Jon Speelman: Beware ferocious chess children

Win boringly and slowly

[Note that Jon Speelman also looks at the content of the article in video format, here embedded at the end of the article.]

After I drew with John Nunn in the World Cup tournament in Brussels 1988, an elderly gentleman sat by our board during the post-mortem radiating vexation. It turned out afterwards that this was none other than Mikhail Botvinnik, and it’s the only time that I ever (nearly) met “The Patriarch”.

The dominant player in Soviet and world chess from his victory in the World Championship tournament of 1948 until he was defeated by Tigran Petrosian in 1963, Botvinnik was famously always especially careful in his first games against potential young rivals, trying to grind them into the dust so as to establish a psychological advantage. I’ve been trying to recall one such game but thus far failing and instead I am using the first game from the 1963 match.

Never having beaten Botvinnik previously, Petrosian was appallingly nervous and played in his own words “at first-category strength, not even Candidate Master”. Nevertheless, after his first-ever victory against Botvinnik in the very famous game 5 in which he advanced his king all the way to g7, Petrosian went on to win the match and take the title: ending Botvinnik’s long reign because in the build up Petrosian had had sufficient political support in the Kremlin to remove Botvinnik’s right to a return match.

Tigran Petrosian v. Mikhail Botvinnik in 1963

Coincidentally the same opening as in game 1 was played in the European Club Cup last week when Vasyl Ivanchuk beat Dmitry Andreikin – and I am appending that too.

The one thing you shouldn’t do when playing a dangerous young opponent is to give them a chance to enjoy themselves, and in the recent Hoogeveen Open, that is just what Surya Shekhar Ganguly did in round 1 against German teenager Emil Frederick Schuricht, who proved to be considerably stronger than his rating and slaughtered him on the dark squares!

Rated just 2145 before the tournament – though already 2227 in this month’s list, Shuricht went on to reach 4/6 with draws against two more grandmasters before the ever wily Manuel Bosboom defeated him in round 7. Schuricht then finished with ½/2 for a total of 5/9, but with a K-factor of 40, gained 115 rating points in this single tournament!

Talking of ferocious sprogs (children), many congratulations to 9-year-old Ethan Pang, who breasted the 2300 barrier (2303) in this month’s rating list!

The overall moral is to be extremely careful when playing with kids and if necessary try to win boringly and slowly rather than by exciting chess.

I’ll be back next month, on December 1^st.

Select an entry from the list to switch between games

Endgame essentials you need to know Vol.1 & Vol 2

In this video course, GM Surya Ganguly joins IM Sagar Shah and drawing from his colossal experience, shares some uncommon endgame wisdom. The material mostly features positions with rook against rook and a pawn, and starts by covering the fundamentals.

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