On February 8, 2022, Yuri Averbakh became the first centenarian chess Grandmaster ever! Let’s see how many of these curious facts about him you already know:

·        The previous record for the longest-living Grandmaster was set by GM Andor Lilienthal – 99 years and three days.

The Russian Chess Federation could not miss the chance to congratulate Yuri Averbakh on such a spectacular anniversary.

·        One of the first childhood memories of Averbakh was being on the Red Square in Moscow on a snowy day when Mikhail Frunze died in 1925. The Lenin’s Mausoleum was still wooden back then, as it was built in 1924 and changed to stone only in 1930. As you can see, when Averbakh was born, Lenin was still alive, and Stalin was not yet officially in power! 

·        He barely missed the draft for WWII due to arriving at the recruitment point in summer shoes. By the standards of that time, Averbakh was quite a big man (1m 90s tall, 45 shoe size), so they couldn’t provide him with the proper boots and asked him to buy them himself somewhere else. He couldn’t find them in any shop in his city and decided to travel to Izhevsk to fulfill this quest! Long story short, to make a living, he ended up working as an engineer instead of going to war! 

·        As someone who attended the 2nd Moscow Tournament and spent all his life in the chess world, Averbakh must have seen in person or at least been the contemporary of all the World Chess Champions except for Wilhelm Steinitz!

·       Averbakh played nine World Chess Champions, achieving the following results: Max Euwe (+2, =0, -0), Mikhail Botvinnik (+3, =14, -11), Vasily Smyslov (+1, =9, -3), Mikhail Tal (+0, =8, -5), Tigran Petrosian (+4, =16, -2), Boris Spassky (+0, =7, -4), Bobby Fischer (+0, =1, -0), Anatoly Karpov (+0, =0, -1), Garry Kasparov (+0, =0, -2).

Congratulating Yuri Averbakh on his 100th birthday, Garry Kasparov recalled, among other things, the games they played and the fact that Averbakh acted as an arbiter during Kasparov’s matches against Karpov, Short, and Kramnik. 

·        Averbakh’s main tournament successes include competing in the legendary Candidates tournament in Zurich in 1953, winning the prestigious USSR Chess Championship in 1954, and sharing first in the 1956 edition of the championship, finishing second after a playoff (behind Taimanov but ahead of Spassky). 

Players and officials in the 1953 Zurich Candidates Tournament. We can spot Yuri Averbakh, the tallest person in the group, standing next to Vasily Smyslov, with whom they had been friends for 70 years or so.  Image from Zurich-cc.com.

·        Averbakh became a Grandmaster at 30 and essentially retired from professional chess at 40, believing he had reached his peak. He would occasionally play from time to time, though, but without setting serious competitive goals. His last “serious” game was in 2007 when he took part in the USSR vs. Yugoslavia match. 

·        Apart from chess, Averbakh’s strong passion for sports was volleyball. Then he got hooked onto boxing; was a big fan of swimming, and had the first-class sportsman rank in it. He also mentioned that he usually scored 23+ points out of 25 in a shooting range. 

·        Averbakh’s daughter Evgenia was the third wife of GM Mark Taimanov. The latter, apart from being a strong GM, was mostly known as an acclaimed pianist and the person who lost a Candidates match to Bobby Fischer with a devastating 0-6 score.  

·        Averbakh had a surprisingly low heart rate, 25-30 heartbeats per minute. With a cardio stimulator, it has reached 55-60 and has been at this level for the last 15+ years. 

·        In 2021, Averbakh was hospitalized and subject to intensive care due to COVID. Fortunately, he managed to recover. Sadly, the chess community lost a few remarkable players to this disease, including famous coach GM Yuri Dokhoian and renowned chess theoretician GM Evgeny Sveshnikov.

·        When asked about his longevity, Yuri Averbakh usually attributes it to working a lot. Apart from intellectual pursuits, he has always been active physically, for instance, attending a swimming pool well into his 80s.

·        Yuri Averbakh developed his typology of chess players. It has become reasonably well-known and accepted in the chess community: 

Why did I not become a World Champion? I classify chess players into a few groups. The first one is Killers. Drawing parallels with boxing, they not only try to win but want to knock out the opponent. In chess terms – to suppress him. This could be said about Botvinnik, Fischer, Korchnoi, and Kasparov has such traits as well. This is a rather popular type. The second group is Fighters. Fighters do their best, but for them knocking out the opponent is not a must; to win is enough. Lasker, Bronstein, and Tal belong to this group, even though Tal also had the traits of an Artist. The third group is Sportsmen. For them, chess is a sport, just like tennis. So, they try their best, but when the game ends, they act like normal, ordinary people. Capablanca was like that, or Keres. And the fourth group is Gamers. For them, chess is just a game. They could play cards, dominoes, pretty much anything. A classical representative of this group is Karpov. All the World Champions fit one of these four groups. And there are two more – Researchers and Artists. None of them have become World Champions since their motivation is not high enough. I am a researcher. Chess is interesting for me as a subject of research. 

