How do you classify chess players? And how would you reply if someone asked you what your chess personality is? 

One simple classification revolves around the elements at which the chess players excel:

Positional players tend to like closed positions where they can create plans, maneuver pieces around, make favorable trades, employ prophylactics, exploit weaknesses and gradually grind the opponent down in the endgame. Example: Magnus Carlsen. 

Tactical players have an excellent combinational vision. They usually go all out, aiming for the opponent king's throat. Tacticians enjoy having active pieces and an advantage in development and are quite good at sacrificing material for the initiative and handling material imbalances. Example: Shakhriyar Mamedyarov. 

Calculators are similar to tactical players, but they are more concerned about tricks that allow one to win material and/or set traps. The name speaks for itself: they are unstoppable in murky positions where a single miscalculation can be fatal. Also, they usually have somewhat less chess intuition than positional and tactical players, but they are good at crunching the lines, similar to what a chess engine does. As a result, one some occasions, they can make weird-looking moves, but in other cases, they will discover possibilities that other players won't spot. Example: Ian Nepomniachtchi. 

Of course, the higher-rated the players are, the more likely they are to be universal, feeling comfortable in any type of chess struggle. Still, even for the very best GMs, you can make an argument for putting them into one of the categories above. 

Yuri Averbakh was the only GM in chess history to reach the 100th anniversary.

Coming up next is an alternative classification, even if it is less widely used. According to GM Yuri Averbakh, there are six main types of chess players depending on how they approach the game. Below I will offer an interpretation of each type.

Killers – these people take the result of the game personally and use chess as a means of “breaking a man’s ego”. Notable examples of this type offered by GM Averbakh are Bobby Fischer, Garry Kasparov, Mikhail Botvinnik, and Viktor Korchnoi.

Fighters – they enjoy the process of struggling with the opponent and don’t lose heart even if their position is inferior because they can potentially reverse the tide. Some of the best examples that come to my mind are Arkadij Naiditsch and Valentina Gunina.

Athletes – according to GM Averbakh, for those chess is a sport, just like tennis or soccer. They do their best to win but don’t take the results personally and act like normal humans after the game is over. Yuri believes that Jose Raul Capablanca and Boris Spassky are fine examples of such an attitude.

Gamblers – they love taking risks and competing with others at everything. In a way, this category resembles athletes, if you ask me. Anatoly Karpov is a supreme example: he is a very adventurous and competitive person everywhere – in chess, politics, other board games, and in business. The same goes for Magnus Carlsen. 

According to Averbakh, all the world chess champions belong to one of the above-mentioned categories.

Artists – for them, creating a masterpiece or making a fantastic move on the board is more important than the actual outcome of the game. Arguing with Averbakh's claim cited above, I would place Vladimir Kramnik in this category. Coming from an artistic family, he also seems to value the act of creating a masterpiece above the outcome of the game. 

Researchers – chess is fuel for thought for them. They enjoy studying endgames, openings, and philosophical issues of chess and normally like correspondence chess more than head-to-head matchups. They are searching for “truth”, i.e., optimal play in every position. GM Yuri Averbakh places himself into this group. The same goes for me.

Now, what category do you belong to? Are you happy about it, or do you feel like changing your approach toward the game?

This blog post is brought to you by the Magnus Chess Academy Team. Make sure to sign up to enjoy the app as soon as it gets released!

P.S. Is there a way to test yourself and find out what your chess personality is? I appreciate Chess.com's idea of creating a special site that allows you to answer a series of questions and find out who your chess role model is. However, I am not a big fan of the implementation, namely, of how the questions are formulated and of some of the tasks presented. IMO, it is more of an entertaining experience than a real "scientific" test. 

In this video, you can see GM Hikaru Nakamura taking the chess personality test. Spoiler alert: he didn't get himself as the role model! 😁

How would you describe yourself as a chess player in one word? 

To many of us, tactics seem to be the most accessible and entertaining component of chess to train. Myriads of players worldwide solve exercises regularly, yet few of us become truly powerful tacticians. Why is it so?

I have been asked this question on many occasions. Moreover, I have solved over 10,000 serious tactical problems in my life, yet over the last few years, I have hardly noticed any tangible improvement in my combinational vision. When it comes to my chess friends and colleagues, the situation is quite similar. They have more or less hit a plateu at some point. When I tried to approach experts and torture them for a reason why it's so hard to break the barrier, neither of them had an answer ready. In fact, there are far more open than solved issues for me in chess, and hardly anyone can help. The more you learn about chess or anything else, the more you realize how ignorant you are on this subject. 

In the book "Thinking Inside the Box", GM Jacob Aagaard mentions that while it is relatively easy to make a big jump if you smartly focus on developing your calculation abilities, the propensity for tactics seems to be more on the "either you have it, or you don't" side. From my experience, I tend to totally agree. I have always been reasonably gifted when it comes to spotting unusual tactical ideas and could give some low-tier GMs, especially those who lean towards positional play, a run for their money in this respect. Nevertheless, I am fully aware that I am nowhere near as sharp tactically as, let's say, Nepo or Firouzja. And even if I started drilling tactics all day long, I would never catch up with them since their talent is on a whole different level. 

Let's speak more concretely. My Lichess puzzle record rating is over 9000...sorry, 2800, and on Chess.com, I had 3200+ back when the scores seemed to be lower on average. When I looked at the top list, I was right between two GMs rated about 2650 FIDE. 

Back when Chess.com used to display the average rating of the people who tried their Puzzles tool, it used to be somewhere around 1100. The total number of attempts was a few hundred million back then. The average number of attempts was a meager 44. Clearly, most users weren't serious about their improvement or didn't enjoy the trainer, so they made a couple of tries and quit. Still, the participants' average rating was too low to stick with the hypothesis that people had hit their ceiling at a certain point.

