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Super-coach GM R.B. Ramesh on Chess Training, Improvement, & Psychology | Dojo Talks — Transcript

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0:05hey everyone
0:06welcome to the stream this is dojo talks
0:09uh really pleased to have special guests
0:11with us here grandmaster
0:13uh rb ramesh uh how are you doing today
0:15ramesh
0:16yeah hello everyone hello costia so it's
0:19really exciting for me to
0:20as well to be here and extremely
0:23sorry for the delay
0:26no no worries yeah not at all no we're
0:30really excited to have you you're one of
0:32our most um
0:33prestigious guests so far but uh we have
0:35a really interesting
0:36uh talk planned um
0:39ramesh has a long resume
0:43um mainly i i've known him as a coach
0:46uh you know after he became a
0:48grandmaster working with
0:50lots of um strong juniors and and strong
0:53players
0:53um maybe ramesh you can give us a quick
0:56bio i know right now
0:57you are mainly running this website pro
1:00chess training
1:01uh maybe you can give us a quick bio
1:02into what you
1:04currently do and what you're doing with
1:05the site
1:07yeah hello so we have a website
1:10approaches approachestwinning.com just
1:13started by myself
1:14grand masters mage and also srishikar
1:17gangali
1:18so we started this platform from january
1:22and we have around the 30 grand masters
1:24who are promoting training in the
1:26platform and they include the
1:27grandmasters like
1:28alexishiro kristen kasemsano
1:32principiano pavilion and others so we
1:35are really excited to
1:37start this project and we have had that
1:39tremendous response from the audience as
1:40well
1:41we have over 250 students who have
1:43enrolled in our platform
1:44and we provide around four classes every
1:48week and we also have some training game
1:50sessions where the
1:51participants will be playing with each
1:53other where we select interesting
1:55positions on different topics like
1:56opening which game and game
1:58attack calculation and so on so we
2:01choose some interesting positions on the
2:02audience play among themselves
2:05to train under various circumstances we
2:08also have some
2:08review tests uh whereby we give some of
2:12the
2:13positions which was taught in the class
2:15and the
2:16subscribers are expected to provide the
2:18connect solutions
2:19so this is
2:27that's cool so how long has this site
2:29been up and running
2:31it's been uh running since uh january
2:331st
2:34of this year for last two months or so
2:38gotcha and um how many students did you
2:40say you had i just didn't i didn't catch
2:42it
2:43yeah we have around 250 students oh 250
2:46nice
2:46nice that's great so basically it's like
2:49group classes you guys have like
2:50streamed group classes and people
2:52tune in and um interact with the coach
2:55analyze positions and things like that
2:58yeah we have five different groups based
3:00on the rating of the players
3:02the first group starts from underrated
3:04to 1400
3:06and n1 is from 1400 to 1800 the third
3:09group 1800 through
3:112200 and the fourth group is from 2200
3:14to 2400
3:16and we have the last group about 2 400
3:19players
3:20so we have a place divided into these
3:22four groups
3:23and for each group there will be
3:26different
3:27sessions happening at different times
3:30typically we have
3:30four lessons per week and all the
3:33grandmasters will be teaching
3:35in all the groups and we are trying to
3:38get
3:39new grandmasters to train as well
3:42cool yeah you so you work with like a
3:46wide range of
3:47um levels is it also a wide range of
3:50ages like do you work with both kids and
3:52adults
3:53yeah definitely we are not very
3:55particular about the age of the players
3:56we
3:56also have many grand masters as the
4:00students in our platform
4:01for example there's already a 2600 plus
4:05player
4:06um from italy karthik and murali all
4:10these guys are
4:11over 2 600 and then daniel nadski also
4:14teaches in our platform and he also
4:17attends session since the student in uh
4:18over 2400 group
4:20so we have our around 10 grand masters
4:22our students in over 2400
4:24groups very interesting yeah
4:28well that's awesome so i want to give
4:29people like a quick um
4:31bio because a lot of people don't know
4:33ramesh and actually we go back
4:34maybe many years at this point um but
4:37basically i think
4:38a lot of people know you as like this
4:39indian uh
4:41super coach you worked with pragananda
4:43famously i believe you also worked with
4:44a sister
4:45who has like i think i saw she has like
4:48a gm norm or two right so she's also
4:50extremely strong yes
4:53so i have been running hs cultures
4:56gurukul
4:57since 2008 and there we have uh
5:00produced many young players who have won
5:04more than 40 medals in world youth
5:06championships
5:07gold silver and bronze our students have
5:10won more than 40 medals
5:12in the last 12 years or so and i also
5:15worked with
5:17the indian team for the last 10 years i
5:20quit
5:21last year but from around 2006
5:24to 2019 i've been coached for the indian
5:28senior team as well we also won
5:31bronze medal in 2014 at tromso so that
5:35was the only time india got a medal in
5:36the
5:39[Music]
5:40yeah i mean that was that was amazing
5:42achievement i mean olympiad's like
5:44one of the toughest events out there um
5:47so uh very cool i should also note so
5:49you um
5:50you wrote a book that i actually had a
5:53hand in
5:55producing i have it here it's called
5:57fundamental chess
5:59logical decision making and i think the
6:02book turned out great i don't promote it
6:04a lot because i felt like
6:05i'm very biased but i actually think
6:09it's it's a
6:10fantastic book and people should should
6:12absolutely uh check it out where mainly
6:14just has like
6:15a lot of ramesh's like ideas on chess
6:17improvement how to like evaluate
6:19positions make decisions i mean it's
6:20really like
6:21i mean truly i think it turned out
6:23really really good
6:25um so um well let's get into
6:28the kind of more the discussion part
6:31i think the first question i i wanted to
6:33ask you is you know what kinds of
6:35tools are you using as a chess coach i
6:39mean
6:39there's of course books and
6:43lots of softwares like i know you are
6:45probably a fan of
6:47chess bass curious if you use like
6:50chessable or if you have any students
6:52that like chessable
6:55other sites other software like what do
6:57you find yourself coming back to
6:59yeah so as a player i have been
7:02extensively relying on
7:04software chess base and we currently
7:07have
7:08version 16 just by 16 and i use it
7:10extensively
7:12to store data to organize the content
7:15and also to retrieve them at a short
7:17notice
7:18so i find it very useful and maybe we
7:21can just
7:22have a brief look at how to use your
7:24space if
7:26that comes within our problem so chess
7:29base is something i used extensively
7:31and for uh um middle game
7:34uh basically how it works is like i
7:37uh try to arrange the content myself i
7:41try not to rely on
7:42external sources like other books or
7:44databases to the extent possible
7:47because when i prepare the material
7:49myself i feel
7:50i can relate to the content in at a
7:53personal level
7:54so i'll be able to explain them better
7:56to my students
7:57so most of the examples i show in my
8:00classes to my students they are prepared
8:02by me
8:02so that way i also get to know about the
8:05positions
8:06better and sometimes it happens like if
8:08we
8:09use the content from popular books and
8:11authors
8:12sometimes it happens the students are
8:14already aware of the examples
8:15so this danger is also there yeah but i
8:18use
8:19just this extensively megabytes as well
8:22it contains
8:23over 8 million games so that is a tool
8:26i use extensively and i keep
8:29updating the material with the latest
8:32games from
8:32different tournaments around the world
8:34so that way any new
8:37games i can easily get fresh content
8:40and beyond that my students they i
8:43recommend chesapeal
8:46a lot because they have a fantastic
8:48opening material by some good authors
8:51and chess base as well space they have
8:54come up with some
8:55dvds and
8:58any good book a good book by others we
9:01have many publications pieces
9:02we have quality teachers we have new
9:05interests
9:07every man publishing house so any good
9:10book by good author i would strongly
9:12recommend to my students
9:13but most of my students also they delay
9:15extensively on using test case
9:17oh i see and um when it comes to like
9:20homework assignments for your students
9:21what does that
9:22typically look like
9:25typically like i don't give much
9:27homework to my students
9:29but i give them a plan on how to work at
9:31home on their own
9:32because it's like we cannot cover
9:34everything in the session
9:36by ourselves like when they work with me
9:39we can only cover
9:40so much but there is so much else to be
9:42learned by the students so i give them a
9:44plan
9:45on how to work at home on their own and
9:48what are the different topics they
9:50should be covering
9:52so i i believe strongly in letting my
9:55students
9:55work on their own rather than being
9:58relying on
9:59delaying upon me for all their
10:02learning needs requirements so they have
10:04to be
10:05self-reliant right
10:09do you i mean do you suggest what what
10:11books they should read and then they go
10:12off and they just do the work
10:13on their own yeah so first of all i give
10:16them a plan on
10:18like what are the different topics they
10:20have to work on what are the different
10:22areas
10:22for example there are some players
10:25generally
10:26what i've seen in my experience is that
10:28players have two distinctive styles
10:30we can call it dynamic static and that's
10:32what i prefer to use
10:34and by dynamic i mean players who prefer
10:37to play in complicated positions
10:39who like to attack that opponent who
10:42like to
10:42sacrifice material they don't mind
10:44sacrificing material
10:46i basically play open positions and so
10:49on
10:49so all these positions open position
