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.
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
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.
Whether you think of chess as a sport or a hobby, it is a readily accessible activity for people of all abilities to participate in. At Chesslife we cater to a wide range of players, including many on the Autism spectrum, whom chess has been shown to benefit. In our blogs we love to talk about the players who have come to chess with different abilities, so this week we interviewed 15-year-old Connor, a regular at our Campbelltown library-based club.
Connor, rated 1495 on chess.com, has been playing chess for four years, at least two of these with us at Chesslife. Through chess, Connor has learnt determination and persistence which has trickled through to other areas of his life including school.
Connor being interviewed by Chesslife Coach Mathew Drogemuller
Connor tells us:
“I plan, at least when I’m older, to keep playing because I might make some friends with it… Every school holidays there’s at least one tournament so I play there”.
“I’ve got no vision in the right eye, that’s completely blind due to glaucoma as a baby. In the left eye I’ve got limited peripheral vision so I can see, I think, quite a bit. But compared to people with usual vision I see quite little”.
The size of the chess pieces assists Connor to play and he has no problem bringing down his opponents with the provision of suitable lighting and adjustment to his chair. Connor is a great contributor to The Chess Centre and chess community.
Connor playing at the Chess centre
Campbelltown students admire Connor’s dedication to the game and at Chesslife we are proud to have seen him grow as a player. His aggressive but cautious play has seen him do well amongst adult players at local tournaments, something he intends to keep doing throughout his life.
Connor admits his favourite part of chess is the competition: “I’m definitely not shy. Other kids at my school did sport and they were always too nervous to take part in competitions. I like playing against other people”.
The team aspect of playing chess at Campbelltown also appeals to Connor: “I like a feeling of competing with other people, so if I could play say soccer for instance, I would like that feeling of being part of a team”.
When we asked Connor what the most important qualities for a chess player are, he told us, “Definitely calm. You can’t be one of those sports people who if they lose they start yelling and screaming. If you win just say, ‘good game’“.
Some wise words from a player who is always growing from his experiences. “If I don’t win, I learn from it”, he said.
Connor at the Campbelltown Library
Chess is an activity that allows students with all abilities and from all backgrounds to socialise and develop their minds through strategic thinking. Everyone should be given the opportunity to play and organisations like the International Braille Chess Association, which boasts over 60 member countries, support participation by students with vision impairment. The organisation regularly sponsors the Blind Chess Olympiad, this year’s event to be held in Macedonia.
Chess set for the blind, using touch to know where what piece is located
Competition and being part of a team are valuable skill sets and are certainly two things Connor receives in plenty when he attends Campbelltown Chess Club’s advanced classes for one hour each week. He readily admits that the community spirit as well as Chesslife’s in depth coaching has allowed him to develop as a player.
“At Campbelltown, it’s organised”, he said.
“I would say the biggest thing is the level of teaching, it is just a lot more in depth. Here it will actually go into how you connect the rooks for example, how to open”.
As for the biggest lesson he has taken away from Head Coach David and the Chesslife team at Campbelltown: “At the beginning I used to move the pawn in front of the rook and I always did that. I didn’t know how to improve. For a while I experimented and I came here and here I changed the opening”.
Connor is on Step 4 Extra in the Step Method and has found the books invaluable in helping him work through difficult positions that come up in his games.
During our interview, we learnt that Connor doesn’t just enjoy the teaching at Campbelltown Library. Chess has helped to shape Connor’s outlook on the game and on life, as it does with many of our students.
“It’s fine to make mistakes, if you lose a pawn or a couple of pawns it’s fine. It just shows you that usually to gain something, to get out of a position, you’ll have to lose a piece. Nothing comes completely for free”.
Connor has a rich life outside of school. He is also a member of the Malacalogical Society of South Australia. He loves to collect shells and learn about ‘benefiting the environment, shell shows, shell auctions and what’s been happening around the world in terms of shell news.’ Connor’s own collection sits between 800 and 900 specimens, many locally bought.