Another idea of mine was that performance depends on several non-chess factors. For example, how fast you get tired. Whether you have the patience to diligently find that mate in 3 or not. And so on. Hence, in theory, one should make gradual progress by solving tactics daily and improving the non-chess aspects that somehow contribute to one's performance. 

For instance, I realized that I play blitz better when I am caffeinated. Also, after losing weight from 105 to about 80 kgs, I felt my endurance over the board increased. Still, such factors account only for slight boosts, while your chess skills play the leading role in the overall performance. 

My current working hypothesis is that successfully solving chess tactics requires some other forms of training. An analogy would be that if you want to bench-press a lot, you don't limit your training to merely bench-pressing daily. Similarly, one may have to resort to other supplementary exercises to improve one's tactics prowess. At first glance, this statement looks counterintuitive, but you never know.

Moreover, do you know what is even harder to train than tactics? The speed at which you solve tactics! Sometimes, puzzle ratings may be misleading since, in untimed mode, the results depend a lot on your persistence. Some club players can sit for half an hour or even more on one puzzle. As a result, they might obtain a rating close to the GM level, even though the GMs in question spend only 10 seconds or so per puzzle. However, when it comes to reaction speed, our brains seem to be wired differently. I have always been more of a strategy/RPG kind of gamer, enjoying the genres where high APM is not the deciding factor. Meanwhile, some of my classmates were into shooters or arcade games, which are about clicking fast and precisely. Even though I have practiced in Tactics Frenzy or Lichess Puzzle Storm/Racer, my skills of "fondling the mouse" (a brilliant expression by Vladimir Kramnik) or furiously tapping on my phone screen haven't improved much. Apparently, my chess software is running on a 36-year-old processor that doesn't seem to get more MHz as the years go by. And I am not proficient enough as a biohacker to give it a decent upgrade! As a result, when it comes to speed and solving simple puzzles, some relatively low-rated kids can leave me in the dust since I am nowhere as good as them in terms of premoving the solution moves.

Finally, you might wonder why the chess community keeps feeding you with all those mantras like "some tactics every day keeps the patzer away" if it is unclear whether such a strategy yields any long-term benefits? The answer is that it is known for a fact that if you don't work on his tactics, you will be degrading in this area. Meanwhile, if you practice it, you will likely experience rapid progress in the early stages and at least maintain the status quo after a long training period. The truth is that, as you can see from the abovementioned data, most people quit too early. That's why, from my experience, most people tend to overestimate at what rate they would improve if they started taking chess seriously. Since they have never practiced chess consistently for a few hours daily, they have all sorts of illusions of what will happen if they go all out. In fact, hard work is a must for any aspiring chess player, but it is by no means a guarantee of success. Sounds motivating, doesn't it? 😉

Don't miss your chance to learn tactics & other aspects of chess from Magnus Carlsen while he is still the World Champion!

Why do some people see tactics much better and faster than others? Can you close this gap? 

There is no such thing as chess talent. Some people just have f…ed up brains, and this is it!

International Master Vyacheslav Osnos, the coach of Grandmaster Viktor Korchnoi

This column was inspired by my recent conversation with a mother of a 11-year old girl who is into chess and studies it with a personal coach. Just like many other parents out there, the lady wanted to know whether her daughter has enough talent for chess to keep going. Her question was simple as pie: “How do I know if she is gifted chesswise or not?”

You may be wondering the same about your kids or even yourself. Indeed, how can you tell that you or your children have what it takes to become strong chess players?

You improve in chess faster than people around you. Having a natural talent in a certain field essentially means that you grasp things easier there than most people. It is similar to studying in school or at university. Some of us have to read the same page a few times to understand what it is all about, while others take a glance and can work out the details themselves. In any chess club where kids train in a group, there will be students who make impressive progress and those who lag far behind.

There are a couple of crucial disclaimers that I should make here. First of all, a lot depends on the environment. One thing is to be able to outshine the kids in your typical suburban chess club, where most of your competitors won’t progress beyond 1600 FIDE before quitting. However, if you were to enroll in the Kasparov-Botvinnik chess school and be pitted against the likes of Vladimir Kramnik or Alexei Shirov, you may easily become demotivated and decide that your chess talent is so-so. Everything is relative. 

Can you imagine what it feels like to be coached by Garry Kasparov and Mikhail Botvinnik in a class featuring Vladimir Kramnik, Alexei Shirov, Vladimir Akopian, Sergei Tiviakov, Konstantin Sakaev, Konstantin Landa, and other top players?

Secondly, especially for kids, experience plays a critical role. Some parents become discouraged if they see that some other kids are ahead of their children. However, you must consider how long and under what circumstances the people have been training. For instance, your 7-year-old children may be making their first steps in chess, and the kid you are comparing them against may have been training with a couple of coaches and playing competitively since he was four. Now, regardless of how talented the kids are, the early bird may be currently miles ahead of your kids. However, it doesn’t mean that they can’t surpass him in the future. Of course, he has a better start, but nothing is assured. Quite a few prodigies reach their ceiling and get burned out at an early age, especially if their chess studies are mainly imposed by parents. This smoothly brings us to the second item, which is of utmost importance.

You genuinely love playing chess and studying the game. There are some kids who have an immense natural talent for chess, yet they are not interested in developing it. Basically, they do only the exercises the teacher gives them. Their scores might be close to perfect, but they are unwilling to take that extra step into the unknown. Of course, it is also essential to find the right approach to studying chess that fits you best. Some kids become demotivated to study chess just because they don’t like the coach, the format, or other class members. 

