Thursday, May 31, 2007

"Of course . . ."

A quote from an intriguing video with GM Mihail Marin, at Chess Vibes:
After each game with Portisch, we didn't really have a post-mortem analysis. Actually our post-mortem just consisted of some short statements by Portisch, starting with the words: "Of course . . ."
And yesterday's interview with Jonathan Rowson featured much of interest too.

For instance:
The main, most interesting question is, Why is chess so difficult? That's may be the heart of the matter... Because, you know, we lose sight of that. If you've been playing for years, you forget that this is a ludicrously difficult game, and no matter how good you get at it, it remains difficult . . .
Personally, I feel reminded of that fact on an almost daily basis. By the way, the video also includes the message of Chess For Zebras in a nutshell. Practice concentration. Something I might rephrase as: simulate over-the-board conditions at home, but perhaps that's a different post.

Anyway. Just thought I'd let you know about these two, if you didn't already. Enjoy!

5 comments:

ejh said...

Sorry, what was that again?

Anonymous said...

C O N C E N T R A T E!

"Of course..." as in "Of course I could have won but chose to lose"?

I look forward to watching the videos when I switch to my home computer.

I'd recommend Mihail Merin's books, especially 'Learn from the Legends - Chess Champions at their Best' where he looks at a facet of play of each of a number of World Champions or near-World Champions. He's very good on desciptions.

Angus.

Tom Chivers said...

Portisch beat Marin three times with increasing ease - the "Of course"'s were things like: "Of course your move f2-f3 is terrible."

I liked the chessbase quick commentaries Marin did a while back now, and the video made me like him even more. The book sounds good, I think you showed it me during the Club Championship Angus.

Anonymous said...

"Chess champions at their best" - that's a quaint way to study chess. Surely looking at the appalling blunders of world champions is the way to go.

btw: I've just got broadband today and have finally been able to look at these videos online.

:-)

Tom Chivers said...

Have you read Kramnik's interview on his great predecessors (ie, those numbering one more than Kasparov's) Jonathan? In it he recommends studying chess historically, ie starting with Philidor and then seeing that the rest of the greats added. He said Greco was too basic - the A,B,C - but even Greco I have found revelatory in a few cases. I am not on to Philidor yet...

Enjoy broadband!