Be Your Best - Play Chess
Get Healthy and Open Your Mind
by Zebedee (Zeb) Fortman Jr.
 

This month I will be sharing information from several conversations I have had with a very close friend and chess mentor, FM Ronald Simpson.

Ron and I have been close friends for many years.  In the early years we not only shared a love for chess but played together on a winning basketball team.  Through the years Ron and I have talked more about life than chess but he and I both believe it is hard to separate the two.

Ronald Simpson:

The aging Chess player:  The blame for poor performances in life can be listed in the Encyclopedia of Excuses, volumes I, II, and III.  Chess players are no different whether old, young, female, or male.  We tend to believe that blunders, errors, or misplayed moves have more to do with external causes (tangible or intangible) then internal attributes.

The aging chess player does have a very nice crutch to lean on with respect pointing to scientific data supporting the correlation with performance decline and aging.  How nice, but recent research shows that old age begins at 27.  How funny is that?  See this link.

OK, I think the fact of the matter is that as we get older we do have a harder time performing well in chess or at least performing as we once did.  My experience centers on physical health and the way we process information as to the main reasons for this decline in chess performance.

Physical health is everything!  Chess really demands a lot of your energy to perform well.  Get in shape; lose weight, allowing your body to function optimally!  You may never be able to run and jump as you once did but the brain can still process thoughts very well when the body is healthy.

Processing data:  Now this is where age can really affect your chess performance.  The development of bad habits: not letting go of poor ineffective concepts, treating your thoughts as if they were a religion, placing the ego & pride before truth.  Oh, we old folks are just famous for any one of these things.

Chess is a performance-based activity.  This means as the times change new ideas take over, old concepts become fine-tuned, and the trash that was once believed to be fact must be removed from our thoughts.  The process to change and learn new ways is very difficult for many aging chess players.  Even when we know we need to learn, often we try to incorporate our old ways in everything we learn.  Ok, let’s move on and assume we old folks have gotten over this hurdle.

Applying affective methods in processing chess data:  I believe this area is directly related to how each of us processes data in everyday life.  I just don't believe you can apply good chess problem-solving methods when playing chess but apply poor problem-solving methods when faced with real life issues.  Your chess performance will reflect what you practice in and out of chess.

E.g.: think about all of the chess players you really know.  Have a discussion with them on religion, politics, sports, or anything they regard with emotion.  Allow them to take a position on any subject and simply debate them over the issues.  It really doesn't matter what the facts are, what is important is how they organize their thoughts, present their views, etc.  If anger, frustration, or stubbornness is present then these same issues will show up in their chess performance.  Overcoming these issues is usually easier for the younger people because change isn't as resistive in them.

Conclusion:     Get healthy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!     Embrace the truth in all things.     Learn and grow.

I total agree with his ideas on health.  I am playing some of the best chess of my life after improving my health.  A few years ago I was a 400-lb couch potato.  Today I am a lean, fit, personal trainer.

I am also in agreement that I must learn to look at chess differently if I am going to improve.  Here is an example that Ron shared with me about looking at chess in a new way.

Ronald Simpson:

I did my normal preparation of collecting and reviewing recent games played by my opponent.  Looking for trends, weaknesses, etc…  But I soon realized that this type of preparation wasn’t going to give me much of an advantage.

What I needed to focus on was improving my ability to play good moves and controlling my history of playing risky & overly aggressive moves.  So, the night before the game I watched GM Maurice Ashley’s new DVD; The Secret to Chess: How Grandmasters Find Amazing moves.

Now Maurice and I are very good friends and the concept behind identifying the weaknesses or flaws in each move is a topic we have conversed over many times.  Critiquing moves is something that every chess player does and I would bet that Kotov’s model of determining candidate moves in a “tree of analysis” is the standard.

But it wasn’t until I watched the DVD that Maurice’s concept of the “Drawback” inherent in each move began to really make sense.  Identifying the “Drawback” is a great way to begin any analysis.  Knowing how, when, or even if you should exploit the weakness is another thing.  But I can assure you that good moves and ideas will magically appear in your thoughts and your chess performance will improve!