World Wide Cones courtesy of Malacological Society Facebook page
David Koetsier is an international professional chess coach based in Adelaide, Australia. At the World Youth Chess Championships in 2016, he had plenty of practice keeping some of Australia’s most promising young players in the optimal brain state for sports performance.
In this blog edition he gives Chesslife blog readers tips on keeping their minds fresh, active and in the perfect ‘frame of mind’ for creative thinking on, and off, the chess board.
Tune in to Music
Listening to music has been shown to provide drastic benefits to the brain. From alleviating depression and lowering cortisol, the body’s stress hormone, to enhancing long term memory.
Years of research have found that listening to Mozart in particular boosts brain function. Called ‘the Mozart effect’, scientists from Stanford University have found that there is a molecular reason for why listening to Mozart boosts performance on learning and memory tests. That sounds like a good enough reason to turn on Spotify!
Of course playing music is even better to activate multiple regions of the brain!
Play video games!
While video games have been shown to reduce stress and improve decision making skills, it doesn’t develop the brain as well as chess does. So if you like to play video games, make sure you pick some with an educational aspect.
Read! Even if it’s just a comic book.
There is a myriad of benefits when it comes to reading. From the basics: expanding your knowledge base, relaxation, expanding your vocabulary and strengthening your memory. There are also more surprising benefits: reading engages your brain in active function and studies have shown that spending your spare time reading could improve your chances of not developing Alzheimer’s by 2.5 times. Reading before bed regularly is also an important part of sleep health. A good book will tell your body it’s time to rest (but remember to be careful of the blue light from e-readers if you have trouble sleeping).
To receive the benefits of reading, you don’t have to be reading Lord of the Rings but choose something you enjoy: from Young Adult fiction to comic books, there is plenty of variety on a library shelf!
There are lots of little things we can all be doing to keep our brain active.
For David, he loves to sit down with a comic book after a long day of playing chess and teaching young people to get their brains activated – and keep them that way!
Junior chess in South Australia has been steadily growing over the last few years, with more tournaments being hosted and more competition among the junior players. But how are we comparing on a National level? Do SA students have what it takes to play interstate? And when do you know it is time to travel across the country to play in a chess tournament?
We spoke to local player Ethan and his mum about their journey over the last 12 months from when they started travelling interstate and how it has changed his play.
Ethan Retnaraja started playing chess when he was 6 years old and had just started year 1 at school. He very quickly rose through the ranks at his local club. In 2015 he won the Most Improved Player of the year award at the Campbelltown Library and in the same year competed to claim the distinction of Under 9 South Australian State Chess Champion.
He captained his schools team in the Interschool Chess Championship C grade in 2015 followed by becoming Interschool Champions in the B Grade in 2016. While competing in state-wide tournaments boosted his confidence over the board and at school, his parents decided it may be time to play in stronger fields across the state borders.
Ethan as captain for his school team
In 2015 on advice of their coach, they entered in the U1200 category at the Doeberl Cup in Canberra. It was here, he says, he learnt what ‘real chess’ is about. After this tournament, a complete change was seen in Ethan’s play.
In Canberra, Ethan met Australian Champion Bobby Cheng and saw the premier group (international and grandmasters) every day in the main hall. He admired how the top players behaved in competition. They took their time and treated their games seriously. Ethan wanted to do the same.
Ethan’s mum and number one fan Jocelyn Ho saw the change in Ethan first hand. ‘Now,’ she says, ‘His chess skills continue to rise and he is playing more calmly and thoughtfully than ever.’
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Playing around the country does not only provide you with the benefits of being able to play against players you have never met before, it also allows you to experience a different culture, meet new people and explore new sites. Often these trips can be incorporated as part of a little family holiday. As Ethan encountered, it means that junior players are able to interact and observe top players and learn from their example. The whole process of travelling to an interstate tournament can lead to a change in attitude both towards chess as well as personal growth.
If you are thinking about adding an interstate tournament to your calendar, why not have a chat to your local chess coach and see what they think.
There are many tournaments available around the country and getting some advice on which one would be suitable is the best approach to ensure the experience will be a positive one for everyone involved.
