Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Master lecture: GM-elect Sam Shankland - Mar 16



GM-elect Sam Shankland spoke with an appreciative audience of 19 chess players about reaction to adverse situations.



He worked through two games - one in which he faltered after making mistakes, and the second, against GM Jaan Ehlvest, one of the top players in the world, in which he dug in and redoubled his efforts to find a win. Both were fascinating examples of the importance of maturity and psychological toughness in high level games. If one faces a setup back, and then can overcome the disappointment and self-anger, it is often possible to save a point.




His analysis was fluid and creative and he engaged the audience very naturally to find candidate plans and defenses, if not the complete calculations -- which he himself in long thinks over the board did "to the end of the game" from various middle game positions.






After the talk, he played 6 people (including the host and organizer, BCC president Jason Rihel) in a game/20 simul. Past presidents Vigorito and McIntyre enjoyed the talk also.








Rihel said...

For the record, Sam went 5.5 out of 6. Max Lu took a draw after Sam made an early pawn blunder. Max probably should have played for a win, but getting a draw was probably too tempting.

I was crushed in a miniature.

1 comment:

Rihel said...

For the record, Sam went 5.5 out of 6. Max Lu took a draw after Sam made an early pawn blunder. Max probably should have played for a win, but getting a draw was probably too tempting.

I was crushed in a miniature.