|
< Earlier Kibitzing · PAGE 88 OF 88 ·
Later Kibitzing > |
| Apr-09-08 |
| The Rocket: Ok so apparently my definition of a closed game is different from what the chess books say. I stand corrected. Strange because I find Ruy lopez closed variation(and every other variation apart from exchange variation) to not fit my style at all with white, But I love playing as white all of the queens pawn openings(including Qgambit declined),for some reason I feel the position is aloth more easy to calculate. I guess I prefer closed games then. |
 |
Apr-09-08
 |
| keypusher: <The Rocket> As I sort of admitted in my post, this attempt to divide openings into open and closed types doesn't really work -- that's why it was eventually abandoned. FWIW, I think Capablanca was great in every kind of position, open, closed or in between, and I agree with you that it's amazing that Alekhine managed to beat him in 1927. |
 |
Apr-09-08
 |
| Ziggurat: <Of course it's possible that "memory" is not so much a general aptitude as a task-dependent skill.> Could be. Also, neuroscience recognizes different types of memory. Blindfold chess (and just calculating in chess in general) uses mostly what is known as working memory. Learning opening lines would be long-term memory. A good working memory need not imply a good long term memory and vice versa. Of course elite chess players are probably almost always strong in both. |
 |
Apr-10-08
 |
| brankat: Quote of the Day, April/10/2008:
"Chess is a game of understanding and not of memory." --- Znosko-Borovsky
You could have heard the same thought expressed (explicitly or implicitly) by the likes of Morphy, Steinitz, Lasker, Capablanca, Alekhine, Rubinstein, Botvinnik, Smyslov, Tal, Fischer etc. Incidentally, they were all endowed with a brilliant capacity to memorize.
I would assume they knew the relative importance of the two closely related elements. |
 |
| Apr-10-08 |
| JuliusCaesar: Yes keypusher, I, too, find it remarkable that Alekhine beat Capablanca in 1927. I think he simply wore him down. Supremely talented, Capablanca was probably unused to exerting himself. Unfortunately for him, that was precisely what was required to win this match. FWIW, I think this was the real reason why Fischer didn't want to play Karpov. He knew that beating him would require a huge effort, and he was done with making huge efforts on the chessboard -:) You could say he learned from Capablanca's mistake. |
 |
Apr-10-08
 |
| pavi: Alekhine was a genius at openings. |
 |
| Apr-10-08 |
| Komapsimnita: <brankat> Out of the names listed in your above post, do you know how many were multi/bi-lingual? I've read bits about famous chess players, and I am amazed at how many of them could speak multiple lanuages. I read chancho's link, and it claimed Alekhine could speak 10 lanuages at the time of his death-does this bolster the arguement about his amazing memory, or is lanuage a different set of skills? |
 |
Apr-10-08
 |
| keypusher: <brankat Quote of the Day, April/10/2008: "Chess is a game of understanding and not of memory." --- Znosko-Borovsky
You could have heard the same thought expressed (explicitly or implicitly) by the likes of Morphy, Steinitz, Lasker, Capablanca, Alekhine, Rubinstein, Botvinnik, Smyslov, Tal, Fischer etc. Incidentally, they were all endowed with a brilliant capacity to memorize. I would assume they knew the relative importance of the two closely related elements.> My memory is very good (though certainly not to be compared to Morphy's or Pillsbury's, say), and I am a poor chessplayer. So no one knows better than I do that memory is not enough. But I still think a first-rate memory is necessary, though not sufficient, for chess mastery. <Komapsimnita: <brankat> Out of the names listed in your above post, do you know how many were multi/bi-lingual? I've read bits about famous chess players, and I am amazed at how many of them could speak multiple lanuages. I read chancho's link, and it claimed Alekhine could speak 10 lanuages at the time of his death-does this bolster the arguement about his amazing memory, or is lanuage a different set of skills?> Robert Huebner has an astonishing faculty for languages -- I think he learned to speak fluent Dutch in a few weeks. Not sure if it is a chess characteristic -- for every Alekhine or Huebner there is a Bogoljubov, whose only English word was "beer," supposedly. In general the ability to pick up an extra language or two doesn't impress me much -- you just have to work at it. And of course chess masters are regularly exposed to multiple languages. But if someone can speak 10 languages, that's pretty damn impressive. |
 |
| Apr-13-08 |
| Nikita Smirnov: He's got more of an french dialect rather than russian.But some russian dialect stays.
But his voice reminds a bit of Peter Ustinovs. |
 |
Apr-13-08
 |
| Ziggurat: <Chess is a game of understanding and not of memory."> I would say that understanding is mostly a kind of memory, namely, implicit memory. This is assuming that "understanding" is typically derived from playing through a lot of games and internalizing patterns and tendencies in them. Maybe it could be argued that some people (Capablanca, Morphy, Reshevsky etc) had such intrinsic facility in grasping the principles of chess that they didn't need to look at or play as many games as others to master the game. |
 |
| Apr-13-08 |
| tud: <Robert Huebner has an astonishing faculty for languages -- I think he learned to speak fluent Dutch in a few weeks> I believe Dutch and German are almost as close as Romanian and Italian. This does not mean anything less then full respect for Huebner. |
 |
Apr-18-08
 |
| brankat: <Komapsimnita> Some of the well known multilingual masters (other than Alekhine) that I know of: Reti, Tartakower, Nimzowitsch, Lasker (not a 100% sure), Vidmar, Najdorf (7), Gligoric (6), Geller. I'm pretty sure there have been others.
