The Chess Test

                             Ashwath Kaushik could be the next super talent, but is there a dark side?  It seems every week there is a new tale of a child defeating a Grandmaster at chess and I myself lost to 9 year old Supratit Banerjere in the Hastings blitz event. I think during the course of my career I've rarely lost to someone that young, although I did become part of a record once when Murugan Thiruchelvam beat me in a Richmond rapidplay when he was only ten and at the time became the youngest ever to defeat an International master; although nowadays, such a result would be commonplace. I've mentioned recently that I think this generation of eight year olds is the most promising to emerge since the 1990 vintage of Magnus Carlsen, Sergey Karjakin, Ian Nepomniachtchi, David Howell and others.  Ironically it is Davids record of beating a GM that was the one to fall to Ashwath, and it is reasonable t...

I am currently reading Stephen Hendry's autobiography and there are some interesting insights into the career of a top sportsman. I can't possibly compare myself to Hendry, a multiple world champion, but when I read his book I found that a lot of what he was saying was reasonating. When he talked about how he ended up losing to people that shouldn't have been on the same table as him. About when he experienced negative thoughts during matches, it became a self-fulfilling prophecy and a domino effect would take hold. Eventually it became too much to bear and the Scotsman retired his early 40s.                                   In his prime, Hendry was one of the most dominant sportsmen of the 1990s. I also feel the same. While not a dominant winner like Hendry was, or even a champion, I have felt the pain as my rating has declined. I've gone from a peak of 2573 to currently running at a live rating of ar...

 People say Kramnik is paranoid, that he's past his best. That all his talk about facing engine cheats is the sign of a failing mental state.                                                 many people claim that Big Vlad has lost his marbles.  All of this ignores the simple truth- that Kramnik is a far stronger player than most of these posting on places like Reddit, Twitter, Youtube and other sources where he is widely ridiculed. Some people might claim that isn't important. I would claim that it is, because the stronger the player the greater the insight. In reality Kramnik has worked with engines for many years. He played a match against one in Bahrain, the fabled "Brains in Bahrain." I have discovered this myself- when you work with engines a great deal, you get a sense of when something is "off." Also importantly, I have played many types of players ove...

  The words on Oleg Korneev's Facebook are very clear: "Do you actually understand what his rating is for a chess player? This is his business card, capital, basically. I receive in packs of standard emails from chess tournaments organizers and club management, where invitations are denied or offered disgusting conditions, motivating it by a low rating (now I'm below 2500). Let's conclude: the loss of rating for chess professionals turns into the loss of chess earnings. Elo-deflation is robbing chess professionals." What he is referring to is what he believes to be the governing body of chess, FIDE, and their failure to arrest and reverse the ELO rating deflation that has been impacting on professional chess players like Korneev, for some time. Oleg Korneev- concerned about rating deflation. Korneev has been an active chessplayer for a number of years and a successful one at that, maintaining a 2600+ rating f...