BCC $5 OPEN // CHESS FUN FOR THE WHOLE FAMILY // CHEAP // EXCITING // EASY // SATURDAY // DECEMBER 14TH // WEATHER FORECAST: PERFECT

BCC $5 OPEN

REGISTER EARLY FOR DISCOUNT: $5 OPEN THE FACTS

THIS TOURNAMENT IS PREFERRED

BY CHILDREN AND BEGINNERS 

OF ALL AGES

MARK YOUR CALENDAR:

THIS SATURDAY, DECEMBER 14TH, 2013

Play Round 1 at 10:00AM

or take a 1/2 point bye and start

tournament at 12:40 PM!

See you this Saturday!

PS

Thoughts to Ponder in preparation for 

the $5 Open:

A PIECE OF CHESS HISTORY:

A Legend on the Road: Bobby Fischer's 1964 Simul

Tour by IM John Donaldson, 2nd edition, 2005.

Milford CT: Russell Enterprises, Inc.

A great book! Why?

I bought this opus to cherish the name of Harold Dondis, the oldest BCC member, and former 

Massachusetts Chess Association President as well as a veteran chess journalist. I got Harold 

to autograph the place where his win against Bobby Fischer is featured on page 42,  and 

annotated, from  a simul in Fitchburg, MA held on March 2, 1964. Reading from material 

found in this section of the book, I found some ideas of Fischer's quoted from an interview 

with the American Champion, published on page 41: "Success at chess comes from 

a good memory, imagination, ability to concentrate, psychological insight

to figure how your opponent thinks, and most of all,

the will to win." This last thought of Bobby's stuck in my mind,

from a remark I made in commenting on my game with

Seth Lieberman, in last Saturday's Quads. This issue

of wanting to win is not as easy as it seems to

understand or to put in practice.

When you play chess with a friend, it is hard

to want to win, if winning is a sort of

"killing" or "destroying" your friend's game.

Sometimes, to be sure, drawing seems much more

appropriate, more friendly. What do you think?

Secondly, check this out:

Wonderboy: How Magnus Carlsen became the Youngest Chess Grandmaster

in the World, by GM Simen Agdestein, 2004. Alkmaar, The Netherlands: 

New in Chess. Translated from the Norwegian by GM Jonathan Tisdall.

 I purchased this book, and also Fighting Chess with Magnus Carlsen,

by GM Adrian Mikhalchishin and NM Oleg Stetsko (2011) in order

to better understand the nature and playing style of the now

FIDE World Chess Champion 2013.

Fighting Chess has great annotations, and brings forth a sense

of timing which Carlsen has perfected in a masterly way.

And, an insight I gleaned from Wonderboy is found on page 14:

"[At the age of 8] Magnus began to sit by himself and shuffle the pieces.

He could sit for hours moving the pieces, in known and unknown

patterns, finding combinations and repeating games or positions

that his father had shown him. In this way, [Magnus] developed

a good feeling for the patterns of movement of the individual pieces."

To me, this is a crucial insight: to play around with the pieces,

alone, in peace-and-quiet, no noise, no pressure, just

focusing on the fun you are having discovering the

possibilities of the position, the combinations which 

might win a piece or a pawn, or lead to checkmate.

I remember reading in Frank Brady's Endgame: Bobby Fischer's

Remarkable Rise and Fall, from America's Brightest Prodigy

to the Edge of Madness (New York: Random House, 2012)

describing how a young Bobby Fischer would sit for hours

playing himself, first from white's perspective, and then from

black's, to the point where he too was learning the

patterns the pieces described to make combinations, and

to the consternation of his mother who thought this

behavior a bit odd, at the very least, and perhaps

psychologically harmful at worst. Indeed, Regina Fischer

was so concerned, she began actively searching for a situation 

which would find Bobby a real, human opponent to

play chess with.  Well, in both Carlsen's and Fischer's case,

they started out as kids, not competing in chess events,

not assuming the role of warrior, of combatant, but,

rather more like an explorer or scientist on an adventure,

in the quiet of their own rooms, playing around with

the chess pieces, discovering patterns which lead to

combinations which win material or checkmate the other side.

So let's review the key ingredients in making a successful 

chess player: 1. the ability to focus, to maintain an attention span

on chess pieces dancing over the board, creating patterns,

much like that of dancers in a ballet. A good memory, or more

precisely, using the memory power you have and fine-tuning it

to remember relevant aspects of a chess position; familiar patterns:

chess tactics, like forks, discoveries, back-rank issues; overloaded

pieces etc. and the most intriguing point of chess which we often

forget: when your king is in check, you can't play another move;

you have to take your turn to get your king out of check before you

can go forward with your own checkmating plans!

So between now and Saturday, take some time to be by yourself

and play around with the pieces on the board, going over

patterns, both familiar and newly-discovered. Fine-tune your

focus to just pay attention to the chess, not to worry about anything else.

And when you come to the tournament and are sitting opposite your

opponent, think about him or her, how they behave, their posture,

their movements, and as the game proceeds, consider the moves they make,

whether aggressive or passive, or logical, and try to formulate a plan

which takes into consideration these psychological nuances of behavior.

And above all, when you are playing your game, screen out all 

extraneous noise or potential distractions; just concentrate on what is

going on: on the board, and on the face of your opponent.

RECALL DANCING PATTERNS

FOCUS WITH A TARGET

FEEL THE PULSE OF YOUR OPPONENT

SCREEN OUT ALL EXTRANEOUS DISTRATIONS

AND ABOVE ALL: DON'T PANIC!

SEE YOU THIS SATURDAY!