Ethan and his school chess team
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Now even when Ethan wins, he goes over his games and tries to see where he could improve. ‘If you win you can improve the spots that were bad,’ he says. He no longer tries to rush his moves, but is slow and steady. He learnt that when you concentrate harder, you succeed. ‘If you’re going really fast you don’t think and you lose.’
A large part of tournament play is representing yourself. ‘In a tournament you’re on your own, you’re an individual,’ Ethan tells us, ‘This tournament is the hardest I’ve ever been in. There’s really tough players that have high rankings.’
Ethan sees a future for himself in chess: ‘Chess is very serious, not just a game. When I’m 12 years old I want to compete at a high level.’ But that doesn’t mean he doesn’t celebrate his wins. At the Australian Junior Chess Championship in January last year (2016), he surpassed his own expectations. ‘I was very nervous because most of the players looked like they were tough. I beat some of them, which felt very good.’ On his latest trip to Brisbane while playing in the Australian Junior Chess Championships, he came fifth in the U10 age category.
Ethan at SA State Championship presentations
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Victoria, Queensland and New South Wales certainly still have the strongest players and of course more juniors participating in each tournament, but South Australian players are slowly coming through the ranks and being noticed on a national level. With SA represented in almost every category in the Australian Junior Chess Championship in 2017, it was clear that the change has come. SA players have what it takes to play interstate and should not shy away from starting to schedule in some ‘chess holidays’.
And the best thing about national tournaments is the community that is being build. Every year, students from around the country meet and socialize. Birthdays are shared and friendships are built. Time in between rounds are spend playing transfer chess or soccer and cricket.
Being part of the Australian Junior Chess community is the most worthwhile experience of playing interstate.
Ethan celebrating his 10th birthday at the Australian Junior Chess Championships surrounded by his friends from around the country
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Ethan’s proudest moment was at the Doeberl Cup. He says, ‘I felt proud because there were only three people from Adelaide including me. My chess coach David thought I was good enough to play interstate which made me more confident playing chess.’
We’re certain that this is only the beginning of Ethan’s wins and love for the game!
Gabriel Cregan was six when he first picked up a chess piece. As a child diagnosed on the autism spectrum, his parents, Joanne and Andrew, had always encouraged him in pursuing activities he loved, like board games.
When they saw a notice at his school for a chess club with Bridgewater-based Company Chesslife, they encouraged him to give it a go. However, because of his anxiety around new situations, Gabriel was hesitant to try it, and only agreed to go when his dad promised to attend the class with him.
While he had a school friend in the class, everything else about it was new. Only his dad’s presence kept his anxiety at bay.
Despite the challenges, Gabriel took to the game very quickly, and was soon thriving. After starting in Term 4, he’d already completed the first book of Chesslife’s Dutch-origin chess curriculum. His father scoured the local library for books on chess, and Gabriel spent the summer holidays with his nose in them.
“He was just spotting things so quickly,” his father Andrew said. “Thriving on the puzzles. You could see he was miles ahead of the kids his own age.”
Gabriel and his dad Andrew
Gabriel lives with Autism Spectrum Disorder, formerly known as Aspergers Syndrome, and has co-morbid anxiety. Because of his autism, Gabriel perceives the world in a more intrusive way than people who are lower on the autism spectrum. His brain reacts intensely to even mundane stimuli, so sounds, lights and touch can be distressing.
He also has trouble dealing with new situations, and has “real anxiety around changes, [and] is very rigid, and easily annoyed and distracted by things,” according to father Andrew.
I talk to Andrew outside the Campbelltown library chess club where Gabriel is now a regular. Gabriel, with his fiery red hair and ‘out-there’ personality, is a particularly recognisable member of the Chesslife class. Andrew describes how even now Gabriel is challenged by his participation in the world’s oldest game.
“Last night we were playing in an individual tournament at the Chess Centre. Gabriel was clearly irritated by the music next door, but it’s good for him to adapt and be challenged,” he said.