To become truly good at chess, you should be immersed in the game and willing to study on your own for hours and hours. It is a good sign if you or your children jump at the opportunity to squeeze in a few more puzzles, check out a Magnus Trainer lesson, or play a couple of blitz games when you have the time for it. Becoming a professional chess player requires the right combination of talent, hard work, and environment. And, as Garry Kasparov once put it, the ability to work hard is a talent by itself. Focus, focus, focus. 

Finally, if you love what you are doing, your time is not wasted anyway. Even if you don’t become a top pro, the chess journey will still be memorable and worth it. 

You are ambitious and have a fighting spirit. Let us start from afar and travel to Ancient Rome. According to a popular anecdote, one of the ways how Julius Caesar used to decide if the recruit would become a good legionnaire was to check how the latter reacted to danger or insults. If his face became red, it was a good sign, showing that he was prepared to fight. If he turned pale, it was perceived as an intention to run away, which is not recommended for someone who serves in the military forces. There is a similar thing in chess. People who don’t care about losses, for whom chess is “just a game”, hardly ever make it to the top. However, overdramatizing defeats is no good either. There are GMs who collapse after a tough loss: they can’t sleep; they have to resort to alcohol to soothe their mental wounds; their performance drops. In contrast, there are true warriors who become enraged after a loss and bounce back. Kasparov, back in his heydays, or Carlsen as of today, are such examples. They may lose a game, but they usually come back in style and prove that they are legendary champions. 

It is normal for kids, and not only kids, to cry after bitter losses. For instance, Bobby Fischer was doing this all the time when he was young. However, what is important is what happens next. If your son becomes dismayed and says he will never play chess again, this is a bad sign. Conversely, if his eyes shine furiously, and he says he will strike back and recover his rating, it is a sign that he may have a future as a chess player. 

The three points above are probably the most important ones. Also, they have the advantage that you don’t even have to be proficient in chess to “diagnose” yourself or your kids using this short list. Now let’s mention a few more specific, purely chess-related items. 

Magnus Carlsen is arguably the finest positional chess player of all time. 

Do you have a natural positional feel? Of course, every skill needs to be developed. Still, some kids seem to intuitively feel where the pieces belong on the board. While some of their peers make random moves or ardently chase an irrelevant pawn in the middle of nowhere, these future Capabancas, Karpovs, and Carlsens are busy fighting for the center, occupying key outposts, targeting weaknesses in the opponent’s camp, and so on. They might not even be aware of what exactly they are doing, yet here they are! As long as you invest enough time and effort, this skill alone should generally take you at least to master level.

Ian Nepomniachtchi is absolutely amazing when it comes to spotting chess tactics.

Are you a tactical wizard? This is a different breed of kids. They blurt out long sequences of moves, calculating them in the blink of an eye. They are very inventive and effortlessly come up with mind-blowing tactical strikes, original defensive resources, and cunning traps. Similar to what has been said about being a strategy expert, it is possible to become a master if you are gifted at tactics. 

Vasyl Ivanchuk is rumored to remember thousands of chess games.

How good is your chess memory? Whether we like it or not, chess is a game of patterns. Gifted players memorize them easily. Once they see a tactic, an opening setup, or a middlegame plan, they add the information to their memory banks and are able to use it in their own games. Also, modern chess is demanding in terms of the amount of computer-generated theory that you have to remember. Not being able to recall the one and only continuation at the critical moment of the game can lead to a quick and painful loss against a well-prepared opponent. Therefore, even though there are still some strong GMs who don’t remember their games and opening lines well enough, most chess pros have an admirable chess memory.

Naturally, similar to the previous items, this ability can be developed somewhat. With proper training, most people should be able to memorize a 15-move line or play one game blindfolded. However, you will probably need a much bigger talent to look at a dozen pages of analysis before the round and remember all the data or give a blindfold simul on ten boards or more. 

Fabiano Caruana takes physical training extremely seriously and is known as a great calculator who can endure chess marathons without losing focus.

What about your health? Competitive chess is a grueling sport that requires maintaining full focus for hours. Even though laymen who have never played a serious event themselves tend not to view chess as physically challenging, you surely know that you should be fit and exercise a lot to play chess at the top level. Chess is an inclusive game that is quite popular with special people, but it is still demanding if you plan to pursue this activity professionally. 

Overall, to become a Grandmaster, you must be multi-faceted. Especially if we are talking about super GM level, where you will likely require all the positive traits mentioned above. When comparing Carlsen to other top players, some of his colleagues noted that he is untouchable due to being extremely well-rounded. In most aspects of chess, his scores would be in the 80s or 90s on a scale of 100. There may be people out there who, let’s say, have 90 in a field where he has 85, but Carlsen will likely have 90 in an area where they have only 70. 

Don’t hesitate to see how talented you are at chess by taking on Magnus Carlsen, Judit Polgar, Wesley So, and other remarkable opponents in the Play Magnus app! 

How do you know whether you or your kids have the talent required to become a strong chess player?

A 2700+ GM once mentioned to me that he often loses interest in the tournament after 5 or 6 rounds. This phenomenon is well-known to many of us. What are the reasons, and how do we make sure we perform well in the last few rounds of the tournament? 

As you probably know already, after five draws, Game 6 became pivotal in the recent World Chess Championship match in Dubai. Magnus Carlsen won a breathtaking marathon battle spanning a record 136 moves, after which Ian Nepomniachtchi collapsed and scored only one point in the following five rounds. 

After adding the fifth World Chess Champion title to his collection, Magnus is smiling like a boss. Image by Niki Riga from the official site of the match.

For a more detailed report about the World Chess Championship match between Magnus Carlsen and Ian Nepomniachtchi, please check out the Magnus Trainer app. 

First of all, during a tournament, you should always be feeling “hungry” for chess. This is typically ensured by taking a proper break between your studies and the following competition or between two events. In other words, if you get fed up with chess due to overworking or playing too much, your performance is likely to drop. This topic has been briefly touched upon in our last week’s blog post. 

