Hi Alfred,
One question I hear a lot is “how can I beat strong players? Players that don’t make tactical mistakes?”
This is a serious point, every improver will reach the stage where wins are tougher to come by. Most players try to progress by doing more of what got them to where they are. They train tactics more intensively, memorize the Sicilian a few moves deeper.
But there is a better way, one beautifully demonstrated by Bobby Fischer.
Bobby burst on to the national chess scene with his spectacular “Game of the Century” win aged just 13. This brilliancy got him an invite to the US Championships. What few know is Bobby only scored 4 ½/11 in that tournament. His USCF rating was just 1726.
Bobby knew he needed more than his tactical ability to win against the best players in the country. He sought out the games of Capablanca, Steinitz and Morphy to study, impressed by their ability to outplay their opponents even from level positions. What he learned transformed him as a player…
At the 1958 US Championships he destroyed the field - 8 wins, 5 draws, no losses - to become the youngest ever national champion by a clear point. His next published USCF rating: 2626!
This is the answer to the question. If you want to outplay even the strongest players then you need to do what they’re not doing: master positional chess.
Yury Markushin
No comments:
Post a Comment