·        Apart from being a top chess player, official, and arbiter, Averbakh is known as the author of many chess books, especially the endgame series. He was the chief editor of the magazines “Chess Moscow”, “Chess in the USSR”, and “Chess Bulletin”. He also worked as the host of a TV show “Chess School” from 1969 to 1991. 

“Journey to the Chess Kingdom” introduced Alexander Khalifman, Boris Gelfand, Vasyl Ivanchuk, Alexandra Kosteniuk, and many other top GMs to the wonderful world of chess. 

·        A few opening variations are named after Yuri Averbakh. 

King's Indian Defence, Averbakh Variation (E73): 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 d6 5.Be2 0-0 6.Bg5

King's Indian Defence, Semi-Averbakh system (E73): 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 d6 5.Be2 0-0 6.Be3

Modern Defense: Averbakh variation (A42): 1.d4 g6 2.c4 Bg7 3.Nc3 d6 4.e4

We wish Yuri Averbakh many more fruitful years to come! 

Yuri Averbakh has been passionate about chess throughout his entire life. We share our love for the game with you by developing the Play Magnus apps. If you are looking for a fun and efficient way to master chess, please make sure to check out our products! 

Chess has just obtained its first centenarian Grandmaster! 

Happy 100th Anniversary to GM Yuri Averbakh!

Anyone who has been part of the chess community for long enough knows that quite a few chess players are superstitious. How large is the number, however?

Here are the results of a poll conducted at Pogonina.com regarding mascots:

As you can see, almost half of the respondents have a mascot, and about 6% used to have one in the past. Please note that this only concerns mascots, whereas many other superstitions are popular among chess aficionados! Let's review some of the most prevalent ones.

Quite a few chess players use the same "lucky" pen for every round. 

Another widespread approach is to wear the same clothes as long as things go well and change the outfit once you lose. Therefore, when you see a chess player in a greasy sweater, it may be due to this superstition! Alternatively, some players sport chess-themed clothes, probably also hoping that it will boost their results. Former Women's Chess Champion Alexandra Kosteniuk is one of the fashion icons in this sense. 

Here is another remarkable outfit, this time by GM David Navara:

Also, a lot of players bring special mascots to the tournament. For instance, in her junior years, Judit Polgar (whose Zodiac sign is Leo) used to carry a statue of a lion with her wherever she went. If you ever got a chance to play against Judit Polgar, Age 9, in the Play Magnus app, you would surely know this interesting fact!

Or, another related example, Teimour Radjabov revealed during his room tour in Moscow that he carries a statue of Napoleon with him when traveling. 

Similar to wearing the same clothes, many chess players choose not to shave their beards/mustache until they lose. For instance, in the World Cup in 2021, Sam Shankland progressed to the ¼-finals, where he was eliminated by former Candidate Sergey Karjakin, without shaving. 

There are plenty of examples of this type; it is one of the most popular superstitions among male chess players. 

A prime example in this category is the legendary Garry Kasparov. Born on April 13, he became the 13th World Chess Champion in 1985 (8+5=13). Throughout his entire chess career, he believed 13 to be his lucky magic number. 

Also, he was notoriously serious about thinking that the age gap between him and Karpov (12 years) and him and Kramnik (also 12 years) was a sign from above. According to this theory, the next World Chess Champion was supposed to be born in 1987. When Teimour Radjabov, who was born in that exact year, defeated Garry Kasparov in Linares with Black in 2003 and received the best game award, Garry was mad about the judges' decision. At that time, the prospects of Radja becoming the next WC were widely discussed in the chess community. However, as you probably know, the next Challenger will be Ian Nepomniachtchi, while the hottest guy on the block is 18-year old Firouzja Alireza, who recently became #2 on the live ratings, crossing the 2800 mark. Still, Radjabov is expected to compete in the following Candidates, so we shouldn't write him off yet. 

In this video, Magnus Carlsen addressed another popular chess superstition – the birthday curse. Since many pros have to play tournament games on their birthdays, there is a certain notion that more often than not, it results in suffering losses. Quite often, the players feel low when they approach their birthday eve, and their thoughts wander elsewhere, so it is hard to focus on chess. However, when on his birthday Magnus Carlsen convincingly won the playoff against Sergey Karjakin in New York in 2016, he waived this superstition off:

In chess, it is said that you should not play chess on your birthday; that it's bad luck. So far, I have yet to experience that.

Let's hope that these words won't become prophetic and bite him since on November 30, 2021 Carlsen will be playing Game 4 of the World Chess Championship match. Unless you are rooting for Ian Nepomniachtchi, of course! 