In contrast to this tip, Nepo played two exhausting training matches against former Challenger Sergey Karjakin before this year’s WCC. Unsurprisingly, at the very start of the match, Ian already looked tired and weary. 

Secondly, monitor your health and wellbeing. While non-chess-playing individuals often ridicule the concept of chess being a sport, any competitive player will tell you how demanding the game is in the physical sense. The effects of having to sit and keep concentration for a few hours a day are often multiplied by the necessity to travel to the venue, to sleep and eat in an unfamiliar environment, by falling ill, etc. Summarizing, one should be fit and healthy to play well.

Comparing Ian and Magnus in this department, Magnus has a distinct advantage overall. 

Even though Magnus has had some hiccups in his career, his nervous system seems to be much stronger than Ian’s. 

Ian lost a lot of weight and worked on his physical shape a lot before the match. However, Magnus has been doing this for years and is generally believed to be fitter than his ex-Challenger. 

I don’t know for sure what the sleep schedule of the players is like. From what I have heard and read, Magnus occasionally broke the schedule and stayed up very late in his childhood, but in general, his parents have explained to him the benefits of following a sleep routine. Meanwhile, Nepo makes the impression of someone who can easily stay well past midnight playing computer games and such. Once again, don’t take it for a fact; this is just an assumption. 

Magnus has been known to take nutrition seriously, eat healthily and to bring his own cook to WCC matches. As far as I know, Ian is less “professional” in this sense and lives the life of an average person. 

Thirdly, your psychological state often becomes the main culprit of your chess failure.  

For example, suppose you decide to set yourself certain rating or point goals before the tournament, which is not recommended in most cases. In that case, it is remarkably easy to lose motivation once you understand that the aim is not achievable any longer. 

Generally speaking, few of us can handle a rapid change in the narrative we created for ourselves before the event. Let’s stay you act like a typical action movie hero by visualizing your path to success which involves shredding all your opponents’ pieces to pieces. Well, how do you adjust if you lose the very first game terribly? Or if you shake off the defeat and lose again for some reason? This is a sophisticated subject, and it is hard to give universal advice. I am just saying that for some people having no plan for the event (“just play and enjoy every game!”) could be better than a rigid narrative (“I will win 5 games and draw 4, finishing at 7/9”). 

Speaking for myself, I have had those tournaments where I had high expectations for my performance, planning to harvest a lot of rating points there. If things didn’t go according to plan, I would stubbornly try to force the issue and come back without analyzing what exactly went wrong and why. Quite often, such drastic measures backfire and cause even more painful defeats. Then you realize that meeting your goal is already unrealistic, and your mental shape goes from bad to worse! 

Or, another common situation, something unpleasant might happen in your life and overshadow the importance of playing well. Top GMs have been going through lawsuits, divorces, political campaigns, and other distracting activities while competing in strong events. Obviously, their resulting performances tended to be abysmal. Of course, one can’t be insured against all sorts of hazards, but the rule of thumb is to try to adopt prophylactic thinking in life and chess. It will help you prevent some nuisances or abstain from entering a tournament at the wrong moment. 

Ian’s face says it all during the awards ceremony. Image by Eric Rosen from the official site of the match. 

Only Nepo knows what went wrong with his mindset after the catastrophe suffered in Game 6.

Did he start blaming himself for not winning with Black even though he had decent chances at some point? 

Did he lose confidence in his chess abilities? 

Did fear kick in? Everyone knows how tough it is to beat Magnus, and the challenge is almost insurmountable if you are trailing behind. 

Did he fail to readjust his narrative of how the match will unfold? Maybe he hasn’t worked out in advance what he will do should Magnus take the lead. Or, quite possibly, he and his team did consider this scenario briefly, but in real life, everything turned out to be harder than on paper. 

I guess that Ian should take a good rest and then analyze meticulously what went wrong in his head. This is the only way to fix the issue and to decrease the chance of it haunting him in the future. 

Even though it is next to impossible to provide exact solutions to all the issues mentioned above within one article, I hope that the post gave you some tasty food for thought. Before playing your next tournament, make sure to go through the items mentioned in this article and see if you can improve in some areas. 

Last but not least, we wish you a fantastic Christmas! Stay healthy, have fun with your family and friends, and don’t forget about chess should you be looking for some special gifts! 

How does one ensure a top-notch performance from the first round to the very last? Let’s explore this topic and use the Carlsen – Nepomniachtchi WCC match as a reference point! 

How to Avoid Getting Burned Out During a Chess Event

Many of us enjoy reading books or listening to lectures & motivational speeches given by eminent individuals who have attained international recognition in their fields of expertise. This process of fishing for the right "secrets of success" is an inherent part of human nature. Chess players are no exception to this rule.

My soft spot in this regard is not unique: I like to pay special attention to interesting anecdotes and facts from the life of the top chess players and subconsciously make comparisons between myself and them. This might not be a bad idea if you want to become a chess journalist or occasionally win a trivia by answering correctly who came first in Zurich 1953 and other tricky chess questions. However, I have met a few chess experts who played chess very poorly, while many modern GMs sometimes amaze me with their illiteracy in chess history. Playing and studying the games is usually more productive for someone who wants to improve than reading amusing stories about how one master called a fellow guy a moron.  

Notably, GM Simen Agdestein mentions in his book "Wonderboy Magnus Carlsen" that as a kid, Magnus was much more interested in the games of the world champions than in the opportunity to have a conversation with them. Maybe it was due to his age at that time and to his introverted personality, yet it is still another sign that paying more attention to the players' games is a good idea if you are concerned about improving your chess.  

