Monthly Archives: August 2022

by ChessBase Shop - 25/08/2022

For some time now, weve known that the strongest chess engines like to push their flank pawns up the board. This has led to an interesting system, with which we can meet the Grunfeld and the Kings Indian. Studying the mainlines is time consuming, and it is possible that our opponents may know the typical plans in those openings better than us, right? Therefore, it is a great idea to take Grunfeld and Kings Indian players out of their comfort-zone right from the start! Pushing the h-pawn is not a new idea generated by the computers. Now you can learn and edify yourself by Dutch GM and FIDE Trainer, Sipke Ernst on utilizing the 3.h4 ideas in the King's Indian and Grunfeld. Photo: ChessBase

Lets go 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 first and now play 3.h4!?, following in the footsteps of Topalov, who unleashed it against Giri in the candidates tournament of 2016.

Since then, numerous games have been played with 3.h4 by the likes of Carlsen, Caruana, Ding and others. After the surprise, Grunfeld players will find it difficult to strike in the centre with their typical ...d5 followed by ...c5 as it is very hard to ignore whites push on the h-file.

Also, the Kings Indian players will find that their usual attacking ideas on the kingside dont work anymore and will have to resort to other ways of finding counterplay.

Video running time: 4 hours (English)

With interactive training including video feedback

Extra: Model games database & Training with ChessBase apps - Memorize the opening repertoire and play key positions against Fritz on various levels

Meet the Fritztrainer- GM FT Sipke Ernst | Video: ChessBase

Minimum: Dual Core, 2 GB RAM, Windows 7, DirectX 11 graphic card with 256 MB RAM, Windows Media Player 9, ChessBase 14/Fritz 16 or included Reader and internet access for program activation.

Recommended: PC Intel i5 (Quadcore), 4 GB RAM, Windows 10, DirectX 10 graphics card with 512 MB RAM or more, 100% DirectX10-compatible sound card, Windows Media Player 11 and internet access for program activation.

Mac OSX

Minimum: MacOS "Yosemite" 10.10

GM Sipke Ernst is a Grandmaster and FIDE Trainer who has been a member of the Dutch National Team. His peak Elo is 2606.

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New: 3.h4 against the Kings Indian and Grnfeld - ChessBase India

Express News Service

The Thiruvallur District Chess Association is one of the better-run institutions affiliated with the Tamil Nadu State Chess Association. It regularly organises tournaments for various age groups and scores of children have benefitted from this initiative. One such girl who has shown flair for chess is 15-year-old Tejaswini G of Velammal School.

The up-and-coming chess player is touted to be the most talented one from the Thiruvallur district. She recently won the first prize in the Thiruvallur District Olympiad selection tournament and got a chance to visit the Chess Olympiad and see some of the finest chess players of the world in action.

I was so happy that I got a chance to visit great players of the world, especially Magnus Carlsen, the current world chess champion. Watching some of the best players in action in a premier gave me a lot of inspiration. Surely the experience will come in handy and help me improve my game, said Tejaswini.Hobby turns passion

Tejaswini started playing chess five years ago and in a short span of time has begun making a mark.

I started playing chess when I was 10 years old. I had an immense interest in playing chess, and that turned into a passion. The wins against my friends at school made me take chess seriously. I worked on my game and won gold medals in the standard and rapid western Asian U-12 Girls Chess Championship in 2019. In Commonwealth 2019, U-12 girls event, I bagged a silver medal. In the SGFI U-14 girls event in 2019, I secured a gold medal, recalled the student of coaches Surendran, Sekar and Lokesh at Viyugam Chess Academy.

Surendran believes that Tejaswini has the potential to become a Grand Master, but wants her to work harder in order to go through the grind.

Tejaswini is very strong; she is managing studies and chess well. She is only able to spend half the time that other players put in, but is equally strong. Whatever work we give her, she completes it despite her hectic schedule. She needs to practise more. As of now its ok, but when she is competing with the best, it wont be enough, he said.

Tejaswini is one of the few players who play online chess with ease and also uses technology to upgrade her game.

I like online chess and I won first prize in the Under-14 girls online National Chess Championship and U-16 girls Online State Championship in 2021. I also use (chess) engines sometimes to prepare for the tournament, she shared.

Medals galore

This year, she won a bronze medal in the U-17 Girls National Championship and the fourth prize in the U-19 Girls National Chess Championship. The bronze medal helped me get selected for the Asian and World U-18 Chess Championship. The dates of these tournaments are yet to be announced, said Tejaswini.