This item stands out from the line a bit. Let's consider Viktor Kortschnoj, who played two World Chess Championship matches against Anatoly Karpov. Viktor was highly superstitious and genuinely believed that Anatoly Karpov's assistant, a parapsychologist, could hypnotize the former by staring at him from the playing hall. Later Kortschnoj half-seriously lamented that Carlsen must possess hypnotic powers to defeat other Grandmasters so easily in drawn positions. 

Also, Kortschnoj played a correspondence match against the late Geza Maroczy, earnestly believing that such a feat is possible to achieve. 

Numerous articles and even books have been written on this topic. One of the most recent and interesting ones, in my opinion, is this column by GM Genna Sosonko who knew Viktor The Terrible quite well. By the way, it opens with a mention of the fact that Viktor considered 19 to be his unlucky number.

During tournaments, the routine of most chess players reminds the Groundhog Day movie. They eat at the same places, take the same walks, prepare the same way and at the same time, etc. In part, this is similar to having a wardrobe full of identical black t-shirts: you save time and mental energy by not having to make a choice. However, some players stick to their rituals since it is their way to get into the right state of mind for the game and to convince themselves that they will do well, especially if the ritual has worked well in the past. 

Let me share one of my personal secrets. I try to show up for the round earlier than my opponent. Then I take my pen and pretend to fill in the result on the scoresheet. 1-0 if I am playing White or 0-1 if I am Black. From what I have seen, if I manage not to be late and perform this feat without my opponent catching me red-handed, I do win. Just kidding, of course. This is more of a way to shake off the tension for me than something I genuinely believe in. 

Finally, since the Carlsen – Nepo match is about to begin in Dubai, it is quite relevant to hear what Ian Nepomniachtchi has to say on this matter. Let me quote his recent interview for Chess.com:

Are you superstitious? Do you have any lucky items?

I used to be like this, and one of my first coaches told me "ok, it's very normal that you get to play wearing the same shirt if the tournament is going alright, don't change anything in your daily routine." But in general, I have found a lot of arguments for both takes on superstition.

If a tournament is ok, if it's going great, I would say you can do whatever you want. Just don't try to harm the way you work, the way you play, the way you prepare. But if the tournament is bad, it's very likely nothing will help you [laughs]. You can change your clothes 10 times, and change your pants or something, but it would hardly ever have any serious effect. So, in general, you have to be more realistic. Yeah, it's easy to talk like this when you're not involved in any tournament, but during the tournament, it can be very different. Well, let's see what happens.

What is my take on chess superstitions? The fewer things your mood is dependent upon, the better. I've seen people make quite a fuss about forgetting a favorite teddy bear at home or losing a beloved pen. You don't want your confidence level to depend on such things. Better trust in yourself rather than in the magic items or circumstances. 

Are you superstitious when it comes to chess? Let's talk about the most popular chess superstitions and use world-class Grandmasters, such as Magnus Carlsen and Ian Nepomniachtchi, as role models! 

In the first episode of the series, we touched upon some of the most typical fears that chess players face before and during the game. Also, we discussed how to boost one’s fighting spirit and gain confidence using the guardian method.

Let’s continue delving deeper into the topic and explore other tips that could help you become a fearless chess gladiator!

When I was much younger, I used to check out men’s magazines and websites occasionally. One of the popular subjects there that were brought over and over again was something like “the top-10 best ideas for a first date”. The womanizer columnist would typically recommend going for something creative to impress the potential girlfriend — horse-riding, attending a dance class together, swimming, and so on. In my opinion, the cons of this lifehack may easily outweigh the pros.

For example, let’s consider shy people who have low self-esteem and regard themselves to be “boring” and “not attractive enough.” They may shoot themselves in the foot by adopting the role of macho and trying to act like someone else. They may end up finding horse-riding tedious, a dance class – embarrassing, and if they swim like a rock and are not happy about the way their bodies look, the process could also turn into torture for them. I don’t mind stepping out of one’s comfort zone now and then, but the first date is probably not the right place to do it unless you are specifically banking on this comic effect by making yourself look vulnerable. 

What would my recommendation be then? Remain yourself and act naturally. This tip is especially efficient if you are interested in a long-term relationship because it would be tough for you to keep pretending and playing a role for a long time. One man’s trash is another man’s treasure! That is, it is usually easier to find someone who appreciates your true self than to try to reinvent yourself each time whenever you have a crush on someone. 

When choosing a place for a date, a good idea could be to head to your “domain of power.” That is, a place where you feel like a king; where you perform better than others. Where your eyes shine, and you are genuinely happy and relaxed. When people do what they love and enjoy, they usually look attractive to others. That is, if the former are not self-obsessed and arrogant, of course. 