Moreover, one must keep in mind that all of us are unique. The circumstances are different, and it takes quite some effort to determine which rules of thumb from the past to follow and which to disregard. For instance, let's consider Ian Nepomniachtchi's recent interview and see what he has to say about losing the World Chess Championship match to Magnus Carlsen in a rather dramatic fashion (7.5-3.5). 

Mike: Yeah, we've already asked about that at the post-game press conference, the actual chess. Getting back to your team, you obviously had [GM] Sergey Karjakin on your team; please correct me if I'm wrong if you had [GM] Peter Leko on your team, but both of those players have played for world championships, and I'm sure they tried to describe to you what it was going to be like to be in the tank. Not chess moves, but just that experience. Was there preparation for what it was like to play in the tank? Was it what you expected, or was it somehow different?

Ian: Well, I would say that Sergey joined somewhat last minute, so basically for the last month and it was mainly about some training, which probably, as it seems right now, were too intense and maybe not too well-timed because normally you'd probably have some break so you can play some blitz or bullet online. But if you try to play some serious or semi-serious games, not like blitz, just for training purposes, there's also a limit. You shouldn't be swallowed into this whole topic.

Indeed, it was quite instructive to speak with Peter and speak with Sergey about their world championship match experiences, but I understood after the match had started, that every match is unique. You can even imagine yourself in someone's shoes but at the same time the opponent can be different, and even if it's the same person, that person can play completely different chess with a completely different attitude.

Some general advice is not to pay too much attention to what people say, don't get too busy with some social media, and so on, but these are just general words. I asked a few questions, I asked [GM] Vladimir Kramnik [for] his thoughts. Sadly, we couldn't work together this time, but maybe sometime in the future. Of course, a lot of guys gave me a lot of advice, some of them had world championship match experience, some of them not. Perhaps today I would say that maybe it was a little bit too much, you know, trying to do your thing correctly according to all of this information you get because once again, every tournament is more or less unique and especially every match is unique and you have to prepare for your own situation. It was a bit of an unfortunate decision to try to build your preparation onto the experience of other people...

As you can see, Ian did his homework by talking to some people who have had experience playing World Chess Championship matches, hoping to discover some secrets that would help him perform better against Carlsen. However, according to Nepo, the decision to follow into the footsteps of others was not particularly beneficial for him. The "every match is unique" reminds me of a recent monologue by Vladimir Kramnik that he gave on the Levitov Chess YouTube channel. He lamented that, despite being experienced already, everything that could go wrong went wrong for him during the match against Anand in 2008, while in his very first match against Garry Kasparov in 2000 everything proceeded smoothly. In other words, if our own experience sometimes doesn't prove to be useful, then how can we expect someone else's experience to carry us through?

The one and only official chess game between Magnus Carlsen and Sergey Shipov took place in 2006. 

For objectivity's sake, I don't want to create an impression that you should totally disregard the collective chess wisdom. For comparison, here is what GM Sergey Shipov, a well-known chess commentator and ex-coach of Ian Nepomniachtchi & Carlsen's second Daniil Dubov, posted in the Crestbook VK group:

Yesterday during the press conference, Ian pointed out that he might have over-trained before the match when commenting on the possible reasons for his loss.

Well, it happens. Grandpa [Mikhail] Botvinnik was not wrong on everything 😊

For instance, he recommended not to touch the chessboard for two weeks before an important tournament to which you are preparing in advance. Sleep, food, walks, physical workouts, and as little chess as possible! As a result, you preserve your passion for chess and are able to play with pleasure and at full force. Also, this way, it is easier to maintain focus and not blunder like Ian did. 

I believe that in our days the two weeks distance is excessive. One may as well shorten the chess "quarantine" to one week. And to throw some simple chess tactics into the mix – both for entertainment and for feeling better. 

Magnus seems to follow this routine, adding light-spirited blitz matches against relatively weak opponents to it. Sometimes he whitewashes an opponent and sleeps well afterward! 😉 Well, for all the future rivals of the World Chess Champion, the failure of the Challenger is going to become an instructive case study. Maybe for Ian himself as well…

Here we can see Shipov fall back on a classical tip dating back to the days of the hegemony of Soviet chess and adapt it slightly to meet the challenges of the modern age.  

Frankly speaking, I was shocked when I heard how many training games Nepo and Karjakin have played right before the match. Even before I discovered that, I looked at Nepo during the opening ceremony and told my friends that he conveys an impression of an exhausted person who has already played a match or two. My prediction was that his relatively poor physical form would haunt him in the second half of the match, as it often happens to Nepo, and will result in a loss in 14 games or sooner. 

It turns out I was spot on; Nepo did conduct two rigorous sparring matches against Karjakin and eventually lost the match against Carlsen. Admittedly, having said what I said earlier, I didn't expect it to go THAT badly for him! As an outsider, one can only wonder why a Challenger would commit 
 "every Russian schoolboy knows" mistakes and later comment on them as if he has learned something new for himself. Still, it is probably not that straightforward if Ian and his experienced team of GM coaches chose the path that they did.

Summarizing, for mere mortals resorting to analogies and walking in the footsteps of others is a useful strategy. Still, it must be applied with caution and tweaked depending on the circumstances. When talking about breakthrough moments, you often have to be an innovator to excel; simply following well-known recipes won't cut it. I guess this is one of the explanations why Ian failed: he tried to take on the role of a trendsetter but collapsed under the superhuman pressure of the match in general and Magnus "the alien" Carlsen in particular. 

Wondering how tough it was for Nepo to face Magnus over the board? Download Play Magnus and get a feel of how unforgiving the reigning World Chess Champion is!

Is reading the biographies of top chess players a must-do for a chess improver or an entertaining way to waste your time?

Is Reading the Biographies of Top Players a Waste of Time?

Anyone who has been part of the chess community for long enough knows that quite a few chess players are superstitious. How large is the number, however?