10:51complicated position
10:53attacking position so i would bring them
10:56under
10:57dynamic positions and there are the
10:59players who prefer to play
11:01simple quite uncomplicated
11:04positions and they also tend to have a
11:07special liking to play
11:09in end games with less pieces and so on
11:11so
11:12these positions have good categories as
11:14static positions static positions
11:16basically that
11:17things are not changing very rapidly
11:20they are more
11:21static and quite peaceful
11:24but in dynamic positions things are
11:26always on the move
11:29so the players
11:32who have the dynamic style who like to
11:35play aggressive cheers
11:37i have a separate plan for the different
11:39plan for them
11:41different player solutions players who
11:43are good in dynamic positions
11:45and different set of books and also
11:48opening choices i try to
11:50recommend them to play certain openings
11:53so on all parts of the game we're
11:55playing with human mp might give them
11:56some
11:57specific recommendations also recommend
11:59books dvd courses
12:01and so on and they are expected to work
12:04on their own from this material now when
12:07it when it comes to the recommendations
12:08i mean i have to ask for a dynamic
12:09player do you
12:12do you try to help them work on the the
12:13weaker side of the game the static side
12:15or do you try to let's say focus on the
12:18dynamic side so do you suggest that they
12:20continue to play dynamic openings or try
12:22more static systems yeah this is a
12:25pretty interesting topic in
12:27as such there are so what i have seen
12:32which is very common approach by most
12:34coaches and also parents because
12:36these days the parents were also heavily
12:38influencing
12:40what and how their children learn from
12:43the coaches
12:43so they also pretty heavy influence as
12:47far as seen in my experience
12:48so most of the parents and coaches they
12:52generally believe like in identifying
12:55weaknesses
12:56so they feel like if i play a tournament
12:59game and i lose a game
13:00must be because i have made some
13:02mistakes and the mistakes are happening
13:04because i am weak in particular area
13:06so for example if i made a calculation
13:08mistake and i lost the game
13:10then we can say okay calculation is
13:14my student or my child's weak area and
13:16then they believe like
13:17you can work and get better in that area
13:20so that
13:21there are no weaknesses in the game but
13:23this seems to be the common approach
13:25i generally taken like identifying
13:27weakness and trying to
13:29get better in those areas but i have a
13:32slightly
13:33different perspective on this issue i
13:36strongly believe
13:37that the so-called weaknesses is simply
13:41the absence of strength for example
13:45if we let's say if we
13:49take an example of a small plant and
13:52after uh
13:53five years it becomes into a big tree
13:56now this tree is very strong
13:59there is a strong wind it can sustain
14:02but when it is when it was a small plant
14:05uh obviously it had many issues right
14:08and it was not as strong as it is
14:10currently five years ago so
14:14from that sense we cannot call the plant
14:16as weak
14:17but we can also look at it like it is in
14:20the process of growing
14:22stronger so over a period of time it
14:24will keep adding more strength
14:26more branches and more nutrients and
14:30it gains strength and it becomes
14:31stronger so that's how i would prefer to
14:34look at this issue instead of
14:36categorizing players as weak
14:37for example when i started chess i did
14:40not
14:41know everything about chess or a lot of
14:43things about chess i did not know
14:45so instead of calling myself looking at
14:48myself as
14:48weak in chess i would like to see myself
14:52as someone
14:53who knows certain things who does not
14:55know
14:56the rest and in the process of learning
14:58those things
14:59so as i keep learning in other areas i
15:03grow stronger
15:04overall so i don't believe in
15:07identifying weaknesses because i don't
15:09consider
15:10them as weakness at all it's simply
15:12absence of strength
15:13for example if i have not worked on my
15:15rook and pawn in games
15:17for example i started playing cheers one
15:18year ago and i have not
15:20worked down to compound endings
15:22obviously my knowledge
15:23my skill level onto compounding will not
15:25be that great
15:28so instead of uh so when i play a game
15:31and i
15:32reach a rook and pawn ending i realize i
15:34did not handle it well
15:36i lost the game very badly then i would
15:38prefer to
15:40uh go home and then realize i did not
15:43handle this part of the game well
15:45so i should start working on broken pawn
15:47and games and get better so i'll spend
15:49probably 10 or 15 days on low component
15:52and i'll definitely be much better level
15:55than i started with so i just see it as
15:58a
15:59process of growing stronger instead of
16:03because the problem with identifying
16:05weaknesses approach
16:06is that one if uh like in this case if i
16:11identify it as my weakness so if i say
16:14i'm weak indoor component it kind of
16:17sounds
16:17permanent in some aspects because many
16:20players feel
16:21i am weak in this i'm weak in that area
16:24so they identify some areas
16:26where they feel they are weak and when
16:28they keep reinforcing this
16:31day-to-day basis it kind of becomes real
16:38it becomes like self-fulfilling prophecy
16:40and if someone says yeah like i'm not
16:41good at end games then they're going to
16:43avoid queen trades every time even if
16:44it's good
16:46uh so it's really it's really an
16:48important thing it's like yeah you have
16:49a lot of people have these like
16:51psychological blocks um that they
16:53develop
16:54and then they end up being very static
16:57as a player not
16:58not really being willing to change so i
17:00like how you look at it in terms of like
17:02turning that um from uh
17:05i guess uh cultivating that like absence
17:07of of strength
17:08in fact maybe the rest of the interview
17:10we could kind of approach it from
17:11um this perspective you know if we take
17:14for example
17:15you have a student and they're not
17:18strong in tactics and calculation you
17:20know how you would try to develop that
17:21or if they're not strong in their
17:22openings how you would try to
17:24develop that i want to follow up on
17:27something and
17:28ask you um when uh
17:32a student you know let's say they're
17:33going through a book or something how do
17:35you recommend
17:36they like play through an annotated game
17:38because people always ask like
17:39should they go through all of the
17:40variations should they play it out on
17:42the board should they try to
17:43visualize it should they try to guess
17:45the move do you have any kind of
17:47tips for that yeah definitely
17:51so first thing is like what i have seen
17:54is if our priorities are not set
17:58right so i'll uh i hope you don't mind
18:01me going into a different topic and then
18:04come back to this oh sure we have your
18:06list and we can pull it up whenever you
18:08want
18:09yeah maybe we can then sure i can show
18:11it um
18:13there we go sure uh so what i have
18:16noticed as a coach is that most of the
18:19players
18:20they're not progressing as much as they
18:24should be
18:25they are not improving as fast as they
18:27should be
18:28and one of the main reasons i feel is
18:30because they
18:31don't have the priorities set in the
18:34right direction
18:35i think once the priorities are clear
18:38once they
18:38are aware about their responsibilities
18:41like to become a good player
18:43what should be my priority what should
18:44be my approach and
18:46what are the things i am expected to do
18:48if i am clear about these things
18:51and then i start working on my chairs
18:53they will have
18:54much more impact and this is what i
18:57strongly believe
18:58and as a trainer also i when i work with
19:01new students
19:02i try to reinforce these points and once
19:05they are clear
19:06about their role then it makes it easier
19:09for them
19:10to learn at a much faster pace so the
19:13first point
19:14is like you can see most of us as
19:17players we are
19:18worried about gaining or losing rating
19:22like currently i am 1800 i want to reach
19:252000 in the next six months or one year
19:27and so on so we have these targets and
19:30what happens is like i've seen even
19:31young children like eight nine year old
19:33children
19:34when the pairing is known they
19:36immediately look at the rating they
19:38compare the rating
19:40with the opponent and they think okay my
19:42opponent is pirated
19:43or lower rated limited categories right
19:47higher than me so if they are higher
19:49rated you have some issues
19:51like he's a better player than me he's
19:53going to defeat me no matter what
19:55position i get on the board
19:57so what is the point so they kind of
19:59some place they kind of give up even
20:00before
20:01the game begins because the rating of
20:04the opponent has
20:05a tremendous impact on our psyche if our
20:08priorities are not set right
20:09and similarly if my opponent is unrated
20:12and i am like 1800
20:14so then i see okay my opponent is
20:15unrated i can just beat him
20:17no matter even if i make mistakes i can
20:19still uh
20:21beat him so we don't take the game very
20:23seriously so basically
20:24uh the point i'm trying to stress is we
20:26are letting
20:28the rating of our opponent affect
20:32our concentration our focus
20:35instead uh how we should take is like
20:38every game
20:39i play in a tournament is very important
20:41to me
20:42and i should give my best and
20:45play a good game irrespective of my
20:48opponent's
20:48strength or lack of fit so i should play
20:52a good game of chess this should be the
20:53priority
20:54so if i start looking at it this way
20:57then
20:57my operance rating won't bother me as
21:00much
21:01so whether he is higher rated or lower
21:02it doesn't matter to me at all because
21:05the
21:05game result is not going to be decided
21:07by the rating difference in the players