I dislike generalizations, but chess players, on average, are more of the nerdy/shy type. I remember discussing this subject with one of my friends. Our conversation went along the following lines:

He (smiling self-skeptically): So, you are saying I should take her to a place where I enjoy myself? Let’s say I like playing blitz in the park and trash-talking my opponents. If I take her there, she will probably shake her head and leave, thinking that I am some jerk…

I: Well, the truth is that you probably don’t need ten girlfriends. Let’s say 6 out of 10 won’t go on a date if you suggest this scenario. Three more will consider you a freak and won’t like their boyfriend to be a chess player. However, the 10th one will admire the way you play and appreciate your wicked sense of humor! She will stay with you for hours…and maybe even years! So, if you are a good blitz player, it could definitely be a trump in the sleeve. And this way, you won’t have to quit chess or pretend that this side of your life doesn’t exist!

Oh, wait. This is the Play Magnus blog; I am not writing for a men’s magazine today! So, how are all these dating nuances related to a chess game? The point is, when you lack confidence and feel down, a good idea is to recall your moments of glory when you were on top of the world. Now, if you are one of those people who downplay their achievements and say, “I’ve done nothing special so far,” then I have to point out that everything in life is relative. Maybe you didn’t win the Nobel prize or an Olympic medal, but I am sure there were situations when you got your chance to shine. It could be at school, at the university, at work – anywhere! Just learn to accept compliments and praise and add those blocks to your self-esteem, making it grow. 

Most of us are not professional chess players, so we have to look for these moments of glory elsewhere. For example, I am a world-class public speaker and award-winning debate expert. When I feel drained and weak, I imagine myself walking out on the stage in front of a crowd of people. This is where I am at the pinnacle of power. I can take on any opponent in the world in this state without having any fear. Energy flows throughout my entire body as I close my eyes and visualize this scene. Even though I am not nearly as good at chess as at debate, the inner confidence transfers over and helps me prepare mentally for tough games. If you think about it, you will come up with similar experiences that suit you best. If you were able to achieve all those feats in the past, you might as well perform well in your upcoming chess match! That being said, confidence alone won’t guarantee victory; you still have to play chess well to succeed! 

Speaking of the domain where you feel like a king, I believe one of Magnus Carlsen’s key strengths is that he knows that he is the best chess player in the world. Basically, he doesn’t need to imagine anything. He sits at the board, and that’s where he is most dominant! A similar thing could be said about Kasparov until he caught that mystical, psychological virus about Kramnik being 12 years younger (the age difference between Karpov and Kasparov) and his potential successor. Generally speaking, quite often, legendary champions are first defeated in their own minds, and only then in reality. The “moment of glory” technique is useful for preventing that mental breakdown from happening. 

Later in my career, I started having more success in pivotal games. Maybe this is due to realizing a simple thing: fear was besetting not only me but my opponents as well.

If you have never heard the abovementioned quote, you will probably be surprised since Mikhail Tal has the image of a reckless and fearless berserk who used to go all out at the opponents in every game, taking huge risks. While he was young, he did play that way indeed, but you can see that at a later stage of his life, he had the courage to admit that even back then, he was still haunted by fear when the stakes were high. Therefore, you shouldn’t be too hard on yourself if you lose confidence at the board now and then. 

Remember that famous line from “The Predator” (1987)? “If it bleeds, we can kill it.” The truth is, your opponents are also going through all sorts of troubles and fears. Maybe they are even more exhausted, sick, demotivated, anxious, and afraid than you are! Instead of making a mental list of why you are not in your best shape (basically, creating a self-fulfilling prophecy of why exactly you are going to fail), make a similar list for your opponent. Maybe he had a cough? Did he look weary? Did he lose a terrible game, showing that he is in bad form? Did his last game continue for 60+ moves, making him spend a lot of energy and not allowing you to prepare for your match? Maybe he feels uncomfortable in this city due to not being accustomed to such temperature and food? Is he worried about missing out on a GM norm? Perhaps he has helicopter parents who keep pushing him for more, destroying his will to play. The list could go on forever. Obviously, I am not suggesting you spend the whole evening gloating over someone else’s problems. No. Just make a brief check and realize that your opponent probably has at least as many hurdles in front of him as you do. If you are not sure, you can imagine what you need! There are always more things going on behind the scenes than you ever know. 

Are you interested in becoming as confident and fearless over the board as Magnus Carlsen? Let his magic rub off on you by downloading the Magnus Trainer and learning from the reigning World Chess Champion himself! 

What is the connection between planning a perfect first date and preparing for a crucial chess game? You are about to find out soon! 

How To Overcome Your Chess Fears – Part II

"I learned that courage was not the absence of fear but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear."

Even though few people admit it openly, most chess players are haunted by all sorts of fears before and during the game. 

Let's go through a list of the most common issues together. Are any of them familiar to you?

·       Fear of the opponent. "He is much higher-rated than me." "He is much stronger than his rating suggests." "He is a titled player, while I am not." "He is much more experienced." "He is way better prepared and has a great coach." "He has always crushed me before and will probably do it again." 