Here are the results of a poll conducted at Pogonina.com regarding mascots:

As you can see, almost half of the respondents have a mascot, and about 6% used to have one in the past. Please note that this only concerns mascots, whereas many other superstitions are popular among chess aficionados! Let's review some of the most prevalent ones.

Quite a few chess players use the same "lucky" pen for every round. 

Another widespread approach is to wear the same clothes as long as things go well and change the outfit once you lose. Therefore, when you see a chess player in a greasy sweater, it may be due to this superstition! Alternatively, some players sport chess-themed clothes, probably also hoping that it will boost their results. Former Women's Chess Champion Alexandra Kosteniuk is one of the fashion icons in this sense. 

Here is another remarkable outfit, this time by GM David Navara:

Also, a lot of players bring special mascots to the tournament. For instance, in her junior years, Judit Polgar (whose Zodiac sign is Leo) used to carry a statue of a lion with her wherever she went. If you ever got a chance to play against Judit Polgar, Age 9, in the Play Magnus app, you would surely know this interesting fact!

Or, another related example, Teimour Radjabov revealed during his room tour in Moscow that he carries a statue of Napoleon with him when traveling. 

Similar to wearing the same clothes, many chess players choose not to shave their beards/mustache until they lose. For instance, in the World Cup in 2021, Sam Shankland progressed to the ¼-finals, where he was eliminated by former Candidate Sergey Karjakin, without shaving. 

There are plenty of examples of this type; it is one of the most popular superstitions among male chess players. 

A prime example in this category is the legendary Garry Kasparov. Born on April 13, he became the 13th World Chess Champion in 1985 (8+5=13). Throughout his entire chess career, he believed 13 to be his lucky magic number. 

Also, he was notoriously serious about thinking that the age gap between him and Karpov (12 years) and him and Kramnik (also 12 years) was a sign from above. According to this theory, the next World Chess Champion was supposed to be born in 1987. When Teimour Radjabov, who was born in that exact year, defeated Garry Kasparov in Linares with Black in 2003 and received the best game award, Garry was mad about the judges' decision. At that time, the prospects of Radja becoming the next WC were widely discussed in the chess community. However, as you probably know, the next Challenger will be Ian Nepomniachtchi, while the hottest guy on the block is 18-year old Firouzja Alireza, who recently became #2 on the live ratings, crossing the 2800 mark. Still, Radjabov is expected to compete in the following Candidates, so we shouldn't write him off yet. 

In this video, Magnus Carlsen addressed another popular chess superstition – the birthday curse. Since many pros have to play tournament games on their birthdays, there is a certain notion that more often than not, it results in suffering losses. Quite often, the players feel low when they approach their birthday eve, and their thoughts wander elsewhere, so it is hard to focus on chess. However, when on his birthday Magnus Carlsen convincingly won the playoff against Sergey Karjakin in New York in 2016, he waived this superstition off:

In chess, it is said that you should not play chess on your birthday; that it's bad luck. So far, I have yet to experience that.

Let's hope that these words won't become prophetic and bite him since on November 30, 2021 Carlsen will be playing Game 4 of the World Chess Championship match. Unless you are rooting for Ian Nepomniachtchi, of course! 

This item stands out from the line a bit. Let's consider Viktor Kortschnoj, who played two World Chess Championship matches against Anatoly Karpov. Viktor was highly superstitious and genuinely believed that Anatoly Karpov's assistant, a parapsychologist, could hypnotize the former by staring at him from the playing hall. Later Kortschnoj half-seriously lamented that Carlsen must possess hypnotic powers to defeat other Grandmasters so easily in drawn positions. 

Also, Kortschnoj played a correspondence match against the late Geza Maroczy, earnestly believing that such a feat is possible to achieve. 

Numerous articles and even books have been written on this topic. One of the most recent and interesting ones, in my opinion, is this column by GM Genna Sosonko who knew Viktor The Terrible quite well. By the way, it opens with a mention of the fact that Viktor considered 19 to be his unlucky number.

During tournaments, the routine of most chess players reminds the Groundhog Day movie. They eat at the same places, take the same walks, prepare the same way and at the same time, etc. In part, this is similar to having a wardrobe full of identical black t-shirts: you save time and mental energy by not having to make a choice. However, some players stick to their rituals since it is their way to get into the right state of mind for the game and to convince themselves that they will do well, especially if the ritual has worked well in the past. 

Let me share one of my personal secrets. I try to show up for the round earlier than my opponent. Then I take my pen and pretend to fill in the result on the scoresheet. 1-0 if I am playing White or 0-1 if I am Black. From what I have seen, if I manage not to be late and perform this feat without my opponent catching me red-handed, I do win. Just kidding, of course. This is more of a way to shake off the tension for me than something I genuinely believe in. 

Finally, since the Carlsen – Nepo match is about to begin in Dubai, it is quite relevant to hear what Ian Nepomniachtchi has to say on this matter. Let me quote his recent interview for Chess.com:

Are you superstitious? Do you have any lucky items?

I used to be like this, and one of my first coaches told me "ok, it's very normal that you get to play wearing the same shirt if the tournament is going alright, don't change anything in your daily routine." But in general, I have found a lot of arguments for both takes on superstition.

If a tournament is ok, if it's going great, I would say you can do whatever you want. Just don't try to harm the way you work, the way you play, the way you prepare. But if the tournament is bad, it's very likely nothing will help you [laughs]. You can change your clothes 10 times, and change your pants or something, but it would hardly ever have any serious effect. So, in general, you have to be more realistic. Yeah, it's easy to talk like this when you're not involved in any tournament, but during the tournament, it can be very different. Well, let's see what happens.

What is my take on chess superstitions? The fewer things your mood is dependent upon, the better. I've seen people make quite a fuss about forgetting a favorite teddy bear at home or losing a beloved pen. You don't want your confidence level to depend on such things. Better trust in yourself rather than in the magic items or circumstances. 