21:09but by the quality of the game that is
21:11going to be played by both the players
21:14and that particular game so if my
21:16priority is like
21:17okay this game i'm going to play good
21:19quality chess and if i can do it
21:22then probably i will have a positive
21:25result
21:26yeah so if you're yeah sorry just to be
21:30clear like if you're like a 1500 raider
21:31player but you play like a really good
21:33game you could play
21:34like an 1800 level and if your opponent
21:36doesn't match up with you
21:38you'll beat them because you you
21:39outplayed them yeah
21:41so that is how most of the upsets happen
21:44isn't it like you can see in open
21:46tournaments even in the first round
21:48many lower rated players they are
21:50defeating or
21:52drawing against higher rated players so
21:55this is very
21:55possible because you don't rule out the
21:59fact that
22:00because you are lower rated you don't
22:02have any chance against the higher rated
22:03opponent
22:04so my suggestion would be not to give
22:06too much importance to the
22:08rating aspect till we have
22:11reached a stage where we have
22:14a lot of strengths to be proud about
22:17like my attacking skills are good my
22:19calculation skills are reasonably good
22:21i'm happy with the level of my opening
22:23preparation my in-game skills are good
22:25so till i feel like i am
22:28a complete package till that point at
22:31least
22:32i would suggest the players not to be
22:35bothered about
22:37your rating going up and down and also
22:39your opponent's rating
22:41so ideally we should just uh leave it
22:43aside
22:44and focus on other things so what are
22:46those other things
22:48so i would say like this good effort
22:51this is very important i should
22:54for example if i'm talking to you now my
22:57whole concentration should be on
22:59this session what i'm doing currently i
23:01should not be bothered about what
23:02happened earlier or what is
23:04likely to happen in the future so
23:06instead if i can live in the present
23:08what i'm doing currently if i can put
23:11all my energy into it
23:13then whatever i'm doing i'm likely to do
23:16it in a much
23:16better way so i should put a good effort
23:20in every game i play
23:22and this is not possible if i keep
23:24worrying about what could happen to the
23:26result
23:27so let's say i'm playing a player who is
23:29like 400 points
23:30over my rating and i am sure that i am
23:33going to lose today
23:34and i am only waiting for uh losing the
23:37game
23:37for the game to be over so uh then what
23:40happens is like when i'm actually
23:42playing the game
23:43i'm not giving my best and as a result
23:45the quality of my play will be
23:46very poor so if i can focus on
23:50my effort and why i want to play well
23:55it's simply to learn i realize i have
23:59i'm not good in many areas i still have
24:01to learn
24:02a lot in chess i accept that i
24:05understand it
24:06and i want to learn and i want to learn
24:08it much faster and also in a long
24:11lasting manner
24:12so giving good effort and as a result
24:16i learned better this should be the
24:18ideal approach instead of worrying about
24:20the result when and whenever i'm playing
24:23a game i'm worried about the result
24:25and also the resultant gainer
24:28loss in the rating i mean every game is
24:30like a lesson
24:31right it's just every game is a training
24:32game yeah so
24:34better to approach it as a training game
24:36so today in this game what i can learn
24:39and this game i want to give my best
24:41whatever i have learned in the past
24:43how i am going to apply in today's game
24:45so ideally i would prefer this to be the
24:48approach this will maximize our chances
24:52to give our best and also learn in the
24:55process
24:56and the second issue is
25:00as a player i should know what i should
25:02see at home
25:03how i should prepare how i should plan
25:06my preparation schedule at home and
25:10a lot of players they don't have clarity
25:12on this
25:13and as a result what we end up doing is
25:15we solve puzzles online
25:17we play you blitz games and then
25:21maybe work on our openings and that's it
25:24so we don't have a plan on which areas
25:28are important to me at my level where i
25:31should grow work and grow
25:33so they don't have clarity and as a
25:35result they are not
25:36growing as well as they should be
25:39and as a result over a period of time
25:41their results
25:42suffer and they're also not growing
25:44strong as such as playing
25:46and some kind of frustration could set
25:49in
25:50at a later point and the third thing i
25:52have type is like
25:53how to see chess at home so once we
25:56realize okay i have to work on my rook
25:57and following
25:58on my calculation skills on openings
26:02as black so how do we how do we work
26:06and if it's a group session or
26:09one-to-one session with the coach
26:11what should be my priorities as a
26:14student
26:15and the other thing very important thing
26:16is i have to motivate myself i have to
26:20encourage myself
26:21and i should not outsource this i should
26:24not be
26:24really requiring others to say like i'm
26:27good i can
26:28do better instead i should know that
26:31i'm going in the right direction i'm
26:32putting the right effort i'm learning
26:34well and growing strong i'm going in the
26:35right direction
26:37and in doing this so this self
26:39motivation is
26:40very important otherwise what happens is
26:44whenever we lose games whenever our
26:46rating drops
26:48we could easily turn very negative and
26:50lose hope so
26:52to avoid that i would strongly recommend
26:55to
26:55self-motivate and self-encouragement
26:57this is basically i have to
27:00believe in myself i should not be
27:02doubting my
27:03capabilities my working
27:07work ethics so i have to believe in what
27:10i am doing
27:11and i should be ready to make the
27:14necessary changes
27:15wherever required and it is also
27:18important to make mistakes
27:20so making mistakes is not something we
27:23should feel
27:23ashamed about or we should feel bad
27:25about it
27:26is perfectly all right to make mistakes
27:29in chess
27:30and whenever we make mistakes we use it
27:33as an opportunity
27:34to know about ourselves better how i
27:37think how i take
27:38the decisions because my thinking
27:40process and the decisions i take they
27:42end up
27:43as mistakes in some areas and i should
27:47have an open mind to identify them and
27:49learn from them but i don't see them as
27:52weaknesses the weaknesses will come in
27:55much
27:56later stage well have you sorry have you
27:59ever had
27:59a student that didn't make mistakes
28:03no um never worked with
28:06a player who has never not making
28:09mistakes even with
28:10when i work with pragnanda i work with
28:13around five grandmasters currently who
28:15are over 2 600
28:17and all of them make mistakes and they
28:20are not
28:21feeling bad about it they accept it as
28:24something inevitable it is going to
28:26happen what we can
28:29work towards is to reduce the frequency
28:32of those mistakes
28:33and also this mistake should not happen
28:37in simple positions they should happen
28:39in very complex positions
28:41for their level so simple issues simple
28:44mistakes they will never make
28:46if some the position is very difficult
28:48very complex
28:49to analyze in such situations they make
28:52mistakes it's fine
28:54so they work towards this but
28:57it's almost impossible to completely
28:59eradicate
29:00making mistakes this is something we
29:03have to live with
29:04yeah of course and also the language we
29:08use with ourselves
29:09is also very important all the time our
29:12mind
29:13we are analyzing about things suppose
29:16i'm playing in a tournament today in my
29:18mind
29:19i'm like i'm not playing good quality
29:22my calculations i don't concentrate well
29:26my
29:27openings are bad so we keep
29:31kind of a monologue with ourselves and
29:34the language we use is also very
29:37important what i have seen
29:38is like strong players they have much
29:41more confidence
29:42they are basically mentally very tough
29:45in related
29:45in aspects related to chess and that
29:48helps them
29:49to play better to learn better and grow
29:52faster
29:53so the language we use with ourselves is
29:55very important
29:56i would strongly suggest not to use not
29:59to be
30:00too critical about yourself whenever you
30:02realize you have made some
30:04mistakes in your game or whenever you
30:07realize you are not good in some areas
30:09we should not be too critical about
30:12ourselves
30:12and use negative language instead you
30:15can
30:16you have to encourage yourself you have
30:18to motivate yourself to
30:19work and get better in those areas this
30:21approach
30:23will ensure you have the motivation to
30:26keep
30:26working and learning and also
30:30many players are confused about the
30:32importance they should give
30:33on openings middle game and end game the
30:36kind of work
30:36they should be doing in this areas so my
30:39recommendation would be
30:41to give more importance to middle game
30:43but
30:44most of the players they
30:47prefer to give too much importance to
30:49the opening aspect most of the time they
30:51are
30:51worried about will this opening suit my
30:54style will that opening suit my style
30:57should is this opening a good choice for
30:59me should i change my opening
31:01and whenever they lose games in a
31:03particular opening
31:04they immediately conclude maybe this
31:06opening is not
31:07suitable for me so i should probably
31:09move to a different opening
31:10so they are always like thinking more
31:13about the opening aspect
31:14and the possible changes they can make
31:17instead i would
31:18suggest to focus more on your middle
31:21game skills
31:22by middle game i'm mostly
31:26suggesting about the analytical ability
31:29when i look at your position how i
31:31analyze the position that's what i am
31:33trying to emphasize here
31:35so to be a good chess player i should
31:38analyze any position well
31:41so this is what hs player is required to
31:44do