·       Fear that something will go wrong during the game. "What if I blunder a piece for no apparent reason like I did in the previous round?". "What am I going to do if I forget my preparation?". "What if I run right into his opening trap?". "I've had these heart attacks lately. What if they strike again?". "What if I get into time trouble and self-destruct?"

·       Fear of not achieving the desired result. "What if I miss out on my GM norm?". "My rating is going to suffer if I lose." "If I don't win, I might not earn a prize." "This game could cost me a place on the podium." 

Such gloomy expectations often become self-fulfilling prophecies. I recall an old man telling me after the game: "I am such a blunderer! Today in the morning, I was afraid of blundering at some moment of the game, and there it goes..." Needless to be said, he did blunder rather terribly at some point. Of course, one might claim that he was not a particularly strong player, so mistakes were the norm for him rather than something exceptional. Still, such negative self-programming should definitely be avoided since it increases the chances of failure. 

If you have never encountered such problems in your life, then you may as well shake your head, forget all this gibberish, and move on. However, for most of us, it makes sense to employ specific techniques that could help us let go of our fears before and during the game. 

Having a strong fighting spirit is quite helpful when it comes to competitive chess. For example, my friend and former colleague GM Arkadij Naiditsch is a true fighter – a berserk who goes all out regardless of who he is facing. I believe that one of the factors behind his mindset was his experience in karate. He has the 5th kyū (blue belt) in it. 

To give you a sense of how calm and confident he is, I recall discussing complicated business matters with him. Then at some point, he casually remarks: "Sorry, Peter, I have to leave for my game against Vladimir Kramnik. Will talk to you later in the evening". Then he beats one of the greatest chess players of all time with Black and gets back to work, even though he has an upcoming game against another legend the next day.  

In the 2015 edition of the Grenke Chess Classic, Magnus Carlsen and Arkadij Naiditsch shared first after the classical portion and had to compete in a playoff to determine the winner. This is one of the most nail-biting tie-breaks that I have ever witnessed. You are in for a treat if you have never watched it before! 

Wondering how strong Carlsen was back then? You can always challenge 24-year old Magnus in the Play Magnus app. Spoiler alert: he was rated 2862, so don't be too hard on yourself if you lose! 

Non-martial art experts can also try the "guardian" method. You can either imagine yourself as some sort of hero or pretend that a certain guardian is standing next to you during the game. 

I like picturing myself as a samurai who follows the Hagakure philosophy in the sense of considering bushido to be a "Way of Dying" and being prepared to die at any moment. When you have that sort of cold-bloodedness, fear lets go of you. Miyamoto Musashi's "The Book of Five Rings" has also contributed largely to my development as a chess warrior. 

IM Willy Hendriks recalls a funny story in his excellent book "Move first, think later". An opponent of his found a strong move and admitted after the game that it was due to asking himself what move Kasparov would play in the position. However, Willy has later checked the database and found out that Kasparov had made a different move in that exact situation! Still, this is an interesting example of someone improving his play based on envisioning himself as Garry Kasparov. 

Another famous anecdote that comes to mind is a story told by Mikhail Tal. He played against an amateur who was hypnotized to believe that he was Paul Morphy. According to Tal, the guy was quite confident and played very well for his level in "Morphy form", whereas when they played a normal game (no hypnosis), the amateur quickly fell apart. 

The second approach is also quite simple. If you don't want to turn into a different character for some time, you can instead imagine an imaginary guardian standing next to you and offering support. Just make sure not to start talking to him, or the people around you will be shocked! 

There is no need for mascots and psychoanalysts when the likes of Yoda or Gandalf can come to the rescue when you desperately need aid! It's all in your head. 

Overcoming one's chess fears is a rich subject. We will discuss it in more detail in the episodes to come. 

We featured one of the games from the tie-break mentioned above in the Magnus Trainer lesson called "Trapping a Piece 3 - Naiditsch Traps Carlsen's Knight?".  Now guess what? We have 600+ more lessons there, as well as a few entertaining minigames! Make sure to try the app out if you haven't done so before.  

To begin with, let go of the fear of admitting you have chess fears! 

How to Overcome Your Chess Fears - Part I

“If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained, you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.”

In the modern chess age defined by engines and extensive databases, it is more menacing than ever to fall into a trap right out of the opening. What can one do to minimize the chance of this happening?

Check your own and the opponent’s dossiers. Sun Tzu made a good point, after all. Modern chess databases allow one to quickly scan all the publicly available games you and your opponent played. Try to foresee where the opponent will try to trap you based on the weaknesses evident from your player profile.

If you have a decent alternative to one of the moves you have always been employing in a certain position, sometimes it makes sense to try it out. This is especially productive if your opponent has never faced that continuation in his life and is not likely to be aware of the intricacies of the arising positions.