Are you superstitious when it comes to chess? Let's talk about the most popular chess superstitions and use world-class Grandmasters, such as Magnus Carlsen and Ian Nepomniachtchi, as role models! 

Grandmasters Sergey Dolmatov and Artur Yusupov – friends and rivals.
Image from Mark Dvoretzky’s book “For Friends and Colleagues”, Vol. 1.

How do you prefer to study chess? On your own? With a coach? Or maybe you attend group classes in a chess club or online?

One efficient study method that often gets overlooked by chess aficionados is training with a sparring partner.

What makes a perfect training partner in chess?

• You should have a good relationship with the person. Especially nice if you are friends.
• Your ratings should be close, preferably within the 100 rating points range. Otherwise, the cooperation becomes one-sided, more of a teacher-student relationship.
• Living close to each other is a bonus, although, in the era of the global COVID pandemic, this is less important than before since you can always connect online.
• It is great if your styles and chess strengths are different. For instance, one of you is a solid positional player, while the other is a reckless attacker. Or, another example, one of you is an opening guru, while the other has a fantastic touch for the endgame. This way, you can efficiently share knowledge, becoming more well-rounded as a chess player.

If you are not convinced just yet, let me mention a few important advantages of having a training partner.

Harder to miss a training session & additional motivation

If one of you starts slacking, the other will likely remind his friend that you had a training session planned together. A chess partner is just like a gym buddy in this sense; if you have one, you are less likely to miss a training session/workout. Also, building upon the gym analogy, you could compete against each other, resulting in more rapid progress for both of you.

A classic example of this type was the tandem of GM Sergey Dolmatov and GM Artur Yusupov. Both of them were students of the famous coach IM Mark Dvoretzky. Initially, Dolmatov was more of a tactician, and Yusupov was a positional player. However, as a result of this cooperation, they both enhanced their strengths and eliminated some of the weaknesses. Namely, Yusupov became the World Junior Chess Champion in 1977, and Dolmatov succeeded him the following year. Eventually, both became world-class Grandmasters. Artur was rated #3 in the world behind Kasparov and Karpov in 1986/87, while Sergey peaked at #12 in 1990.

While in movies, chess pros are often presented as loners who prefer the company of a chessboard to interaction with other human beings, there are quite a few chess players out there who enjoy good company. Some are less willing to train, play an event, or travel somewhere if no one accompanies them.

A chess player could benefit from sharing his joy, fear, concerns, and other feelings with someone who understands and can give valuable feedback if requested. Sometimes it is hard for us to evaluate what is going on objectively, so occasionally, you may get a fantastic improvement tip from a training partner who knows your chess personality quite well.

Most of the benefits described above can also be obtained by having a chess coach. However, it is quite costly to work with professional chess coaches on a regular basis. If you have a training partner, you don’t have to pay each other anything. Also, a common occurrence among chess players is sharing a hotel room with your training partner during tournaments, which can also potentially save you a substantial amount of money.

Here are some recommended activities that are typical of such cooperation:

• Analyze games together. As I have mentioned before, this is a particularly efficient technique if your styles are quite different. Such training allows one to expand one’s horizons and to understand chess much deeper than before.
• Play sparring games. For example, when you need to practice a specific opening, it is vital to have the option to jump right into the game against an evenly matched opponent. Conversely, if you simply play on the Internet, it might take quite some time to find someone who opts for the line that you are interested in, not to mention that you often have no idea who you are playing against and thus have no guarantee that the game is going to be of any use to you.
• Play “hand and brain” (one person picks the piece, the other decides on the actual move) or other forms of chess suited for two players. You can also try regular chess when you discuss the moves as you play. The latter scenario, however, may be regarded by chess purists as a mild form of cheating!
• Serve as seconds/coaches for each other. Since you will probably not be playing ALL the tournaments together, if your training partner stays at home, he might as well help you prepare for the games.

Logically, the next step is creating a small team. This way, you have replacement options if your training partner is unavailable for some reason, not knowledgeable about the openings you are planning to study, feeling burned out from chess, and so on. However, it is probably a good idea to move step by step, first creating a bond with one training partner and then deciding if there is a need for adding more people to the group.

The reigning World Chess Champion Magnus Carlsen is known for having trained with most of the leading chess GMs in the world. According to some of the participants of such sessions, he holds nothing back, treating the training partners as more or less equals and working on a “win-win” basis. The guests get to improve immensely by collaborating with the chess legend, while Magnus is very good at pinpointing the strengths and weaknesses of his training partners and always eager to take his game forward even though he is the clear #1 on the circuit.

If you are wondering who may benefit from the tips given above, it can be pretty much anyone. I know both club players who practice this form of cooperation and quite a few top Grandmasters who work in pairs or small teams. This is understandable since, unless one is filthy rich or a member of the world top-10 who regularly gets invitations to super chess tournaments, it is not sustainable from a financial perspective to hire a team of seconds to work for you.

In a recent interview for Championat.com, the current World Chess Championship Challenger, Ian Nepomniachtchi, recalled how he told three-time World Chess Champion Vladimir Kramnik that he wanted to help him during one of the Candidate tournaments. According to Ian, Vladimir replied that his financial balance was already largely negative at that point, and hiring people “for free” is improper. Back then, Nepo considered this to be some sort of excuse, but now he knows the Math behind such tournaments himself and fully understands Kramnik’s decision.

I do hope that you will give this format of training a try! Or, if you already have a training partner, maybe this post will offer you additional ideas on how to make your cooperation more efficient and fun.