31:45and opening middle game and game they
31:46are just different faces of the game
31:48but everywhere the pieces move in the
31:50same manner right
31:53so we should just focus more on learning
31:56how to analyze positions i think this is
31:59the critical
32:00skill we should all be working
32:04towards that's interesting that's very
32:06universal i mean
32:07i think everywhere in the world people
32:09just focus a lot on the opening because
32:11it's like
32:12to me it feels like it's such an obvious
32:14thing you can
32:15control and you can see such clear
32:18improvement when you know positions
32:20um that it's like a very natural thing
32:21to work on but
32:23well you're saying the analytical skill
32:24is like the most important thing when it
32:26comes to
32:27improvement so being able to break down
32:29a position understand what to do
32:32and i know you're a big fan of combining
32:34you know calculation with
32:36logical reasoning it's not like one or
32:38the other it's like you're using
32:40logical principles to kind of come up
32:42with ideas but you still have to be
32:43extremely concrete and extremely precise
32:46in every position would you say that
32:47that's true yeah
32:50i would say like if you take a train for
32:53the train to run properly you need two
32:54tracks
32:55right so similarly in to
32:58analyze any position well the two
33:02tracks i would say is one is the
33:04calculation skills
33:05so if i come up with an interesting idea
33:08which i think
33:08will work in this position and i'm
33:11attracted to one particular idea
33:13so just this attraction is not a
33:15justification to play
33:17that move or that idea so i should
33:20check with my calculation whether it
33:23actually
33:24works or not or because many times the
33:26looks can be very
33:27deceptive so some move looks very good
33:31but the correct move will be something
33:32else and this happens
33:34a lot these days because it's not become
33:36more concrete
33:38so good calculation skills is the one
33:41track
33:41we need to rely upon
33:44and the other track will be our logical
33:46thinking and
33:48so biological thinking it i would try to
33:50bring
33:51all the other aspects like the knowledge
33:54of just principles
33:56not just the knowledge a good
33:57understanding of just principles
34:00so if you see in my book the first
34:02example i have given is
34:03carlson versus aronia in that position
34:07black will have pawns on c6 and e6
34:11two black pawns e6 and c6 and white will
34:14play d5
34:14and without any support without any
34:16protection there are no e4 or c4 pawns
34:19he will just play d5
34:20so now black can take ed5 or cd5
34:24there'll be a knight on f6 we can take
34:2595 as well and that way queen on d8 25
34:28is also possible
34:29so four different captures are possible
34:32and none of them are
34:33losing immediately for the opponent but
34:36carlson will
34:36still sacrifice upon with d5
34:40the point i am trying to make this if i
34:43know the principle
34:44that let us say when my skiing in the
34:47center i have already castled my king my
34:49opponent's king is in the center
34:51i have to open up the position and
34:53especially i have to open up the
34:54position in the center to gain
34:56access to the opponent's king so i know
34:59that i have to open the position and
35:00sometimes we may have to sacrifice
35:02upon to open up the lines and i know
35:04this as a
35:05principle but if i am scared
35:08or if i am afraid of sacrificing pawn
35:11and
35:12there are many players who are afraid to
35:14sacrifice material if they don't see a
35:16clear win
35:18so if i don't see a clear win but i see
35:21that my pieces are becoming active my
35:23opponent's king is becoming more exposed
35:25but still i may not play it because i am
35:27worried what if my opponent manages
35:30to put up a good defense after i
35:32sacrifice a pawn then i'll simply be
35:33upon down
35:34so let me just attack with equal pawns
35:37that gives me a better chance even if
35:39the attack doesn't work at least i am
35:41not materially
35:42deficit so this kind of logic kicks in
35:46and then they end up not playing that
35:49form sacrifice
35:50so the point i'm trying to make here is
35:52we know the principle
35:53what needs to be done in this particular
35:56position
35:57we know what the principle says but my
35:59own
36:00personal likes personal dislikes
36:03or my fear it prevents me
36:06from applying what i know has to be
36:09done as a matter of principle so
36:14because this happens a lot because we
36:17know
36:17the principles but we don't have the
36:20skill to
36:21apply it for various reasons
36:24so in my view more than
36:27knowing about things which is what most
36:30of our preparation
36:32leads to so we collect information
36:35on different areas of the game and we
36:38read about them we
36:40hear about them for example the audience
36:42who are
36:43listening now they are hearing about
36:45things so whatever we
36:47learn as a result of hearing
36:50or seeing i would categorize them as
36:54knowledge
36:55so for example if i want to learn
36:57swimming i don't know swimming i want to
36:59learn swimming
37:00so what i do i buy some dvds
37:04by some famous swimming coach or
37:08swimming world champion who is doing a
37:1110-hour course on how to learn swimming
37:13so i watch this 10-hour video every day
37:17for the next one month so i know all the
37:20theory
37:20right whatever needs to be done
37:22everything i know now if you push me
37:24into a swimming pool
37:25i will drown right so
37:29the knowledge i the information i got is
37:31mainly
37:32like from seeing and hearing so
37:35these things they end up as knowledge
37:38you know about things
37:39and knowing about those things can give
37:41you an edge that's how i see
37:43no edge so you get some edge as a result
37:46of knowing but
37:48you don't become good at it you cannot
37:50do it
37:51so you need to have a practical
37:53practical experience
37:55of doing those things and when you do
37:57those things you realize
37:59there are some issues for example you
38:02read
38:02that you can sacrifice upon to attack
38:05the opponent king
38:06so now what you know is just knowledge
38:08you know your principle
38:10but you don't believe in that principle
38:13you don't understand that principle at a
38:16deeper level
38:17and we have no experience at all so what
38:20i should do
38:21i should see more examples where one
38:24strong player is sacrificing a bond for
38:26good attack and eventually ends up
38:28winning converting the attack into a win
38:31and then when i see more examples
38:34i'll be more convinced but when it comes
38:36to my own game
38:38where i have to sacrifice upon again my
38:40fears will kick in
38:41and they'll prevent me from sacrificing
38:43upon
38:44so what i should do i should boldly
38:49apply what i have learned so i'll say
38:51okay even if i lose this game
38:53it's fine i want to really test this
38:56principle in my own game
38:57so this step we should take and when we
39:01start applying these principles in our
39:03own games
39:04then we will understand its real value
39:07then
39:07we know it not just at the knowledge
39:10level
39:10but at the experiential level so once we
39:13have experienced
39:14it ourselves the lesson learned is more
39:18long-lasting right yeah i have to say i
39:21fully agree
39:22yeah like win or lose whether you're
39:23right or wrong with your pawn sacrifice
39:25you kind of learn
39:26how to calibrate a little bit better for
39:28for the future
39:29i think one of the most useful things
39:31for me actually was um
39:33when i really got serious about chess
39:35was working with my coach
39:36i worked with grandmaster on varacobian
39:38for many years
39:39and one of the most useful things we did
39:41was we would just analyze my games
39:43together
39:43he would take some position um where i
39:46did something you know really silly or
39:47you know something a typical 1800 would
39:49do
39:50you just show me how he would play the
39:51position kind of like his first
39:53instincts
39:54and in so many cases whenever he was
39:56under pressure he knew exactly how to
39:58sacrifice a pawn get some activity
40:00turn the situation around just be very
40:02resourceful and i think once i
40:04like truly appreciated like what he was
40:06doing and what kind of compensation he
40:08was looking for i think that's when it
40:09really
40:10kicked in for me and then once i started
40:12trying on my own i would say like oh it
40:13worked or i got lucky one time but
40:15yeah you kind of have to believe in the
40:17concept as you're saying in order to
40:19really
40:19um find opportunities that are
40:21successful
40:23yeah i think trying out
40:26the principles you have learnt is very
40:27important for example
40:29if you feel your end game skills are not
40:32up to the mark then we can work for
40:35let's say
40:3610 or 15 days we can work on our end
40:38games and once we
40:40have worked on our end games for let's
40:42say 10-15 days
40:44and we feel more confident it is also
40:46important
40:47that in the next tournament we play we
40:50should try to try out what we have
40:52learned
40:53so wherever there is an opportunity to
40:55trade queens we should do that
40:57and even if i don't like engines and
40:59actually
41:00if i don't like ngos yeah so most of the
41:03time what happens is like
41:05we have our likes and dislikes i don't
41:07like end games or some players
41:09they're exact opposite they like in
41:10games so what they do
41:12kind of over a period of time they start
41:14hating vegan
41:15so they chase the opponent queen with
41:17the queen so if they're
41:18queen h8 we go queen f7 they try to
41:21trade the queens
41:22so our personal likes and dislikes
41:26they impact a lot on the decisions we
41:29take over the board
41:30so it is very important we start liking
41:34everything about chess not just bits and
41:37pieces of
41:37chess we should like uh if i'm an
41:41attacking player aggressive player i
41:43should love to attack
41:44calculate sacrifice initiative and so on
41:48i should love to play openings which