Like any other chess player, she too idolises five-time world champion Vishwanathan Anand and hopes that the legend in his new role as FIDE vice president will do a lot for world chess, particularly for women.

Tejaswini has her goals set to become a world chess champion. But, studies come first. Playing chess helps me be good at studies too. My principal Velmurugan sir and my teachers and headmasters help me a lot in academics and support my chess career also. I scored 489/500 in my class 10 board exams, said Tejaswini, who will be seen in action in the U-15 Girls State Championship to be held in Aruppukottai from September 7 to 11 and the U-15 Girls National Championship in New Delhi from November 7 to 16.

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A bright chess champ emerges from Thiruvallur - The New Indian Express

GM Vishnu Prasanna is India's 33rd grandmaster. He has worked as a second to GM Baskaran Adhibanand has also coached many chess players since 2016 including GM Surya Shekhar Ganguly. India's second-highest-rated player, GM Gukesh D, is also his student and they have been working together for the last five years.

In this interview, Chess.com India talked with Vishnu about his coaching career as well as Gukesh's chess journey. The interview was conducted via a video call, and text has been edited for clarity or length.

Chess.com India: When did you start playing chess?

Vishnu Prasanna: (Laughs.) That was ages ago, maybe two decades ago. When I was about twelve years old, I joined the Solar Chess Club in Mylapore. My father taught me the initial moves.

When you were growing up as a player, did you have a role model or favorite players?

I was very much into cricket. So, my mother made me play chess because of GM Vishy Anand! He had won the FIDE World Cup in 2000 in Delhi at that time. I started chess because of Vishy and that's how it is for a lot of players in India. He is somebody I looked up to. Coming to favorite players, it keeps changing. My favorite player at that time was GM Garry Kasparov because of the literature I could read. Kasparov's books were the only accessible literature for me. I would say that Kasparov and Anand were huge influences. Currently, I feel that the favorite player keeps changing.

When and how did you enter the coaching field?

I started coaching somewhere between 2015 and 2016. In the beginning, it was just a way to support myself financially. It turned out that I have a knack for ita talent for it, I guess! In a way, I was always studying chess a lot. Teaching also helped me to put those things into thoughts, thoughts into words, and words that I could share with others.

One of my early students was IM Sidhant Mohopatra from Orissa. He was the first student who became a titled player. After that, a lot of people started asking me for training, and I continued coaching players.

Did you have a role model as a trainer?

No, not really. You can say that I was using my own mistakes to train. This is something that I learned through my mentorSrikanth Govind. It is a little bit about Bruce Lee's philosophy. Not teaching anything very specific but working with the individual.

Did you pursue coaching full-time, or did you combine it with your own tournaments?

It was never a plan to do only coaching. I always enjoy playing, and I'm still continuing to play. Most of my training is also very practical. Playing also helps me to stay in touch. I don't think I will ever stop playing.

Coming to the news of the hour: Gukesh! When did you first realize that Gukesh was special?

He had a very fine positional sense from early on. Our first group camp was in June 2017, and we had individual sessions in the next month. Two months later, Gukesh scored his first IM norm and also became an IM very soon after. We had early successes, and I felt that he was not an average kid for sure. You can never say how fast anyone is going to growthere are stumbles and things that could go wrong at any moment. I knew that he was very strong. For an 11-year-old, some of the moves he suggested were very difficult, and that was something.

Could you give an example or an instance from those early years that made an impression on you?

He was very positionally sound. He played in the center much more than most people I know. I come from a street chess/aggressive kind of school, but the boy was very sound. For instance, we looked at this classic game between Krogius and Smyslov. You expect Black to display some kind of aggression in the position and win the game through an attack, but Smyslov remains super patient with his play and slowly outplays his opponent. Special mention to the move: 20...Rfc8.

This move was quite natural to Gukesh at that point in time. Even as a player, it was not natural to me. So yeah, a lot of things like that. He obviously had weaknesses also, but these were anomalies. 20...Rfc8 is not what most 11-year-olds would spot in that position. They are more likely to spot ideas connected with tactics or tricks.

You were with Gukesh when he was rated 2200. You are now with Gukesh as he is 2700+. Can you review the critical moments of this journey from your perspective?

It is hard to pinpoint everything, but I'll share whatever I remember off the top of my head. The first big thing was his GM norm that he got at the Bangkok Open in Thailand which he got with a little bit of luck. He got lucky in his game against GM Nigel Short. It was not a clean win, but you need luck like that. It sometimes means that fate is helping you even when you are not ready. This was a big moment for him. Gukesh thought: "Maybe, I can become a GM very quickly."