Keep adding more openings to your repertoire. To familiarize yourself with new pawn structures and associated plans, it makes sense to keep enhancing your repertoire as time goes by and you gain more experience and improve as a player. However, it is important not to overextend since it is hard to master a few openings at a time. Also, this “it’s better to be rich and healthy than poor and ill” advice is tough to follow for amateur chess players who can allocate only a minimal amount of time to chess studies.

Play “opening schemes”. There are quite a few openings that can be played on “understanding” as opposed to relying on concrete knowledge and exact move orders. The nature of play there is not forced, so it is hard to prepare a refutation. Basically, by playing them, you don’t pay much attention to what your opponent is doing and just develop your pieces in a more or less predefined way.

For instance, in the London System, which is employed even at the top level, White typically goes for d4, Bf4, Nf3, e3, c3, Bd3, Nbd2, erecting a pawn triangle in the middle of the board. Of course, one should not play these moves in a braindead way, but it is still a setup that one can often accomplish with minimal care.

This method is particularly popular with casual players who don’t have much time to spend on openings and people who dislike studying chess in general or have a poor memory and can’t memorize long lines no matter how hard they try.

However, the obvious drawback of this approach is that such setups are usually not ambitious enough and typically lead to equal or (slightly) inferior positions. Also, if you keep repeating the same setup over and over again, it shouldn’t be a problem for the opponent to find a plan against it that suits his style well.

Play a “one-time” opening. You might be familiar with the advice of having some tricky one-game openings prepared for specific tournament situations. For example, sometimes you need to win at all costs; your opponent is a booked-up theoretician, so you want to avoid his preparation; the opponent has a strong coach who can pinpoint weaknesses in your main repertoire, etc. The trick here is that one still needs to put in a lot of effort to get a sense of what is going on in those offbeat lines; you shouldn’t just improvise and hope that everything works out somehow.

Of course, it takes a lot of courage and self-confidence to employ in a crucial tournament game an opening that you haven’t played much. However, there is an even more dangerous aspect: after trying such a line with success, a chess student may be tempted to think there is no need to build a solid and sound chess repertoire. Why do it when you can merely unleash your surprise weapons one after another on the unsuspecting victims? The problem with such an approach is that an essential part of becoming a strong chess master is gaining experience with particular pawn structures. To do so, one has to play many games with the same opening, study the main plans and ideas, and keep working on one’s positional and tactical mistakes. The chess muscles develop gradually but steadily this way.

Meanwhile, someone who knows a bit of everything is usually mediocre because there is not enough time to study everything in chess till perfection. I have seen some people, especially coaches who have a relatively broad knowledge of chess openings, get away with using the “new game, new opening” method. However, even those usually remain on the same level or start slowly losing rating points. After all, getting the opponent out of book at all costs is usually something that can be recommended against partners of much lower chess skills. If you keep playing weaker opposition, your chess level will start to deteriorate. Also, if you try doing that against players who are better at chess than you, there is a high chance that the surprise weapon will surprise you more than the opponent.

Summarizing, one-time openings are a valuable tool of a competitive player, but they shouldn’t be a replacement for serious work on the main lines of one’s opening repertoire.

Prepare a counter-surprise. Instead of being the hunted, you can become the hunter! That is, if you are a good analyst who remembers the content of your opening files, you might as well accept the challenge. I recall a funny story about Peter Svidler arriving at an exciting position, coming up with some conclusions on it and producing a move only to meet Garry Kasparov off-stage and hear from him something condescending like: “I hope you do realize that for normal people this position is only the starting point of home preparation?”

Anti-computer strategy. Suppose you know that your opponent loves working with a chess engine and has extensive opening files. In that case, you might want to choose an opening that the computers still don’t grasp well enough, where the nature of play is not concrete and requires sophisticated understanding and maneuvering. For example, in the Ruy Lopez or the Berlin the engines typically give a -0.1/0.2 score and can’t advise you on what plans to opt for. Of course, this approach might be less efficient against someone who has a strong human coach and can guide his protégé through the jungle of opening ideas.

I hope these simple yet efficient tips will make your life easier when preparing for your next game!

Be it mainstream openings, opening schemes, anti-computer lines, or surprise weapons, you will find a fine selection of them in the Magnus Trainer app. Please make sure to check it out if you are interested in learning from the World Champion and taking your opening repertoire to the next level.

Tired of having opponents prey on you in the opening? Here is our quick-fix guide on how to make life difficult for them over the board! »

How to Avoid Getting Caught by Your Opponent’s Opening Preparation

It is no secret that most of the best-selling products released in the chess industry are dedicated to openings.Magnus Traineris no exception when it comes to user preferences. Today, we have the following categories of lessons in the app: Foundation, Tactics, Strategy, Calculation, Opening, Endgame, Highlights. Still, even though the legendary World Champion Jose Raul Capablanca and many other chess titans argued that one should study chess from the endgame, very few people follow that advice. In fact, I don't recall a single message from our users requesting to cover some instructive endgame topic. What we do get in bulk numbers, though, are suggestions to add new openings to the mix or to expand on the already existing series. Don't get me wrong: there is nothing shameful about wanting to know more about the opening stage! Still, I wish the other categories were duly appreciated and respected as well.