41:50will give me those kind of positions
41:52in the short run but in the long run i
41:55should also
41:56learn to like to play
41:59in positions which i don't like for
42:01example
42:03in close positions in simple positions
42:06in quiet positions
42:08quite end games so i should start
42:12working on those areas build up my
42:16skills in those areas and when that
42:18happens
42:19that this differentiation will disappear
42:22so
42:22ideally we should work towards becoming
42:25an universal player
42:27who can handle any kind of position do
42:30you like um
42:31the idea of playing like training games
42:33like for someone who wants to practice
42:35end games or practice some sharp
42:36positions
42:37like choosing some sharp openings and
42:39then just playing um like against a
42:41friend or something
42:43yeah definitely training games is a good
42:46tool
42:47to make progress when i was talking with
42:50hari krishna a couple of years ago
42:53he was strongly recommending playing
42:55training games almost on a daily basis
42:57so one of the training games on a
42:59daily basis like even a 15 minute game
43:0250 minutes each in short surface so
43:05playing training games is good
43:07but the operands
43:10level is also very important like we
43:13should not play with players who
43:15are not ambitious who are not working
43:18very hard on that chess it makes sense
43:20to play with players who
43:22are working very hard and trying to go
43:25up in the
43:27level so it's better to work play
43:29training games with such players because
43:31they will be more ambitious
43:32and they will come prepared for whatever
43:35topic we are trying to
43:38learn so that will motivate us to work
43:42before you play the game for example if
43:44you're going to
43:46play in a particular opening variation
43:48then both players should
43:49come prepared for the game and
43:53that helps even more yeah absolutely i i
43:55really enjoy doing that whenever i'm
43:57learning a new opening just
43:58trying out different lines um you
44:01definitely don't want
44:02the first time you see an opening to be
44:05in like a tournament game
44:07like you've never seen the position
44:08before it's just very risky
44:11yeah the other thing i would strongly
44:13suggest is like
44:15most of us when we train
44:18when we work on our chairs we don't take
44:21it
44:22that seriously and this is one of the
44:24reasons
44:25why we get to hear complaints about
44:29some players that i'm practicing it on a
44:31daily basis
44:32but still i am not making improvement
44:34the kind of improvement which i was
44:36hoping to make
44:37and this happens because um we
44:41train because we are supposed to train
44:43that's it
44:44we are not fully involved in the
44:46training
44:47process so we have to take the
44:50take the training really seriously so
44:54i would say the training should be more
44:56hard
44:57than the actual tournament game
45:00so in the tournament game we should just
45:04apply what we have learned and whatever
45:06comes naturally to us
45:07we should trust more on that our
45:10instinctive reactions especially when we
45:13are short of time
45:14but in training like how i work with my
45:17students i
45:19we take one interesting position and
45:22then we
45:22analyze it threadband so many times the
45:25analysis will go
45:27for two hours three hours and we just
45:30unless analyzing one position and
45:32definitely we are not doing
45:34this in a tournament game right within a
45:37few moments we will be in a completely
45:39different position during a tournament
45:41game but when we are training
45:43we try to analyze take one position and
45:46we keep analyzing it from
45:47multiple angles different approaches so
45:50this way
45:51we learn how to analyze any position
45:54very deeply and when you start doing
45:57this the
45:58accuracy improves we make less mistakes
46:02and our concentration improves and we
46:05also
46:05realize that many things are hidden
46:08in the position right in front of us so
46:11there are
46:12many resources available and as a player
46:15it is my duty to
46:17make use of all these resources to my
46:19advantage
46:20and if i fail to do that most likely the
46:23operand will
46:24take advantage and he will be at the
46:26launch so
46:28we realize that there are many resources
46:30available
46:32in every single position and
46:35when we analyze our analytical skills
46:37improve
46:38and we also try different approaches
46:41in a game we play one move for the game
46:45we it goes in one direction once we
46:47are committed to one particular move but
46:49in training you can try one approach
46:51if that does not work you can try
46:53another approach if it does not work you
46:54try another approach
46:56so we learn this searching quality which
46:59is also
47:00very essential we should we learned that
47:04there are multiple roads leading to the
47:08same result
47:10so i would strongly recommend to take
47:13the training process very seriously
47:15right so um i want to ask you when you
47:17do these like long analysis sessions
47:19with your students
47:21will you will you check the analysis
47:23with an engine at some point and what's
47:25that like
47:27no generally like uh i have a
47:30completely different training
47:34methodology i don't analyze my students
47:37games
47:37that often and i know this is uh
47:40considered to be a crime
47:42by parents players and most coaches
47:45for example i've been working with
47:47prague just an example
47:50typically i'll be working with around 25
47:52students at any given point of time
47:55not all of them at the same time but
47:57typically i'll have around 25 students
47:59so um when i just talk about the example
48:02of pregnant
48:03i've been working with him since he was
48:05like seven and a half years old
48:07and he was like 1650 or something like
48:09that
48:10and since then probably i would have
48:13analyzed
48:1310 or 20 games max
48:16this of the game obvious we don't spend
48:20a lot of time analyzing his games trying
48:22to identify weakness
48:24and so on which is the accepted norm
48:28probably 99 of the coaches they do this
48:31so in my case i just
48:35give him different types of positions
48:38and we analyze it together
48:40so when we are analyzing the kind of
48:44moves he says
48:45how he concentrates how he manages his
48:48time
48:49and how he takes decisions i try to
48:52observe this because we are doing it
48:54face to face together
48:56so i know how he takes decisions what
48:58type of positions he's struggling
49:00and so on so whenever i realize okay in
49:02this type of position he is struggling
49:04then for the next session i will try to
49:06give more examples
49:07in that particular area for example in
49:10one tournament i
49:11felt he did not make any pawn breaks
49:15in the game so i try to show a lot of
49:19examples where
49:20we use spawn breaks to open the position
49:23so that our pieces become active
49:25he was always postponing this decision
49:27so maybe on the next one i'll make this
49:28pawn break sometimes
49:30you have to even sacrifice upon in the
49:32process and he was constantly
49:34avoiding this and then when we started
49:37seeing more pawn breaks and then after
49:39few months he was playing in
49:41world juniors and also world
49:43underwriting championship
49:45and world and writing he became the
49:46champion he sacrificed spawns
49:49more freely he was employing pawn breaks
49:52more often
49:53so when we work with our students when
49:56we analyze positions
49:58with them then we can get lot more
50:01information than just from their games i
50:03am not denying
50:05the usefulness or importance of
50:07analyzing our games but
50:09typically what i would suggest my
50:11students is for them to analyze their
50:13own games
50:14instead of unless in the games together
50:16with them
50:17so obviously he analyzes his own games
50:20and he will also take the help of
50:22engines but
50:24regarding the role of engines i would
50:25strongly suggest
50:28like players below 1800 or even 2000
50:31not to use engines too much
50:35analytical engines for whatever reason
50:38if to
50:38whether to check your opening material
50:41opening databases
50:42or to analyze your own games um i would
50:46strongly
50:47suggest not to use engines at all if you
50:50can
50:50avoid using engines that will be the
50:52best case scenario at least you will
50:55till you are like 1800 or
50:572000 maybe i can share
51:01a document which can
51:04show okay so i will try to
51:09because it's in excel sheet um
51:12okay i will try to copy paste it in the
51:16word document
51:18yeah so ramesh was just saying um
51:21basically
51:22as little as possible when it comes to
51:24the engines under 1800 under 2000
51:27to work on your own analytical skills
51:32now you're saying as little as possible
51:34that means like
51:35there are some positions like critical
51:36positions in your games like every
51:38player
51:39is going to want to check those you know
51:40they're going to want to know if they
51:41had a win if they had a defense you know
51:43something like that
51:44which i think is really natural but what
51:47a lot of players do is they
51:49they end up starting with the engine and
51:50they don't really do their own analysis
51:52at all i think that's kind of the issue
51:54that a lot of coaches
51:56uh see so what i have done
51:59is like uh i have created an
52:02excel sheet in that i'm just
52:05displaying the first column
52:10you can see the heading opening middle
52:12game and game
52:13so how to analyze our own games so this
52:16is
52:17one of my solutions there are multiple
52:19ways to analyze our own games
52:21so instead of checking our games with
52:23opening databases
52:25or checking our games with analytical
52:27engines
52:28this method probably is an interesting
52:31alternative
52:32so regarding the opening you can ask
52:34yourself multiple questions
52:37first thing is like did you get the
52:38opening you expected sometimes our
52:41opponents could
52:41surprise us playing a different opening
52:44or within the opening we expected they
52:46might go into a different