Throughout that year, he kept working and made his remaining GM norms. He made his final GM norm in Delhi. Chasing the records plays on your mind, and Gukesh was fairly upset that he could not finish the final norm in Spain. He had an opportunity to do it there, but he eventually did it 17 days later in Delhi.

There were failures and disappointments, but his understanding improved from those experiences. He was struggling a little bit in a certain sense while he was between 2570-2580, but he was anyway strong, and so he continued to climb. I think that he was still making some practical decisions that could have been easily avoided. He managed to reduce unforced errors.

One of the recent critical moments for me was his performance in Armenia. He was playing really well and had climbed to 2640. Then he played two bad tournaments and came down to 2614. We decided that we had to regroup and do something serious in order to cross 2700. Actually, I thought he was ready and felt that if he maintained consistency, he would break the 2700 barrier. After Armenia, he knew he had to be consistent. He understood that losing a game at this level is a fairly expensive endeavor. So, he tried to focus on that aspect, and he has been doing brilliantly over the last few months. No complaints!

Do you set the goals, or does Gukesh set them on his own?

Gukesh decides for himself. I just say that it's a long journey anyway and ask him not to overestimate anything and keep his head in the zone. He is reacting to goals better. I think he responded much better to the 2700 goal, and he definitely didn't slow down there, which is always good.

What do you have to say about the strategy of playing in many open events in a row?

I think the strategy depends on the player. Everybody eats according to their appetite. So, that's something we also discussed. When he was very young, his appetite was higher. It still remains much higher than an average player, I guess. He still likes to play a lot. So, there's no need to argue with that or fight against that. I think if he can maintain that level, he can play a lot. There's nothing wrong with that.

What tournaments will Gukesh play after the Turkish League? (Gukesh is currently playing in the Turkish league.)

He will play in the Spanish League and the European Club Cup. If he is invited to play in the Tata Steel Chess India Rapid and Blitz (in Kolkata), he will play there, or he will play in the World Rapid and Blitz event.

So, that's a busy schedule ahead?

Yeah, definitely. Nowadays, it is very different compared to five years ago. The value of preparation and stuff like that... you can only do so much by sitting at home. Everything changes too fast. So, if you have the energy and appetite, you play.

You mentioned that you were expecting Gukesh to make the climb to 2700. So, you were not surprised by his progress in the last three months?

No, not at all. I was not surprised until the Olympiad. (Smiles.) Everything was fairly normal to me, and I thought that we were headed in the right direction.

How many hours does Gukesh practice chess?

We have never discussed such things. When the interest is there, you don't have to really worry about such things. I think most of the day is spent on chess. It is not just the physical hours he is sitting on the board. He is always thinking about how he can improve, and that's very powerful.

Gukesh didn't use an engine to help him prepare until he reached 2550. Was this a mutual decision or your approach?I told him that it is an idea he can pursue, and he is the only one who pursued my recommendation. I gave the recommendation as an idea. At the FM level, I thought it doesn't matter so mucheven at the GM level. There will always be many mistakes in the game. So I asked him to play for that and asked him to work on other things.

So, you are saying that he would analyze all the games and the mistakes on his own without help in checking the evaluations?

Yes! Just like the old times. Nothing new. Just like chess 15 years ago! I thought it would help him develop his own thinking process and would sharpen him faster.

Did you also use this idea in your own experience?

Yeah. I have tried not to use engines for most of the time in my life.

Gukesh had a few second-place finishes. How did you motivate him to win events after that?

That's not how we work. I believe that everything should come from the selfdiscipline or motivation. We always discussed that only number one matters. It has to be intrinsic, and that's how it has been for Gukesh. I think he is always keen on finishing first wherever he plays.

Shifting now to the 44th Chess Olympiad, did you speak to Gukesh after his soul-crushing loss to GM Abdusattarov Nodirbek?

I was not present at the venue, so I left him a message: such things happen in chess too. I think he has been there before, and this is not his first soul-crushing loss. So, I just left a message and I don't know if he even saw it.

He likes to be in his own zone during the event. So, I don't interfere with that. Vishy Anand had a long talk with him, trying to console him, and Gukesh even played the last round. I wasn't sure about that. When I saw the pairings, I thought, OK, he should be fine.

Where do you see Gukesh one year from now?

I don't really know yet, but I think he will still keep going forward. I don't know how far, but he will keep going in the next year. If he gets the opportunity to play with elite players, he will be up to it.