"In order to improve your game, you must study the endgame before everything else, for whereas the endings can be studied and mastered by themselves, the middle game and the opening must be studied in relation to the endgame."


Let's try to ponder this situation and come up with some ideas on why chess players are obsessed with opening knowledge.

First of all, some of them are mimicking the world's best. However, the top players have walked a long road before arriving at where they are. In their games, there are few mistakes, so obtaining an edge from the beginning of the game is important. On the contrary, in amateur confrontations, both opponents tend to blunder a few times per game. Having half a pawn advantage (+0.5) out of the opening is a significant achievement for a Grandmaster, but amateur's duels are typically decided by blundering pieces or even checkmate. Therefore, why not focus on middlegame/endgame instead of going all-out on the opening? And, of course, never forget about tactics!

Being booked up goes in and out of fashion. For instance, for my generation, the ultimate role model in chess was Garry Kasparov. At his prime, he, being an excellent analyst himself and aided by a strong team of seconds and a computer lab that his competitors simply couldn't afford, was often able to achieve winning positions right out of the opening. Some of the lines that later happened on the board were analyzed in his home lab till mate. Some colleagues were so envious/pissed about it that they started claiming that Garry's main strengths were preparation and memorization!

In the 2010s, however, chess opening fashion has somewhat changed. Chess players picked up the narrative of Magnus Carlsen being a fantastic positional player and an endgame virtuous who could dispatch super GMs left and right without getting any opening advantage whatsoever. Back in the day, opening knowledge was indeed probably not his strongest suit. However, nowadays, in my opinion, most people don't give enough credit to how well-prepared, versatile and skilled at picking the right weapon against a particular opponent Magnus is, even though the revolution in computer chess has largely changed the way people prepare and the positions that are considered promising. It is more about the surprise factor nowadays than getting a position with a high engine evaluation.

Secondly, we associate our openings with ourselves. No one says "my middlegame", "my endgame", but you can hear about "my Slav" or "my King's Gambit". Also, building upon the idea of mimicking the world's best, some players feel happy about copying the repertoire of their chess heroes. Even if the skill level is vastly different, they still feel like openings form a connection between the role model and themselves. In fact, when you ask someone why he started playing a certain opening, you often hear something like: "My coach, whom I deeply respect, taught me that" or "The best player from my country, whom I admire a lot, used to play it, so I decided to pick it up as well".

Thirdly, many novice chess players search for a magic pill in chess that will help them achieve great results with minimal effort. This has already been mentioned in the column about studying the main lines. It is tempting to think that you can quickly master an obscure line and bamboozle a much stronger opponent due to the surprise factor. In reality, this approach does not work particularly well, but one can always hope!

I recall a funny story that goes back to the time when I was attending a chess club in London, Canada, back in 1999. One of the guys, a cheerful lad with long hair, was sipping one soft drink after another and loudly advertising that he was ready to challenge anyone for a small stake since he knows a chess opening that can't be countered. I smiled and asked if he would play me. Knowing that I, despite my young age, was the chess champion of the college, he laughed and shook his head, saying, "No, anyone but you!". In case you are wondering what his weapon of choice was, he was a big fan of Scholar's Mate and actually managed to beat some fellow rookies using it! Ah, the joys of discovering the game of chess…We have all been there.

Fourthly, quite a few chess players approach the game as science and, quoting Sir Francis Bacon, live by the "knowledge is power" motto. Being diligent, responsible, and striving for perfection, they feel more comfortable if they "do their homework" and play a more or less model game for at least a dozen opening moves. Even when things go downhill for them in the middlegame, they claim that next time they will prepare better and know what to do.

Fifthly, there is a "gotta catch them all" approach. It is common for some chess players to be interested in experimenting with openings to get new exciting chess positions and feel like they have become more well-rounded in the game. These guys usually like to think of themselves as "opening experts" and take pride in maintaining huge opening files full of analysis borrowed from external sources and obtained by doing some intense research on their own.

Sixthly, studying openings seems to be a leisurely pastime if you do it the wrong way. Chess players opt for the path of least resistance: they grab a book and keep flipping pages, mechanically going through the lines and not giving the variations much thought. This study method is less demanding than, for example, working on one's technique of converting winning positions or learning how to avoid time trouble. How should one study the opening? That is a different question of paramount importance that deserves its own blog post.

Why are many amateurs dedicating the lion's share of their chess time to studying openings? 

Why are Chess Players Obsessed with Openings?