Gabriel with chess coach David proudly showing his winnings in the Chess Centre
Gabriel started out playing in the Adelaide Hills school team, then later moved to the Chess Centre in Adelaide. He has now participated in the National Championships twice, finishing in the top 10 in 2014, as well as playing in the Young Masters and the Doeberl Cup at the Australian National University in Canberra.
His results are a testament not only to his natural talent, but to his perseverance in the face of challenging and new situations. At his very first National Championship he defeated the top ranked player in his division.
Gabriel at the National Junior Championships in Canberra in 2015
Gabriel’s confidence has improved as a result of his participation in a sport that is increasingly being recognised for its academic and cognitive benefits.
Andrew describes the first time he noticed the changes taking place in his son, “It was in a chess club in Hahndorf. David asked Gabriel to talk about one of his games in front of the class.” David, Chesslife’s energetic head coach, is also on the autism spectrum and has particular insight into teaching kids with differing abilities a passion for chess.
“Gabriel was excited and engaged. He’d started playing 18 months before that, and going to the Hahndorf club for six months.
“It was something I wasn’t expecting, a pleasure to see,”Andrew said.
Gabriel excitingly participating at the Hahndorf chess club
Andrew has had the chance to see other kids with similar problems to Gabriel benefiting from the hands-on coaching approach taken by Chesslife, including kids who have struggled to make friends, who have been bullied at school and who have struggled academically.
“Suddenly [they’re] interacting with other people.” Andrew says. “Just like Gabriel, and the friendships he’s made. David’s brilliant [at helping kids fit in].”
One of Chesslife’s goals is to provide an inclusive educational service that is not only fun and available to every child, regards of skill or ability, but to cater to the co-morbidities that go along with autism spectrum disorder.
Gabriel’s mother Joanne, who works with families living with disabilities to access the National Disability Insurance Scheme, has said that one of the hardest aspects her son has had to overcome is his anxiety.
“I have heard many parents say that their child’s anxiety, not the Autism Spectrum Disorder is what impacts most on their day-to-day life.”
The Cregans have been delighted at Gabriel’s skill at the game. In an email to me, Gabriel said, “I picked up chess very quickly compared to the other kids at school [and] most of them were older than me.”
For his birthday, his parents arranged an at home chess lesson where Gabriel “focused for an hour and a half, just on chess.”
His mother said, “I loved seeing his eyes light up and just soak up all that he could.”
Gabriel was soon playing in tournaments and while at first he didn’t want to interact with the other children, he now has plenty of connections with other chess players. Gabriel says, “I have made heaps of friends. I like having friends at chess because it means friendship and it feels lovely.”
Game analysis during a tournament
Making friends is only one of the many benefits chess has brought to Gabriel’s life. Only a few years ago, Gabriel was incapable of presenting at show and tell in front of a class of his fellow students, finding the attention “overwhelming”. According to Joanne, he now does so with ease, and it was presenting his chess games at the Campbelltown club that has helped him gain confidence. Gabriel, like many of Chesslife’s students, had little experience with team sports before becoming involved in chess.
According to Gabriel’s counsellor, Mark le Messurier, chess is an “engaging opportunity to build a child’s confidence, relationships [and] develop positive problem solving skills.”
Gabriel now travels over an hour to Campbelltown library to have chess lessons with Chesslife. His mother says, “He gets a lot out of the Campbelltown sessions, it makes for a long evening but it is worth it.”
Gabriel seems to agree; “I find it a great time to learn chess and spend time with my friends.”
Just over half way into the 2016 World Chess Championship and we have just seen the first dent with the score 4.5 to challenger Karjakin against 3.5 for Magnus Carlsen. Before this we had seven rounds resulting in seven draws.
Have you read our earlier blog about the World Chess Championships?
So how important is it to know your endgames (and are draws really so dull)?
If one thing has come out of the contest so far it’s that the Russian challenger Sergey Karjakin is tough to beat, even for a world champion.
Despite being under pressure in several games, he has managed to scrape by in some worse endgames, reinforcing what most amateur players already know: we need to practice our endgames more if we really want to improve.