If you had to attribute the number-one skill to Gukeshs success, what would that be?His tremendous appetite for chessfor both studying and playing chess. I think that kind of appetite is absolutely necessary for what he has done.

Congrats on becoming a father recently. How has that changed you as a person and a coach?

As a coach, I don't know. As a person, you become more patient and become more aware of the little things. You pay more attention; it's a treat. There's nothing to complain about, and it's been a wonderful experience.

Regarding coaching, I have been mostly not doing much. I've only been in touch with Gukesh. I am heading an academy in Sivakasi and my own academy in Chennai. The academy at Sivakasi is set by the Hatsun company. I am the head coach there and have been managing the coaching for them. Personal training, well it is just Gukesh right now. I have been training with other players on and off, but not as much as I used to.

How do you upgrade your skills as a coach these days?

Through experience and interaction with others. When you meet a lot of people, you can see that they are also different. What worked for one person may not work for another. You try to see how else can you make the other player think or how else can you question them or how else can you prompt them to research. I think about the tools that don't exist but could exist and try to bridge that gap through the selection of positions, games etc. I think about what's missing between players of two levels. I'm usually on the lookout for such things. You can see that sometimes there's a pattern there, but most people don't see the same thing or most people could miss the same idea or most people of the same level could miss the same idea.

What are some recommendations you have for aspiring coaches?

That's a hard question! (laughs). Okay, they could start with Jonathan Rowson's books: Seven Deadly Chess Sins and Chess for Zebras. One of the books that had a huge influence on my chess understanding and chess coaching is Lasker's Manual Of Chess. It is a very deep book and one of the best chess books I've ever read, especially the part on positional play. Lasker explains how Steinitz came up with his theories and he also shares his arguments for and against those theories. I would also add GM Boris Gelfand's books.

As a coach, you have to look outside of chess also. Try to come up with your own training philosophy and work with that. The best way to train somebody is according to their belief system rather than yours. You help the student find their own compass and own parameters and assist them with that. Also, my belief is that the student is always a little bit smarter. So, I start from there. It is not always the case, but we have to start from there in my opinion.

Thank you for your time. We wish you the best in all your endeavors!

Thank you for having me. Nice to have this chat!

Special thanks to IM Rakesh Kulkarni for helping with the interview.

Here is the original post:

Interviewing The Coach Of Olympiad Sensation Gukesh - Chess.com

One psychiatrist considers the advantages of virtual psychiatric treatment for both patients and clinicians.

COMMENTARY

Outpatient psychiatry went online in early 2020 at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Over the next 2 years, there were robust discussions about whether virtual psychiatric treatment was effective, whether it was as effective as in-person treatment, whether it was more effective for some patients than for others, and finally, whether psychiatrists and their patients would be returning to the office when the pandemic was over. My comments about each of these considerations will be based on my own experiences as an outpatient psychiatrist and having followed and participated in online discussions about this topic. I will end with a couple of predictions.

The Effectiveness of Virtual Psychiatry

Virtual psychiatric treatment was accepted as valid and effective soon after the invention of the telephone (patented in 1876 by Alexander Graham Bell1) at the beginning of the 20th century. Psychotherapy was conducted by phone when face-to-face treatment was not possible. Even before COVID-19, psychiatrists were treating patients by phone and on audio-visual platforms as a routine part of their outpatient practice. This most often occurred with patients who were too physically ill to come to the office (although home visits took place as well), when patients were out of town on work travel or on vacation, and when patients had relocated out of state but wanted to maintain their therapeutic relationship with their psychiatrist.

The Chinese American Psychoanalytic Alliance (CAPA) has been providing virtual teaching, treatment, and supervision for more than 20 years by hundreds of English-speaking psychotherapists stationed in the United States, Canada, Central and South America, and Europe to English-proficient Chinese mental health professionals in Mainland China. It was begun by New York psychoanalyst and psychiatrist Elise Snyder, MD.2 Many CAPA students have graduated from CAPA training programs and have since become teachers and mental health leaders in China. I participated as a voluntary psychotherapist and teacher with CAPA from 2000 to 2010.

The Effectiveness of Virtual vs In-Person Psychiatry

I am reminded of the folk song John Henry in which John Henry, a steel-driving man, competed with a steam drill to crush rocks used in the construction of railroad tracks. In the song, John Henry lost the competition and died with his hammer in his hand. One moral of this song (there are several) is that technological progress will eventually win the day. There have been similar competitions between the horse and the automobile and between grandmaster chess champions and super computers. Such an analogy can now be made between in-person and virtual psychiatry.

