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Chessville
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Chessville: Après-Miles, a veritable flood of British talent succeeded to gm-level, with twice as many native born GMs as in the USA, for example, despite UK having 1/5th the population. How can you explain this? RK: Very complex - I wrote a book on it - the English Chess Explosion - something self reliant - the essence of chess shot to the surface around that time in the UK in business - politics and chess - I fear it has since receded - new Labour makes herd animals of us all! They tighten the screws every day and the British public moos back in bovine obeisance. It’s sickening. Chessville: When interviewing Mark Taimanov, I asked him which composer’s style he thought his chess play most resembled, thinking wrongly that he would answer ‘Rachmaninov.’ Instead he chose Chopin for ‘his harmonious development’. For Gary Kasparov gospodin Taimanov subscribed Shostakovitch, for, ‘complexity.’ Since you have known Kasparov well, do you agree? And who is Ray Keene’s play most alike? RK: Kasparov Beethoven - me Mahler. Chessville: A mysterious aspect of grandmaster play is their preparation for chess. How do you allocate time for a serious event proportionally among: (a) study of the opponents, (b) your own repertoire, (c) practice games, (d) other factors? Do you suggest the same routine for the regular club player? RK: Its all changed - databases have made opponents games far more readily available at GM level but not at club level - so I recommend club players get their own repertoire sorted as a priority - because their opponents games won't be so freely accessible; GMs can trawl for opposition weaknesses as a priority.
Chessville: Women in chess are achieving ever higher levels of performance and in greater numbers of participation; wearing Merlin’s famous Predicting Hat, which three countries will first have a woman as national champion, and how long will it be before a serious challenge to the world champion is upon us? RK: The three countries will probably be very small such as Tuvalu or Vanuatu or slightly fringe e.g. Australia - Angela Song is already the Australian all-comers junior champion; the top Oz, GM Rogers, has been their best player for a quarter of a century – that’s actually too long and implies stagnation and a revolution open to female players in the offing - I can't see an all-comers female world champion for a very long time.
RK: Yes - computers are doing it - just look at Kasparov's MGP Vols. Chessville: If any nation could surpass Russia in the first tier of chess will it be the relatively new, yet prodigious, efforts of China, who have already claimed the women’s title? RK: Yes – China - they will take over the world in everything in the next 50 years! Chessville: Politics! Famously, you championed Kasparov’s break-away from FIDE as a more player-oriented option. We are now on the cusp of critical point in FIDE’s history, and an election which will determine how much of world chess is transacted in the early C21st. What are the most critical aspects, in your opinion, that a future FIDE needs to achieve in world chess? RK: Sponsorship, sponsorship and sponsorship - We look like idiots having a WCC match in Elista rather then Paris, Berlin, London, Madrid or New York. Chessville: Advise three essential elements to include in any chessplayer’s repertoire in order to significantly improve their game. Conversely, what holds back most players and should be discarded? RK: Physical fitness; a defence with black to e4 and d4 which you trust; knowledge of the most common endgames, vital since there are no longer adjournments; --- fear. Chessville: In your book on The English Defence, e6, b6, bb7, you feature two games by Miles against Adorjan, Biel 1983 and Gjovik 1983, both of which are roundly refuted. As a technical aspect of writing opening books, what effect does this have on the variation? In the past 25 years have players abandoned Miles’ line, or do we see new resources in it? Or indeed, are openings merely fashionable, and not so dependent on any technical precedent? RK: As I said what was refuted often gets revived by computers - positions I once regarded as hopeless turn out to be defensible.
Chessville: Classical chess is often said to be played-out and spoken of as if virtually solved. In editing such a monumental work as Batsford’s Chess Openings (BCO) what percentage of its lines would you estimate are unclear or of open-ended fortunes? RK: Everything is up for grabs now computers can analyse well - apparent big advantages turn out to be meaningless - meanwhile-minute plusses can apparently be converted - we are almost facing a new game. An example from checkers - the Chinook computer came close to defeating the great Tinsley at checkers and was clearly slightly better than all other human opposition. A big tournament was held a few years ago - the Chinook programmers threw away its openings book and let it play from scratch - It won by a humungous margin. Chessville: Why should parents give serious thought to introducing chess to their children and encouraging participation in the game? RK: Helps to ram home the message that there is a relationship between study and reward. Chessville: Who have been Ray Keene’s influences throughout his career and what did each contribute? RK: Nimzowitsch, Petrosian -- abilty to manoeuvre, prophylaxis blockade; Reti - the power of the fianchetto. Chessville: Your columns in The Spectator, the Times, the International Herald Tribune, plus some 130 books, frequent interviews and correspondences must have confronted you with every manner of chess question. Is there still a question you wish someone would ask, but hasn’t? Ask yourself and answer it! RK: Chess has a great history of gladiatorial combat to decide the world title - world chess champion used to mean something - ever since the days of Bobby Fischer bureaucrats have been trying to undermine the title so that the champion becomes subordinate to the officials. By and large the great individuals who have been champions have resisted this but now I fear it will all be thrown away if the world championship match is abolished. It is like the line from Othello--"threw a pearl away richer than all his tribe."
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The Chessville
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Chessville:
The late Arnold Denker wrote in 1947: “…the Russian masters
have been combing the archives to retrieve and improve upon hundreds of
apparently ‘hopeless’ attacking variations, infusing new life into forgotten
lines of play. The pendulum is ever moving…” Where is
Arnold’s pendulum moving in 2006? Whose work is currently supplanting
the ‘Russian masters’ if any? And is the process the same now as then?