On the other hand, even Carlsen himself has admitted to not playing his best, which, for the world champion, is something close to unstoppable. Notorious for ‘warming up’ throughout a tournament, it’s still possible we’ll see the infamous Carlsen steamroll in action, but so far Karjakin’s knowledge of the game has proved too much.
Karjakin pleased with his win. Photo by Vladimir Barsky
So what can amateurs like us learn from watching such elite level players compete? In particular, intermediate level players should note the importance of making a draw in a slightly worse position. Getting that half point rather than letting your opponent win in a better position can be a big ask, but the score board will thank you for your efforts.
There’s no better way to improve your general play than to study endgames. Winning with two bishops against a knight and bishop is one of the most important to study, as it happens frequently, and knowing what positions favour the bishops can make the difference between a winning and drawn endgame.
Rook and minor piece endgames are also common, though tricky, and should be studied after rook and pawn endgames (which in themselves are pretty tricky).
There are not many End game books available if you want to study more, but Thinkers Publishing has ‘The Correct Exchange in the Endgame’ and Evolution Chess provides ‘The Modern Endgame Manual’ and “Most interesting draws 2012-2015’, which are all available in our store.
Of course there’s nothing better for improving your game than having a professional chess coach tailor a study plan to your specific strengths and weaknesses.
What do draws mean for the World Chess Championship?
Up to round seven there were only draws and this unexpectedly tied score comes with significant mistakes being made by both players, as well as staunch defending by the challenger Sergey Karjakin.
Karjakin at the 42nd Olympiad
Uncharacteristically, champion Magnus Carlsen has been unable to push for a win in the several advantageous positions he has held, instead being rebuffed by Karjakin’s typically stalwart play.
Game one saw the champ opening with the never-before-seen in a championship game Trompowsky attack (a conceded reference to the U.S. president-elect). Karjakin was able to hold a slightly worse position, an auspicious foreshadowing of the games to come.
Game two was a dry Ruy Lopez, ending with both players unable to make progress with two knights and a rook against an equal number of pawns on the same side of the board.
Game three, however, saw the champ once again pressing in the famously equal Berlin opening, leading Karjakin to make a slight error under pressure, probably exhausted at the 70th move in the game. Luckily his Norwegian opponent missed his chance to win and the players agreed to a draw eight moves later.
Magnus Carlsen playing against Australian David Smerdon at the 42nd Olympiad
Game four saw an unusual decision by the Russian player in giving up the two bishops, leading into an endgame with potential weaknesses on both sides of the board.
In the position below, Carlsen’s bishops look menacing, threatening to dash across the board at any sign of weakness. Carlsen, however, chose to close the kingside with 45 …f4, a move which he admitted later was a mistake.
Looking for further weaknesses was a better option, with a move like Be6 increasing the pressure while leaving open the possibility to attack on both sides of the board.
The tough endgames continued in game five, this time with Karjakin coming out of the opening with chances to win. In the position below he played the cool move 42 …d4, allowing Carlsen to take his pawn in order to free up a better square for his bishop and gain a strategic advantage.
His upper hand was short-lived, however, when a couple of moves later the game again became equal with Karjakin allowing Carlsen to take control of the h-file with his rook.
Despite being ultimately unable to convert his advantage to a win, the game was nevertheless a good sign for the challenger, and left open the possibility that things might just turn in his favour.
No doubt exhausted, the players went into a rest day early with a ‘quick game’ in round six, ending in a draw after ‘only’ 95 minutes of play.
New watching format hit and miss with subscribers
Meanwhile, chess fans who have subscribed to organiser Agon‘s new pay-per-view platform have been enjoying the first ever 3D chess-viewing experience. Reviews, however, have been tainted by some temporary losses of service.
Some of the Adelaide Hills Chesslife students enjoyed an early morning analysis of game one, thanks to head coach David Koetsier, who provided a running commentary and breakfast at this home.
Stay tuned for further updates on the 2016 World Chess Championship.
