A Sign of the Chess Times

[Peter McKillop]

From time to time, like many of you probably, I like to download publishers' pdf excerpts from recently published books to see if anything grabs my attention. Quality Chess recently issued two huge books on the KID by GM Gawain Jones; 1300+ pages in total. Jones made this humourous (to me) comment: "The complete repertoire ended up being quite large, but I hope after working through it you’ll agree with me that Black’s play is quite logical, making it easier to remember." Right! You know what? It's good to be a chess hack and not have to worry about remembering 1,300 pages of theory!

[Brad Thomson]

There exists an eight volume, over 10,000 page, biography of Winston Churchill. I have memorized the first five volumes thus far. :) The next two volumes deal with WWII, but Churchill himself wrote five full volumes on this subject and these too I have memorized. The five volumes that Churchill wrote on the subject of WWI I have not yet committed to memory, but plan to do so if I should live so long. Then I will memorize the book Peter mentions.

[Tony Ficzere]

Has anyone seen my car keys?

[Peter McKillop]

There exists an eight volume, over 10,000 page, biography of Winston Churchill. I have memorized the first five volumes thus far. :) The next two volumes deal with WWII, but Churchill himself wrote five full volumes on this subject and these too I have memorized. The five volumes that Churchill wrote on the subject of WWI I have not yet committed to memory, but plan to do so if I should live so long. Then I will memorize the book Peter mentions.

LOL!! ......

[Peter McKillop]

Has anyone seen my car keys?

And did I feed the cat this morning....? :)

[Tony Ficzere]

Oh yeah, I have a cat too. Oops

[Brad Thomson]

Has anyone seen my car keys?

You left them on the front desk at the old CFC office in Ottawa on June 16, 1994 at 2:21pm. Black Hole Sun was playing on the radio at the time.
Soundgarden - Black Hole Sun - YouTube

[Tony Ficzere]

Thanks Brad. I was worried I'd never find them :)

[Hans Jung]

I am sure I'll encounter some young chess player in the near future who will say - oh yes I have memorized Jones KID. On the other hand are young chess players even reading any kind of chess book these days? I guess its database memorization if its anything.

[Brad Thomson]

Yes, books are too slow for the modern players. We old folk still like them however.

[Peter McKillop]

I am sure I'll encounter some young chess player in the near future who will say - oh yes I have memorized Jones KID. On the other hand are young chess players even reading any kind of chess book these days? I guess its database memorization if its anything.

I wonder if anyone has a sense of where the point of diminishing returns is? How much additional memorization occurred to generate those last 10 rating points?

[Vlad Drkulec]

I still buy books for the explanations occasionally but playing over games from GM players is definitely a must. Watching a video with a great presenter is also good. You will remember it much better than those multi-thousand page multi-volume books.

I tried the Caro-Kann without having learned the theory. I even played it against some of my former students who were higher rated than me including one who played the opening all his life. My final record with black was 5 wins and two draws which is quite good. However, I was totally busted and lost in about five of the games and had unsatisfactory positions in the other two. I put it on the shelf until I had time to learn the theory. I did eventually learn the theory later but haven't had time to use it other than in training games and would have to do a careful review before playing it in tournaments again.

Sometimes not knowing the theory can be an advantage as you can find moves that maybe throw your opponent off and are objectively as playable as the recommended moves from theory.

For beginning chess players I used to give them the Exeter Chess Club opening rules and this was all the opening theory they would need probably until they hit 1800.

I remember one of my students was hit with the Albin Counter Gambit and she reasoned her way through the opening having never seen it before and managed to play 16 moves of theory based just on following opening principles and in fact achieved a winning position against another young girl who was a perennial top three finisher at CYCC.

The funny thing about opening prep against young players is that they can be thrown off by you not knowing the theory. In training games I am often asked to play certain openings and occasionally reach back into my memory of forty or fifty years ago such as when playing against some of the anti-Sicilians like the Alapin.

One of the youngsters that I work with was also being coached by a well known titled player from Canada - also a young man - and my student related what this player said about my opening prep which was words to the effect, "How can someone play an opening without knowing the theory???" In that case I was relying on theory from the 1970's first seen in Ken Smith's pamphlet Smith-Morra Gambit declined which I used to play in high school. Other lines are more fashionable today but it seems to me that the moves recommended back then are still playable.

I find that the best policy is to play as much as you can and just make sure you understand why you lost every game. I have lost training games, learned from my mistakes and then won the next five or ten times when faced with the same opening. Also learning from your mistakes might also be transferable to other instances when facing an unfamiliar opening. Follow opening principles and get your king to safety particularly when playing black is a must. Don't be tempted by the stinky bait while your king is unsafe.

[Hans Jung]

I remember vaguely back in the day that my mind had no limits and my memory had no limits. Now I wish I could get some of that stuff out of my head.

[Hans Jung]

Yes, books are too slow for the modern players. We old folk still like them however.

I would go as far as to say "we old folk still love them however". (agree 110% - even if thats illogical)

[Brad Thomson]

I would go as far as to say "we old folk still love them however". (agree 110% - even if thats illogical)

The chess book I go to most is Nick's Best, with the signature of the author on the title page. It is easily readable (the autograph I mean), as opposed to some signatures that are difficult to decipher. Other than this book I like to physically pull out and read/study from Nunn's three volumes on the endgame. I would have no interest in flipping through these pages on a computer screen looking at a 2D board. A large part of the joy is feeling the wood, moving it around, positioning the book and so forth. Not to mention having a cat move in and deliberately topple pieces. Even when watching the events online such as Tata, I keep my best set in front of me following a game of choice and spend most of my time looking at the real board rather than the computer. I tend only to watch the screen if Svidler and others are discussing my specific game of choice. My eyes do not like screens on computers or televisions unless absolutely necessary.