into the 21st century’s global game. On one website, Chess.com, they have reached over 15 million members (more than half of Australia’s population). So what does this mean for budding chess enthusiasts? Well, it means there’s never been a better time in history to get involved in the sport of chess!
Many people enjoying the game of chess at TATA Steel Tournament in the Netherlands
For some of us, sitting down over a chess board of an evening just isn’t enough. We need to fill our bookshelves with chess books, our walls with chess art and our Netflix queue with… you guessed it: chess films. We are excited to share our recommendations of the best chess content out there. And who knows, it may even improve your play.
Movies
Searching For Bobby Fischer
A classic chess film, that has been inspiring young chess players for years since its release in 1993. The film focusses on Joshua Waitzkin navigating the world of children’s chess tournaments in the years after Bobby Fischer has retreated from the world. The story is clever and something to watch with the family, with seasoned chess players getting a kick out of famous player cameos like Anjelina Belakovskaia, Joel Benjamin and the real Joshua Waitzkin.
Pawn Sacrifice
A recent addition to the back catalogue of chess films, Pawn Sacrifice focusses on Bobby Fischer’s match against Boris Spassky in Reykjavik in 1972. Tobey Maguire rises to the challenge of portraying Fischer’s paranoia and the film shows a realistic snapshot of the way Fischer and Spassky’s matches were being watched keenly by the world.
Queen of Katwa
Released last year by Disney, Queen of Katwa is a biographical film focussing on Ugandan player Phiona Mutesi. Mutesi lived in a slum before learning to play chess and eventually became a Woman Candidate Master after playing at the World Chess Olympiads. The film is inspiring, yet impressive in that it doesn’t shy away from the realities and hardships of Mutesi’s life.
Books
The Queen’s Gambit
A novel by Walter Tevis, this book tells the story of Beth Harmon, a young girl who finds herself in an orphanage at the age of eight. She soon falls in love with playing chess, and goes on to compete in tournaments successfully. However, both chess and her substance abuse pull her in two different directions. Which one will she choose?
The Luzhin Defense
A chilling novel by master prose writer, Nabokov, The Luzhin Defense is about a chess prodigy who takes his love of the sport and competing too far. Not only does this book have oodles of literary merit, it has hidden gems throughout for chess players. An added bonus, you can share this with friends and family who may not (yet) be addicted to chess.
A Chess Story
For those of us who are short on free time, Steven Zweig’s novella A Chess Story is the perfect chess-fix coming in at under 100 pages. Follow the main character as he observes a chess prodigy unravel onboard a ship sailing to the US.
Art
Soldier at a Game of Chess
Chess seems to influence all artists, whether through books or film. This holds true of painters as well! Jean Metzinger, a French artist, painted this while serving as a orderly during World War I.
The Chess Game
Have you ever noticed that once you start to fall in love with something, whether it is art or music, you start to see it everywhere? Well, this game captured by Italian renaissance painter Sofonisba Anguissola looks, at least to us, like a Chesslife lesson. Although we have never seen David in a gown like this!
That’s enough chess for a day. Did we miss any of your favourites? Let us know by posting on our Facebook page!
The most rewarding part of my job as a chess coach is seeing my students improve in so many ways, which I truly believe can be traced back to playing and learning chess.
One of the reasons I’m so confident that chess is ‘good’ for kids is that it brings in so many different parts of the brain. To truly ‘play’ chess, the brain has to work pretty hard (to put it mildly), and the best thing is that kids often don’t even realise how much they’re learning.
Not only does chess require kids to be creative, logical, solve problems and think spatially, but when they come to Chesslife classes, they also to have to be social, concentrate, and participate by reading, writing, counting, reasoning – and then communicating all of this to their fellow students and their coaches.
It’s no wonder chess has the power to transform young (and old!) lives. But don’t just take it from me. Here’s what researchers William Bart and Michael Atherton of the University of Minnesota discovered when they analysed the brains of amateur and professional chess players at work. This is from their paper ‘The Neuroscientific Basis of Chess Playing’.
Playing chess activates the occipital lobe, which is used for visual processing
Playing chess activates the parietal lobe, which is used for attentional control and spatial orientation
Playing chess at an amateur level activates the medial temporal love and the hippocampus, which are used for novel encoding and analysing chess board information
Expert chess players use their frontal lobes for higher-order reasoning and retrieving expert memory chunks.
In the right setting, chess has been proven to boost visual processing, concentration and attentional control, encoding of information (understanding), analysing information, reasoning and memory.
And the science proves shows what every chess coach and indeed, every chess player, already knows: chess is a workout for the whole brain.
As a Chesslife coach I consider it my responsibility and my greatest privilege to bring this incredible tool to the bright young minds of Australia.