52:47branch different variation for example
52:50night off
52:50against night offs is in night off i
52:52play six h3
52:54and my opponent usually plays e6 and
52:57in this game he played e5 and which i
53:00did not expect
53:01so the opponent can surprise us with a
53:03completely new opening
53:04or he plays the opening which we
53:06expected but within that
53:08he branched out into an unexpected area
53:11so did you get
53:12the opening you expected first question
53:15and second
53:16did you like the position out of the
53:18opening so most of them
53:19what happens is like uh when i take
53:22group lessons many students ask
53:24is really night off good for me or can i
53:27play gruntful defense
53:29and so on so in my personal view there
53:31are
53:32no good and bad openings it is only good
53:35preparation and bad preparation
53:37so you can play a perfectly good opening
53:39with a bad preparation and get end up
53:41with bad results
53:43or you can play a horrible opening with
53:45good preparation and end up with good
53:46results as well
53:48both are possible so i'm not i would
53:50strongly discourage
53:52like first mooji for first movie four
53:54kind of openings
53:55but other than that any reasonable
53:57opening
53:59if few strong players have played it
54:02regularly
54:03then that opening is good enough so we
54:06don't have to worry too much about the
54:08choice of our openings
54:10so what is more important is like i
54:12should
54:13like the positions i'm getting from from
54:15that opening that is
54:17very important to me personally if i
54:20let's say if i know that sizzling night
54:22off is good
54:23and some positions i'm not comfortable
54:25at all
54:26or i don't like the positions i'm
54:28getting out of certainly night off
54:30then i should seriously think about my
54:33choice
54:34so the next thing is did you play the
54:36opening stage well
54:38how you handle the opening phase did you
54:40get
54:41the pieces out quickly we all know the
54:44opening principles right what we are
54:45supposed to do in the
54:46opening stage like i should develop my
54:48pieces quickly i should not keep the
54:50king in the center for too long
54:52but at the lower level what happens is
54:53many players they don't castle
54:56as a coach probably would have noticed
54:57this as well they don't castle very
54:59quickly because
55:00they are waiting for the opponent to
55:02castle so this happens very often
55:04at the lower level they are waiting for
55:05the operator to castle once the opponent
55:07castles they will cancel on the same
55:09side but my opponent
55:10is king side alicaster king said if he
55:12goes coincide i will go inside
55:14because they are worried about opposite
55:15side gasoline so if they are worried
55:17like
55:18if i castle king side my opponent will
55:20castle coincide and attack me on the
55:21case
55:22so they don't do that so they know the
55:24opening principle which says you have to
55:25castle quickly
55:26but they don't follow it because of
55:28their own
55:30fears or insecurities so did you
55:34uh manage the opening stage well did you
55:37make
55:37any mistakes in the opening phase for
55:39example i moved my bonds too much i
55:42brought my coin out i went for pawn
55:43hunting
55:45and so on so is there any typical
55:47mistake is there any opening principles
55:49you broke
55:50in the opening phase of the game and
55:52then should you
55:54make any changes for example this
55:57variation i am not handling well
55:59so this pawn structure i'm not doing
56:00well so should you make any change
56:02as far as the opening is concerned
56:06and how would you rate yourself one to
56:08ten in scale of one to ten how would you
56:10rate yourself
56:11as far as the opening analysis concern
56:13and
56:13[Music]
56:15the middle game like how did you
56:17calculate did you calculate well
56:19and sometimes what happens players who
56:22are
56:23not working hard their confidence will
56:26be low
56:26and which is obvious but it won't be
56:28obvious for them
56:30so the players who are not working
56:32regularly usually their confidence will
56:33be low
56:34and when the confidence is low they
56:36start playing for draws
56:37or to put it another way they try not to
56:40lose
56:42so when we start when we reach that
56:44stage where we are trying not to lose
56:46then obviously we are playing for draws
56:48most of the times and
56:49to achieve the draw many players will
56:52start
56:53automatic exchanges regular exchanges
56:55they will open one file
56:56bring the rook look into root bring the
56:58other rook look into
56:59bring the queen queen to queen this kind
57:01of things so
57:04have i been exchanging unnecessarily
57:06like this in my games
57:08it already it's already an indication of
57:10our work ethics
57:11and our self-image so is that happening
57:15in your games
57:16and if you got attacking opportunities
57:18did you
57:20make good use of them and have you been
57:23paying passively or
57:24defensively so the passive players
57:28they do three things very often one
57:31exchanges they keep exchanging a lot and
57:34whenever something is under attack they
57:36will defend it
57:37immediately and they will also pull back
57:39their business they don't mind
57:41moving that piece of backwards very
57:43often even
57:44without validation and what are the
57:47typical mistakes you made
57:49in this phase of the game so you can add
57:52more questions
57:54but i'm just giving a brief idea so
57:56instead of
57:57taking most of the engines we can ask
57:59questions
58:00related to that space of the game and
58:02try to come up with some
58:04observations right so you'll you'll give
58:06the sheet then to all your students
58:08and you'll have them fill it out when
58:10they're or something similar to this
58:11when they're going over their own games
58:13yeah so i share this kind of information
58:15with my students and then
58:17they know what they should be watching
58:20out for
58:20when they analyze their own games so
58:22similarly in end game
58:24um if they had a worse position in
58:26endgame did they defend well
58:28if they had a better position did they
58:29convert it into a win
58:31and what are the typical mistakes they
58:32made and is there any particular endgame
58:35they have to learn for example broken
58:37pawn ending and king and pawn ending
58:39bishop and pondering and so on so is
58:41there some particular end game they have
58:42to work on
58:44and also like some other questions
58:48so did you avoid any critical
58:50continuation in the game
58:52for example you could sacrifice a pawn
58:54in a particular position which looked
58:56very interesting
58:57during the game but you were afraid to
58:59do so and when you come and check with
59:01the engine
59:01engine says the bonsai could have given
59:02you a better position so then we see
59:04like oh my god
59:05i saw this contact but i did not have
59:07the courage to play so did you miss any
59:08critical continuation it could be a
59:10sacrifice
59:11or it could be an attack or a risky
59:13continuation
59:15and the others the time management part
59:18like sometimes some players they play
59:21too fast
59:22even in critical positions they don't
59:24pass and think
59:26they just play some obvious move or the
59:28most which
59:30they like without checking them or
59:33the other extreme we think too much even
59:36on simple uh decisions like
59:40g3 i upgrade i have to play bg2 but i
59:42play thing for three minutes and then
59:44play bg2
59:45so so how we manage our time
59:48and also how was the concentration
59:50during the game was it good
59:52or sometimes what happens we are
59:54constantly bothered about
59:56our opponent's rating or if my operant
59:59place
1:00:00a new opening he caught me surprised me
1:00:03in opening caught me in a new opening
1:00:05then for the next 10
1:00:0715 minutes my mind is like oh my god i
1:00:09got
1:00:10caught in an opening track or something
1:00:12like this and we are like
1:00:14constantly worrying about that fact
1:00:16instead of focusing on
1:00:17the position in front of me so how was
1:00:20the concentration
1:00:21uh and values scared or
1:00:24afraid at any particular point in the
1:00:27game
1:00:28or felt uncomfortable
1:00:31my position is not good i'm going to
1:00:33lose or
1:00:35after you realize you have made a
1:00:36mistake so these are the moments when we
1:00:39panic so what well there any such
1:00:42moments in the game
1:00:43and how was the confidence before the
1:00:45game because the information we give to
1:00:47ourselves before the game is also very
1:00:49important so if we are paying too much
1:00:53attention to our opponents rating
1:00:55whether it is high or low or to our
1:00:57previous results the last two
1:00:59tournaments i lost to this particular
1:01:00gentleman
1:01:01so this is the third time i'm playing so
1:01:04we will not be very
1:01:05confident so how was the confidence
1:01:07level
1:01:08um before the game
1:01:12so let me see will you review this sheet
1:01:15when they um
1:01:16will they submit this to you and you'll
1:01:17review it for your students
1:01:20no i don't review this but
1:01:23i will ask for the conclusions from the
1:01:25students because
1:01:27if they do this well then
1:01:32they will have more information about
1:01:34themselves so let me add
1:01:36okay so a few other questions you can
1:01:38ask yourself
1:01:39is did you avoid any critical
1:01:42continuation how was your time
1:01:44management how was your concentration
1:01:46were you scared at any particular moment
1:01:48how was your confidence level before the
1:01:50game during the game
1:01:52and what you learned about yourself from
1:01:54this game
1:01:56and did it of the result of this game
1:01:59affect your confidence
1:02:00in subsequent games what are the areas
1:02:02you have to work
1:02:04in the future to improve so things like
1:02:07this
1:02:09so when we ask these type of questions
1:02:12we will get completely
1:02:13different results so what we
1:02:16typically do we check things with
1:02:18analytical engines
1:02:20and then analytical engines they come