Are you dreaming about having Magnus Carlsen as your training partner? Well, one way to make it happen is to become a top chess Grandmaster! Alternatively, you can play sparring games against the World Champion in the Play Magnus app, study chess under his guidance in Magnus Trainer, and compete with him by solving chess puzzles in Tactics Frenzy! We realize it is not a one-for-one replacement, but it is still a great way of taking your chess game to the next level.

How long do you prepare for a tournament chess game? And how long should you do it? 

Anatoly Karpov, who was the undisputed World Chess Champion for a decade (1975 – 1985), not to mention the subsequent FIDE titles, turned 70 on May 23.

When it comes to public perception, Karpov seems to be somewhat underrated. Some people argue that there is a chance that he wouldn’t have beaten Bobby Fischer if the latter agreed to defend his title. Others point out that Karpov lost four out of five World Chess Championship matches against Garry Kasparov. Nevertheless, Chess24 acknowledged the arguments of Karpov’s fans and gave the legendary champion some credit, placing him at the #6 spot on the rankings of the greatest chess players of all time.

Anatoly Karpov holds himself in higher esteem. Here is what he recently replied to Sport-Express when former FIDE World Chess Champion Rustam Kasimdzhanov questioned him what his top-5 greatest chess players list looks like (translation by Colin McGourty for Chess24.com):

It’s hard to single out five - we’ve got a lot of great champions. But, as you ask, I’ll name Capablanca, Alekhine, Fischer, Karpov and Kasparov. I haven’t ranked them, but put them in chronological order. Perhaps someone will be surprised by the absence of Lasker, who held the chess crown over the course of 27 years. That record still hasn’t been beaten, but due to World War I no matches were held for nine years, and in 1921 he lost to Capablanca - one of the most talented and mysterious chess players in history, from a country where chess wasn’t highly developed.

Alekhine’s great achievements speak for themselves. They include the record for the number of international tournaments won - 76. I overtook him - I have 185 wins. That’s from the moment I became a Master of Sport, not counting children’s and junior tournaments. In general, I hold almost all the chess records. Kasparov also has no lack of brilliant victories.

Now on Fischer. His path to the World Championship title was impressive. To win 6:0 against Taimanov and Larsen, one of the strongest grandmasters of the 70s, is a fantastic result. And then his confident victory over Spassky. And the Capablanca Memorial in Havana in 1965? Due to sanctions the US State Department prevented Fischer from travelling to Cuba, but he found a way. He played his games by telegraph from New York and he performed brilliantly, only finishing half a point behind Smyslov. Fischer also led at the Sousse Interzonal, though due to a conflict with the organisers he didn’t finish the tournament…

Recently Magnus Carlsen ranked some of the World Chess Champions on genius, entertainment, influence, and sanity. Here is what he had to say about Anatoly Karpov:

And what does the 12th World Chess Champion think about Magnus Carlsen’s and Ian Nepomniachtchi’s upcoming World Chess Championship match?

Here is what Anatoly Karpov told RT on his birthday eve:

— Have you ever worked as a coach on other chess players’ teams?
— No, I have never been a coach. This is a different occupation. Although I have consulted some of the players.
— What if Magnus Carlsen requested your help? Would you accept the offer?
— No. I simply have no time for this.
— Is public and political work more interesting for you than a chance to, in a certain sense, return to your youth?
— I have a broad range of interests in life and wouldn’t sacrifice them for the sake of working with a single person. I don’t want to restrict myself. Nevertheless, I like Carlsen. He is a very strong player who plays in a similar fashion and style as I did. Very safe; exploiting even a minimal advantage. Magnus is confident in his powers and knows how to fight till the very end. In other words, he has many positive qualities. It is no accident that he has been keeping the World Chess Champion title for a relatively long time already.
— Do you think he is going to remain up there for long?
— If he doesn’t lose his head, he will last for some time. I think Ian Nepomniachtchi has chances to dethrone the Norwegian, but Ian is emotionally unstable. And for a World Chess Championship match, this is one of the key factors. One must have a stable, strong nervous system.

Are you interested in learning more Anatoly Karpov and other World Chess Champions mentioned in the article? Download Magnus Trainer, where you will find interactive lessons about all the World Chess Champions and their challengers, allowing you to see whether you can play as well as them or even improve on their game!

Play Magnus would like to congratulate Anatoly Karpov on his 70th anniversary and to offer you an opportunity to learn more about this outstanding Grandmaster by taking a special quiz. Twelve questions in honor of the 12th World Chess Champion!

Take our special anniversary quiz and learn more about the renowned 12th World Chess Champion! 

Ian Nepomniachtchi’s first Instagram post in 2014 included this uplifting image. It was published on November 23. Please make a mental note of the date and read on to realize what a sign of things to come it turned out to be!

Ian Nepomniachtchi won the Candidates Tournament with a round to spare, thus qualifying for a World Chess Championship match against Magnus Carlsen. The main chess event of the year is scheduled to take place in Dubai, UAE, from November 24 to December 16, 2021. Even though Magnus and Ian have been friends for a long time and trained together, you can expect an exciting clash of styles in their duel for the chess crown!

Make sure to check Magnus Trainer on April 29th for a new lesson featuring a report about the Candidates Tournament and Carlsen’s review of Nepo as a player, pinpointing his strengths and weaknesses. Who do you think is the favorite to win?

Meanwhile, let’s see how well you know the biographies of these two outstanding chess Grandmasters. Take the quiz and see whether you can tell Carlsen from Nepo!

What Is Your Chess Personality?

Why Are We Not All Tactical Geniuses?

How Big is Your Chess Talent?

How to Avoid Getting Burned Out During a Chess Event

Is Reading the Biographies of Top Players a Waste of Time?

Chess Superstitions

Do You Have a Chess Training Partner?

Anatoly Karpov's 70th Anniversary Quiz

Take the Carlsen vs. Nepo Quiz!