Older psychiatrists (and patients) who did not grow up with the internet and social media are quick to point out the advantages of in-person psychiatry. They have said meeting in person enhances the doctor-patient relationship, allows for greater observation of body language, provides a fuller sensorial experience on both sides, gives patients an opportunity to mentally prepare forand to decompress aftertheir in-person office appointments, etc. I will argue that, just as the horse and buggy gave way to the automobile, virtual psychiatry will remain the treatment modality of choice after the COVID-19 pandemic ends.

Is Virtual Psychiatry More Effective for Some Patients Than for Others?

This question probably cannot be definitively answered because of the difficulties in conducting the necessary double-blind, placebo-controlled study. We can, however, imagine that for certain diagnostic groups, one modality might be more effective than another. For example, a patient with extreme agoraphobia who is afraid of leaving their home might only benefit from virtual psychiatric treatment. A patient without a telephone or internet service would only benefit from in-person treatment. A patient with severe social phobia or autism might strongly prefer (and be able to benefit from) virtual treatment.

In the future, as younger generations of patients increasingly do more of their communication on virtual platforms (social media, other audio-visual platforms, text messaging, etc), they will be supremely comfortable being treated virtually. The same can be said for younger generations of psychiatrists who will have grown up using virtual communication modalities.

My Experience

Over the past 2-and-a-half years of the pandemic, I have worked virtually with all my patients. I meet with, on average, 8 patients a day, 4 days a week, in 45-minute psychotherapy appointments on Zoom, FaceTime, or Google Duo. I recently decided to close my brick-and-mortar medical office (after 40 years) and establish a 100% virtual practice from my home.

Perhaps because my patients are so used to meeting with me on a virtual platform that, after I announced I would not be returning in-person to my downtown office, none of them dropped out of treatment. When there are connectivity issues, these interruptions become grist for the psychotherapeutic mill. I sometimes mix and match devices. For example, when meeting with patients on my laptop, if the audio stops working on either side, I call my patient on the phone and we use the phone audio to accompany the computer video, or we switch to FaceTime if we both have iPhones.

Some interruptions are due to text messages or phone calls received by the patient (or the psychiatrist). When these are excessive, they must be viewed as a form of transference (or countertransference) resistance to treatment and addressed in the therapy. Some of the same dynamics that appear in in-person treatment play themselves out when treatment has switched to virtual. One patient who was habitually late or absent for her in-person appointments is almost never ready for the start of her virtual appointments, and she frequently oversleeps and misses her entire morning virtual sessions.

Most therapeutic change and progress that occurs in psychodynamic psychotherapy results from the verbal exchange between patient and psychiatrist. It is primarily the patients words that are attended to and analyzed, as well as the pauses between the words, the slips of the tongue, the metonymy and metaphor expressed in the patients use of language, and so on. After a while, the novelty of virtual space fades into the background as telepsychiatry becomes the new norm.

Advantages of Virtual Psychiatry

The main advantage of virtual psychiatry is its convenience, for both the patient and the psychiatrist. Virtual treatment saves time and money that was previously spent on travel to and from the office. It is also safer in a variety of ways. With virtual treatment, there is no possibility of sexual or aggressive impulses being put into action as could happen in in-person treatment. Virtual treatment obviates the possibility of having an automobile accident or getting a parking or speeding ticket on the way to or from the appointment.

Patients and psychiatrists save money on cold weather clothing and paying for gasoline or electricity for their cars. Finally, patients and psychiatrists will not be degrading the environment with carbon emissions from internal combustion engines, and climate change will be slowed.

Final Thoughts

I predict that, just as John Henry lost out to the steam engine, in-person psychiatric treatment will increasingly become a thing of the past. As holographic technology is perfected, improved forms of virtual treatment will become available and commonplace. At the same time, even with continued advancements in pharmacological and somatic psychiatric treatments, I predict that the talking cure will remain for centuries to come.

Dr Perman is a clinical professor in the Department of Psychiatry and the Behavioral Sciences at the George Washington University Medical Center in Washington, DC.

References

1. Alexander Graham Bell. History. November 30, 2019. Accessed August 8, 2022. https://www.history.com/topics/inventions/alexander-graham-bell

2. CAPA history in China. China American Psychoanalytic Alliance. Accessed August 8, 2022. https://www.capachina.org/capa-in-china

Link:

Virtual Psychiatry is Here to Stay - Psychiatric Times