Let’s look at my game against GM Boris Gulko and my interpretation of Maurice’s “Drawback” concept.

The opening played is identified as the Sicilian Kan.

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 a6 5.Bd3 Bc5 6.Nb3 Be7 7.Nc3 d6 8.a4

The opening moves and their order are beyond my ability to apply the “Drawback” concept and are best left for the theoreticians to explain.  However, I deduced that the “Drawback” to 4….a6 was that it weakened the b6 square.

But I wasn’t able to act on my belief until move eight.  I believed that the b6 weakness would be inconsequential if back was allowed to play b5.  Thus, 8.a4 made sense.  Now my move also has the drawback of making the option for me to castle queen side very risky.

The game continued with normal looking moves:

8…b6 9.Be3 Bb7

I thought it very interesting that even though the b6 square was now occupied with the b-pawn the square was still weak.  But now the Bishop moved away from the c8-h3 diagonal and the g7 square was weakened earlier, so 10.Qg4 seemed to be the move to play.

Basically the “Drawback” in the moves was guiding me along.  This isn’t to say that I was void of going through the analysis of the moves and their consequences.  In fact I used my time accordingly, but I spent much of it trying to verify my observations instead of just gathering information based on the “tree of analysis” model.

10…. Bf6 surprised me in that I just didn’t believe the Bishop belonged on that square.  The “Drawback” behind Bf6 was that the d6 pawn appeared very weak and moves eleven to thirteen were based on the weak d6 square.

10.Qg4 Bf6 11.Rd1 Nd7 12.Qg3 Qc7 13.0-0 Ne7

The above position was very difficult for me because my natural inclination was to play 14.Bb5 and let the complications begin.  I spent much of my time working out the details to this move and my emotions were building.

I was becoming frustrated in fighting with my intuitive compulsion to play with abandonment.  I eventually settled down emotionally and the accumulative information I acquired from looking at the drawbacks in each move compelled me to play 14.Bf4.

This move doesn’t look so difficult now.  But during the game it was one of the hardest moves for me to find.  The game continued with the natural move of Ne5 and my Bb5 works moves works nicely.

14.Bf4 Ne5 15.Bb5+

Black simply played 15…N7c6 and again my inclination was to continue with aggressive moves like 16.Nd4.  But this time my thoughts weren’t supported with much emotion and regrouping my Bishops seemed best.

The drawback with the Knight moves were that now they are stepping on each other and their scope is limited.

15…N7c6 16.Be2 0-0 17.Rd2 Rac8 18.Rfd1 Rfd8 19.Be3 Nb4 20.f4 Nd7

The above position was another difficult position for me.  I wanted to do something against his Kingside.  My thoughts centered on transferring my knight on b3 to f3 via d4.

Again I was getting wrapped up in what I wanted to do and not focusing on the drawbacks in the position.  So, why not take the d-pawn?

21.Rxd6 Nxc2 22.Bf2 Nb4 23.e5 Be7 24.R6d2 Nc5 25.Nd4 Ne4

The clock was now becoming an issue and I believe we were both feeling the pressure.

26.Nxe4 Bxe4 27.Qe3 Bb7 28.f5 Bd5 29.Qg3 Kh8 30.Bg4 Bg5 31.Be3 Bxe3+ 32.Qxe3

We moved fairly quickly from move twenty-six on.  The above position is very difficult to play and when under time pressure even more difficult.

32…exf5 33.Nxf5 h5 34.Qg5 Qxe5 35.Qxh5+ Kg8 36.Nh6+ Black resigns 1-0

In all this was a wonderful game for me and I am truly grateful to have won.

I believe Maurice is really onto something wonderful and I can’t wait to apply his “Drawback” concept again and again.  I have been playing tournament chess for about thirty seven years and I reached a peak rating of 2427 USCF by using many conventional methods.

I am very excited with this “Drawback” concept and I encourage all serious chess players to add this DVD [The Secret to Chess by GM Maurice Ashley] to your study material.  Believe me you will see an improvement in your chess performance.

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