Generally, when You learn 1 foreign language well, it is then considerably easier to learn another one, and so on. Especially the ones belonging to the same group of languages. |
 |
| Apr-20-08 |
| MichAdams: Alekhine in training for his 1935 match with Euwe:
http://chesshistory.com/winter/pics... |
 |
Apr-21-08
 |
| brankat: No wonder the preparation showed during the Match. But, he turned out be quite versatile, too. His dietary part of preparation for 1937 Match consisted mostly of Milk. And, again he was well prepared. |
 |
| Apr-21-08 |
| Komapsimnita: <Key pusher and Brankat> Thanks for the info. <for every Alekhine or Huebner there is a Bogoljubov, whose only English word was "beer," supposedly.> :) That's a chess mind at action there - work out what it is you want to acheive, then make a plan of action to acheive it. Final output-learnt to say beer. |
 |
Apr-21-08
 |
| chancho: I'm guessing that's Menchik playing Maroczy and the incredible Mr A playing Sultan Khan. http://www.chesshistory.com/winter/... |
 |
Apr-21-08
 |
| chancho: Alekhine as a teen: http://www.alekhinechess.com/englis... |
 |
Apr-22-08
 |
| whiteshark: <keypusher>, <tud>: <Robert Huebner has an astonishing faculty for languages -- I think he learned to speak fluent Dutch in a few weeks <>> It is said that he learned Finnish within weeks as GM Heikki M J Westerinen was a good friend of him (can't remember if they were 'Porz' team mates in '70/'80). I've heard that even native Finnish have difficulties to learn it proper in a lifetime. (just joking) :D |
 |
Apr-23-08
 |
| brankat: <whiteshark> This is one of those rare times I don't believe You're joking :-) |
 |
Apr-23-08
 |
| keypusher: Another very weighty opinion against my view that a first-rate memory is necessary to be a chess master: <Nigel Short: <The rocket> I am not quite sure what a "fenomal" memory is. However, one does not need a phenomenal memory, if that is what you are asking.> |
 |
Apr-23-08
 |
| Karpova: <keypusher>
You might already know this one but I'll quote it anyway:Capablanca: <‘I am always being asked, What kind of a brain must a chess champion possess? What qualities are essential? What relation is there between chess and other mental activities? What about Englishmen? etc. To begin with, I can only say that I have today a rather poor memory, though as a child I could remember anything with ease. My record is to have repeated, when a small boy, three pages of history after I had read them once, without missing a single word. But as I have grown older – in fact since I became a first-class chess player – I have always tried to forget everything which I have not considered essential to remember, and I have succeeded so well in my training that I now have difficulty in remembering things in general. It so happens, now, that while there are several experts who remember every serious game I have played in the last 22 years, I can hardly remember a single one of them. A game played today I may hazily keep in my head for a few weeks, but after that it is gone forever. No doubt my present poor memory is a cultivated one. I have been influenced to adopt this system in order to avoid loss of sleep after a hard struggle at night. Thus I can go to sleep right after a game, whether I win or lose, and one hour after a long, strenuous, simultaneous séance against any number of opponents I may be found peacefully sleeping in my bed.> Article by Capablanca entitled ‘Chess’ published on pages 459-462 of the English Review, November 1922 http://www.chesshistory.com/winter/... |
 |
Apr-23-08
 |
| keypusher: <karpova> No, I did not know that. Very interesting, and a little reminiscent of a Lasker quote <brankat> told me. <"Of my 57 years, I’ve applied at least 30 to forgetting most of what I've learned or read, and since I succeeded in this I have acquired a certain ease and cheer which I should never again like to be without.If need be, I can increase my skill in chess, if need be, I can do that of which I have no idea at present. I have stored little in my memory, but I can apply that little, and it is of good use in many and varied emergencies. I keep it in order, but resist every attempt to increase its dead weight."> |
 |
Apr-23-08
 |
| keypusher: Not to mention Philip Larkin:
The Winter Palace
Most people know more as they get older:
I give all that the cold shoulder.
I spent my second quarter-century
Losing what I had learnt at university
And refusing to take in what had happened since.
Now I know none of the names in the public prints,
And am starting to give offence by forgetting faces
And swearing I’ve never been in certain places.
It will be worth it, if in the end I manage
To blank out whatever it is that is doing the damage. Then there will be nothing I know
My mind will fold into itself, like fields, like snow. |
 |
| Apr-23-08 |
| wrap99: Is the question about blindfold play, does the player have to know where each piece is? If that is the question, the answer is without a doubt, yes. How could it be otherwise? What if in a non-blindfold game u mistakenly believed any piece was on a square other than the one it was? |
 |
Apr-23-08
 |
| brankat: <keypusher> This is in just case You have not seen/read this old interview of Capa. In it Capa deals mostly with the concept/notion of "judgment" in chess. I often use this word, and "understanding" interchangeably. I'm sure You'll find it interesting. It was <Karpova> that provided the link at Keres page a few months ago: http://www.chesshistory.com/winter/... |
 |
 |
|
< Earlier Kibitzing · PAGE 88 OF 88 ·
Later Kibitzing > |
|
 |
|