1:02:22out with some moves
1:02:24obvious improvements to our play but
1:02:27there is no personal connection like our
1:02:30skills don't improve
1:02:31for example we play a rook component
1:02:33game in the in the rook component game
1:02:35the computer comes up with a better move
1:02:37but i don't know why that move is better
1:02:40and it does not give me any other
1:02:42information other than that
1:02:44computer likes the move it suggests
1:02:47so instead of analyzing with uh engines
1:02:51too much it makes sense to analyze the
1:02:54game with your opponent immediately
1:02:55after the game is over
1:02:56it's better to request the opponent to
1:03:01see if he is interested to analyze the
1:03:03game with us so that is a very good way
1:03:05to
1:03:06know more about the game because you
1:03:08immediately get a different perspective
1:03:10on the game you just played and we are
1:03:13looking
1:03:14at things from our viewpoint and our
1:03:17opponent will be looking at it from a
1:03:18completely different viewpoint so he'll
1:03:20have completely different set of
1:03:21information to
1:03:22offer so it makes sense to unless with
1:03:24our opponent
1:03:26and it is also good to analyze games
1:03:28with
1:03:29a group of players everyone pitching in
1:03:33coming up with their suggestions so this
1:03:35way we can learn
1:03:37that we are looking at things from only
1:03:40one viewpoint and there are
1:03:41multiple viewpoints so as a coach what
1:03:45fascinates me is like if i give you a
1:03:46position
1:03:47and ask let's say 15 students what do
1:03:50you think is the best move
1:03:51we will get at least 10 different
1:03:53answers right so what it actually means
1:03:55is
1:03:56everyone thinks differently and they
1:03:59have their own
1:04:00views about the position their own
1:04:03opinions
1:04:03about the position and it is very
1:04:06important for them
1:04:07their view is very important for them
1:04:10and
1:04:10as a coach we should bring in the
1:04:12correct principles and say okay
1:04:14even though you believe these moves are
1:04:16strong
1:04:17this is the principle that needs to be
1:04:18followed in these type of positions and
1:04:20we try to
1:04:21explain them fine so
1:04:25how to analyze the games uh the priority
1:04:28should not be to find mistakes
1:04:30like which move was mistake and what is
1:04:32the
1:04:33better move in a particular position
1:04:35instead of going into such
1:04:37details we can use that game as an
1:04:40opportunity to know more about ourselves
1:04:42how we think and our shortcomings and
1:04:45areas where we need to focus more and
1:04:48then we simply move to
1:04:49working in those areas so this way we
1:04:52don't feel
1:04:54like i'm bad in these things or i'm weak
1:04:57in this areas because they kind of like
1:05:00said the same fulfilling
1:05:01prophecies so instead we can have an
1:05:04open mind
1:05:05we can accept that i will am an upcoming
1:05:08player
1:05:09so obviously i will have some
1:05:10shortcomings in my thinking process
1:05:13and my aim is to identify them
1:05:16work in those areas in the proper way
1:05:18and get better in those areas
1:05:20so this way we believe we
1:05:23don't look at ourselves as a fixed
1:05:26entity
1:05:27so with some fixed strengths and
1:05:30weaknesses
1:05:31instead we look at ourselves as someone
1:05:34who is capable of
1:05:36learning things who is capable of
1:05:38becoming
1:05:39better as a result so
1:05:42an evolving person instead of like fixed
1:05:46qualities
1:05:47my calculation is bad i'm bad in attack
1:05:49i'm bad in
1:05:50weekend and games instead of putting
1:05:52ourselves in a fixed
1:05:54entity we can look at ourselves as
1:05:56someone who can evolve and change
1:05:58and that is very important to grow as a
1:06:01plane
1:06:02now when it comes to growing do you have
1:06:04any
1:06:05specific guidance for players if they
1:06:08want to work on
1:06:09let's say they want to work on their
1:06:11openings or their end games
1:06:12or is it more for you about just the
1:06:14effort as long as they're putting in
1:06:16their max effort
1:06:17exactly what they're studying is not um
1:06:20super important
1:06:21yeah in a larger concept i feel
1:06:26the first thing you have to be clear
1:06:27that currently i may have
1:06:29my strengths and areas where i need to
1:06:32become stronger
1:06:34but in the long run i should be good in
1:06:36all aspects of the game opening middle
1:06:38game and game
1:06:39and in opening also i should try out
1:06:41different
1:06:42varieties of openings but that is in the
1:06:45long term
1:06:46not in the short term and i should be
1:06:49able to handle any type of position
1:06:51uh there will be many positions which we
1:06:53don't like
1:06:54there'll be many openings which we don't
1:06:58like
1:06:59and it can happen during our game and
1:07:02operand
1:07:03catches us by surprise so even in such
1:07:06situations
1:07:07if my analytical skills are good so
1:07:11after overcoming that initial
1:07:14surprise or the disappointment whatever
1:07:17i can still recollect my thoughts and
1:07:20start analyzing the position
1:07:22and based on my analysis i can take
1:07:24decisions this is what we have to
1:07:25aspire towards like i will analyze the
1:07:28position
1:07:29and based on my analyze analysis i will
1:07:31take a decision
1:07:33and for this over a period of time we
1:07:35have to work on
1:07:36all aspects of the game so
1:07:39let me share
1:07:43another set of things i will
1:07:47it's from word documents it should be
1:07:48much much easier okay
1:07:50so some of the common mistakes many
1:07:53aspiring players
1:07:54make one is calculations calculation
1:07:56related mistakes
1:07:58and there are probably if you have time
1:08:00we can
1:08:01go into that list i have a list of 20
1:08:04mistakes
1:08:04players make while calculating and
1:08:08the other is time management related
1:08:10issues some players play too fast
1:08:12most of the time on the other extreme
1:08:15too slow
1:08:16so time related issues players have
1:08:20concentration related issues
1:08:23for this what i would suggest is you
1:08:26have to
1:08:27realize that if you want to make serious
1:08:29progress in your chest
1:08:31you have to be phenomenal please
1:08:39yeah so we have to realize that if we
1:08:42want to
1:08:43make good progress in chess and steady
1:08:46progress
1:08:46which is not restricted to few
1:08:50phases of our career to have
1:08:53to keep making progress over a period of
1:08:55time so priorities
1:08:57should be right like i said good effort
1:09:00and priority should be to
1:09:01learning things and we have to believe
1:09:03we are capable of learning
1:09:05and without accepting our temporary
1:09:07problems as permanent
1:09:10weaknesses when managing time good
1:09:12concentration
1:09:13calculation skills and the other issue
1:09:16is like
1:09:16distractions for young children these
1:09:18days video games
1:09:20tv serials movies there are a lot of
1:09:23other distractions
1:09:25which can prevent them from working on
1:09:28their
1:09:29chest and so if you are very ambitious
1:09:32in chess if you are serious about it
1:09:35then you have to
1:09:36manage time off the board as well in a
1:09:38more efficient way
1:09:40if it chases your passion you have to
1:09:43justify it
1:09:44by spending more time with your passion
1:09:47and the other is many players they don't
1:09:50know what areas they should work at home
1:09:53and this prevents them from making good
1:09:56plan
1:09:56and some players they are simply lazy
1:09:59plain lazy
1:10:00they are not motivated enough to work
1:10:02hard
1:10:03and this is also some it holds many
1:10:07players
1:10:08back and many players they also give too
1:10:12much importance to openings
1:10:14most of the time they are working on
1:10:15openings either learning new openings
1:10:18or changing variations or checking
1:10:21things with
1:10:21um analytical engines and so on but most
1:10:24of the work
1:10:25players do could be in openings
1:10:29and this also i would strongly
1:10:30discourage
1:10:32and the other thing is poor self-esteem
1:10:35like they feel
1:10:37they come up with lot of ambition and
1:10:40hope
1:10:40when they come to church and because
1:10:42they don't work properly
1:10:44and they don't work enough they are not
1:10:46learning and improving
1:10:48and since their chest strength is not
1:10:49growing they are not getting the kind of
1:10:51results they are hoping to get
1:10:53and then reality sets in they get
1:10:56frustrated start
1:10:57doubting themselves so this is also very
1:11:01relevant among many players
1:11:05and it also affects their confidence and
1:11:08also one of the reason is like they
1:11:11constantly judge
1:11:12themselves on a day-to-day basis with
1:11:14their rating like today i lost some
1:11:16rating
1:11:16yeah today i gained rating so we don't
1:11:19become
1:11:20a better player if we win today or we
1:11:22don't become a bad player if we
1:11:24lose today so we should not judge
1:11:27ourselves too harshly on such
1:11:30short-term basis and then
1:11:34opponents rating we already discussed
1:11:36this higher rating lower rating period
1:11:38differently and then if we get bad
1:11:41positions in our games
1:11:43we don't fight back we simply collapse
1:11:46we accept our portion is bad
1:11:47we try some few cheap tricks it
1:11:50backfires we lose the game
1:11:52and we feel okay i got a bad position i
1:11:53lost so what is wrong about it no
1:11:55if you get a difficult position or if
1:11:57you get a position which you don't like
1:11:59even then you have to rise up to the
1:12:02occasion
1:12:03and start bringing resources from
1:12:06yourself
1:12:07okay you have to improve your
1:12:08concentration your efforts should become
1:12:10more
1:12:11intense and you should fight back and
1:12:13this quality is also
1:12:14very common among high rated players
1:12:16they can fight back
1:12:19in from in difficult positions and
1:12:22relaxing too much
1:12:23so at the lower level when we get good
1:12:25positions we immediately relax and we
1:12:27think okay i got a good position
1:12:29i can play any move and win so this
1:12:34makes us commit mistakes which we should
1:12:36not be making otherwise
1:12:38so our actually our alertness should go
1:12:41up
1:12:42in good positions because now if things
1:12:45go wrong
1:12:46it could be mostly because of my moves
1:12:49right suppose i have a queen and king my
1:12:52opponent has a king
1:12:53now however well he defends if i do my
1:12:56job properly i should win
1:12:57right right now i can get a different
1:13:00result maybe a draw
1:13:01only if i'm careless and so in good
1:13:04positions
1:13:06the responsibility increases because i
1:13:09have a better position
1:13:11now if i start doing things correctly
1:13:13from now
1:13:16typically i should win the game so if
1:13:18the game if i'm not going to win this
1:13:20game
1:13:20it is not because my opponent is going
1:13:21to defend well but it is because
1:13:23i did not use my chances so
1:13:27we should become more responsible and
1:13:29our alertness level should
1:13:30increase in good positions but the
1:13:33opposite happens when we get good
1:13:35positions
1:13:36we tend to relax and bring down our
1:13:40alertness the opposite should happen
1:13:43and many players they defend passively
1:13:46and
1:13:47especially players who have confidence
1:13:50issues
1:13:51they don't go for counter-attack
1:13:54whenever they are under attack they
1:13:56start defending
1:13:57this is a very negative habit and
1:14:01like i said they move pieces they
1:14:03exchange pieces
1:14:04these are all pretty common and
1:14:07in the opening phase i have seen many
1:14:10players they
1:14:10move peace many multiple times and they
1:14:13don't even
1:14:14realize they are doing this and this is
1:14:16something we have to
1:14:17take care as well and another problem is
1:14:20whatever shortcomings we have
1:14:22we start looking at them as permanent
1:14:25and this is
1:14:26something we should avoid as well
1:14:30so we have to believe like i can
1:14:33if i'm currently not good in a
1:14:34particular area
1:14:36i can work more in that area and get
1:14:38better yeah
1:14:39this should always be there and other
1:14:42problem is like many of us we
1:14:45are simply unwilling to change our bad
1:14:48habits
1:14:48so suppose i'm seeing half an hour a day
1:14:52just practice when i can actually put in
1:14:54one hour
1:14:55so i should realize like okay currently
1:14:58i'm spending 30 minutes on my game
1:15:00when i can actually spend one hour on my
1:15:02practice so i should
1:15:04somehow change and start putting that
1:15:06one hour
1:15:07but many of us we don't do that so
1:15:11and whatever other bad habits we have
1:15:13like poor time management
1:15:15lot of other stuff and we are mostly
1:15:18unreceptive to change
1:15:19we feel like what i'm doing is the right
1:15:23thing right way to do things
1:15:25and we are not willing to change
1:15:26ourselves this can also hamper our
1:15:29growth
1:15:29one thing i have seen with strong
1:15:31players is even though
1:15:33they are good in many areas they are
1:15:36always
1:15:36curious to know how they can change
1:15:40for the better so they believe
1:15:43progress is possible only when we change
1:15:46but at the lower level uh we become more
1:15:49rigid
1:15:51i'm good in this i'm not good in that i
1:15:53like this
1:15:54i don't like this we become more fixated
1:15:58in our opinions but the song
1:16:01yeah the strong players they are very
1:16:03malleable
1:16:04and they feel they can be good one long
1:16:07only as long as they
1:16:09remain in that malleable manner where i
1:16:12can
1:16:12where i retain the capacity to change
1:16:14myself
1:16:15so the moment i become fixed in my
1:16:18opinions
1:16:19then my growth stops yeah
1:16:22that's really funny i notice strong
1:16:24players when um
1:16:26if they miss something in their analysis
1:16:27that there's some move or resource they
1:16:29didn't see
1:16:30it's like they get excited about the
1:16:31position it's like oh there's something
1:16:33to discover here they don't they're not
1:16:35like oh i miss something i'm so bad
1:16:37you know they don't really they're just
1:16:38they're just oftentimes they're just
1:16:40interested in the game they want to
1:16:42explore
1:16:42the the truth of the position it's not
1:16:44about um
1:16:46who's who's good or who's not it's just
1:16:48about having fun and learning
1:16:50learning new ideas yeah um so ramesh i
1:16:53want to be
1:16:54respectful of your time i feel like
1:16:55you've already given us a ton of
1:16:58i mean incredible advice today and
1:17:00insight
1:17:01it sounds like a lot of chess
1:17:02improvement is actually extremely
1:17:04uh psychological it's like this area of
1:17:07of self-improvement where people are
1:17:10working on themselves in a way uh using
1:17:13chess as a kind of a vehicle for that
1:17:16overcoming their own fears and
1:17:18shortcomings over the over the board
1:17:22so this has been a super helpful i think
1:17:26i just want to remind folks that you are
1:17:29currently working for
1:17:31prochesttraining.com this is where
1:17:33people can get access to
1:17:36classes with you and several other very
1:17:39very strong grand masters hari krishna
1:17:40ganguly
1:17:41among others so people are definitely
1:17:44encouraged to go check out your your
1:17:45site and and sign up if
1:17:47uh they're interested um would you be
1:17:49willing to share this like
1:17:51chess uh the checklist with with some of
1:17:53our viewers
1:17:56um yeah i can share this uh
1:18:01the word documents right yeah yeah it's
1:18:03not something we have to do right now
1:18:04but for the youtube audience we'll
1:18:05include some links in
1:18:07in the description we can we can figure
1:18:08it out later um
1:18:12yeah that would be that would be super
1:18:13appreciated i'm sure people are gonna
1:18:15uh that's gonna get a lot of downloads
1:18:19i'm sure um or mesh is there anything
1:18:22you you'd like to uh
1:18:24uh close with just in terms of you on
1:18:26what you're what you're doing what
1:18:27you're
1:18:27looking forward to in the future yeah i
1:18:30think what i would suggest is like uh
1:18:32like i just said reinforce a few things
1:18:36as uh upcoming players we have to accept
1:18:39that there will be shortcomings in our
1:18:41games
1:18:41and we don't have to feel bad about it
1:18:43if i'm not
1:18:44good in particular area my endgame is
1:18:47not good my personal understanding is
1:18:49not good
1:18:50my calculation skills are not good my
1:18:52time management is not good
1:18:54my current work ethics is not good i am
1:18:56not putting
1:18:57enough time in my preparation at home if
1:18:59i am not
1:19:00doing that enough so i may have some
1:19:03shortcomings
1:19:04it is perfectly fine and it is very
1:19:06natural
1:19:07so we don't have to feel bad about it
1:19:10but we have to
1:19:11also realize that this cannot be
1:19:14the case in the future i have to evolve
1:19:18i have to change
1:19:19so wherever i feel i am not competent
1:19:21enough currently
1:19:23i i simply have to make a list and start
1:19:25working in those areas
1:19:27and i can definitely become better in
1:19:29those areas so if
1:19:31currently i am not good in the component
1:19:33links i can spend
1:19:34sufficient time onto compounding and i
1:19:36can become good
1:19:37this you have to believe so you must
1:19:39always
1:19:40believe in your capabilities and you
1:19:43should also believe
1:19:44that through my own effort
1:19:47i will get better so immediately you
1:19:49should not look for let's say i'm not
1:19:51good in current i realize i'm not good
1:19:53in two component things
1:19:54i should immediately not look for some
1:19:57coach
1:19:57who will teach me broken pawn endings so
1:20:01this learning from others is also very
1:20:04important but learning
1:20:07through your own effort is much more
1:20:10relevant much more
1:20:11important to you so you have to make a
1:20:14plan okay i want to improve my own
1:20:15component
1:20:16maybe you can ask others or google to
1:20:18find some good
1:20:19book on the component links but once you
1:20:21have the book it is
1:20:23the kind of work you're going to do in
1:20:26trying to become
1:20:27better in that area that is what
1:20:30will define you in the future in that
1:20:33particular area
1:20:34so once you have the rook and ponding
1:20:36book immerse yourself
1:20:39enjoy the process of learning this is
1:20:41also very important your heart should
1:20:43also be in it
1:20:44not only your brain so you have to do
1:20:47things
1:20:48because you enjoy doing them you love
1:20:50doing them that is also very
1:20:53important so you should not only enjoy
1:20:56playing chess
1:20:57on the winning part of it you also have
1:21:00to
1:21:01accept that there will be losses
1:21:03sometimes it would be
1:21:04painful but it is just a part of a
1:21:07process
1:21:08it's not more important
1:21:11we should not give undue importance to
1:21:13it so
1:21:14enjoy seeing chess and believe that
1:21:17you can become better in whatever area
1:21:20you focus your
1:21:21mind on and try to become universal
1:21:25ideally you should become good in all
1:21:27aspects of the game
1:21:28even in those areas which you feel
1:21:31you are not good currently even in those
1:21:34areas you can become good
1:21:36you must become good so don't ignore any
1:21:40aspect of the game
1:21:42have fun thanks very much i think that's
1:21:46really uh
1:21:46incredible advice guys if you missed any
1:21:48part of this um
1:21:50interview the whole thing will be up on
1:21:52on youtube you can check it out
1:21:54in full once again i just want to thank
1:21:55ramesh for for joining us this was a
1:21:57really
1:21:58really great episode uh really great
1:22:00discussion definitely worth re-watching
1:22:02and taking notes on
1:22:04for everyone out there uh thank you for
1:22:07the opportunity
1:22:08it was a great pleasure interacting with
1:22:10your audience
1:22:12thank you very much for the opportunity
1:22:13absolutely thank you so much and and
1:22:15we'll see you guys uh next time

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