A shell-shocked Garry Kasparov walking away from the board after losing on time to MVL. Image by Lennart Ootes, Grand Chess Tour.

Today’s blog post was inspired by Garry Kasparov’s recent abysmal performance in the Grand Chess Tour in Zagreb. The legendary 13th World Chess Champion scored 2.5 points out of 18 and finished in clear last place in the blitz event. One of the factors that caused such a disastrous result was poor time management and the inability to play well in time trouble. Notably, in a game against MVL, Kasparov lost on time in an innocuous equal rook endgame where he was at no risk whatsoever on the board.

Kasparov (White) froze in this position and failed to make a move, allowing his time to run out.

Obviously, the recommendations presented below are not aimed at Kasparov since when it comes to chess, Garry can teach pretty much anyone about any facet of the game. Still, I believe that some of the lifehacks presented below will be of use to less experienced players than Kasparov.

Also, it’s easy to offer banal advice like “do not ever get into time trouble”, but it’s challenging to follow it. Here are a few basic tips on what to do if you are in time trouble already:

• Keep your head cool and try to breathe normally. Amateurs start jumping up and down on the chair, hastily scribbling the moves on the score sheet, pulling their hair, knocking on the chess clock, and dropping pieces by trying to place them down with a shaking hand. Seasoned GMs remain solemn and make moves in a reserved and elegant way. They patiently write down the moves as if they had all the time in the world at their disposal. This behavior helps one to remain concentrated and prevents your heart from starting to beat like a drum and affecting your play.

• Avoid glancing at the clock over and over again. When you are in time trouble, every second is precious. You don’t want to waste time and pump up your heart rate by watching the clock tick away. It is easier said than done since you both need great self-control and an inner sense of time that will prevent you from flagging. The latter comes with experience and a lot of regular practice. Rusty players lose this sense and forfeit on time more often than you would normally expect from them.

• Focus on the game. Don’t start blaming yourself for getting in time trouble. Don’t fear that you will blunder something. Just concentrate and make the most of your current position.

Here are a few more intermediate-level tips that are must-know for tournament players:

• If you are on the defensive and hoping to take advantage of the 50-move rule, mark the last capture or pawn move on your scoresheet so that you don’t have trouble later on pondering whether you have earned the right to claim a draw or not. This habit helps one stay calm and collected when fighting for survival.

• If a conflict situation between you and your opponent occurs, stop the clock and call the arbiter. Sometimes people engage in a verbal discussion while their clock is still running. When they forfeit on time because of it, it is much harder for them to negotiate a favorable decision for themselves once the arbiter finally shows up.

• Try to make it to a time control if there is one. Sometimes move repetitions or exchanges can help you a lot. Of course, there’s a risk of trading the wrong pieces, but there’s also a saying: “Exchange more pieces so that you can’t blunder them in time trouble.” It has some truth to it. Generally speaking, even if you are a tactical genius, it is usually a good idea to simplify the position when you are in time trouble. When you are very short on the clock, it is next to impossible to find all the tricky lines that chess engines point out in the blink of an eye. Who cares that you have a winning position when you will either flag or blunder something away in the end?

Finally, here are a few advanced tips that are worth adding to your chess arsenal:

• If you desperately need to go to the WC and can’t leave it due to the prospects of losing on time, you can “pull a Leko”. There was a story involving him where he reportedly called for an arbiter, claimed a three-fold repetition, and rushed to the bathroom while the arbiter was diligently checking the score sheet! There was no repetition, but Peter did save enough time this way. Super GMs are resourceful!

• Back in the day, when people used to play with mechanical clocks, there was a dirty trick of not paying attention to the fact that your time ran out and playing on as normal, hoping that your partner won’t notice it in the heat of battle. Then, when the opponent flags as well, one could always point it out, if necessary, and claim a draw since it is impossible to prove who flagged first. Nowadays, however, digital clocks usually display a symbol showing who lost on time, so such tricks are no longer possible.

Garry Kasparov showing that even in 2021, you can still play on after you have run out of time!

• Get into the habit of making as many “short” moves as possible. This is especially relevant for drawish endgames. Let’s say the position is more or less equal, and the opponent is trying to test you by playing on and hoping that he will be able to capitalize on your time deficit. Then, for example, if you have a choice between shuffling your king back and forth and moving your bishop from g1 to a7, you should prioritize moving the king since it saves you a lot of time. I have seen quite a few players lose the game due to making fancy “long” moves over and over again, carefully choosing where to place the bishop, queen, or rook. Famous Russian blitz master Genrikh Chepukaitis took this idea one step further and suggested that in blitz, one should play “closer to the clock”, i.e., try to place pieces in proximity to the chess clock and to move them whenever possible, thus saving precious seconds. This was especially important in his golden days since back then, there was no increment, and the art of flagging the opponent was highly valued among fans of blitz.

• Apply Sun Tzu’s military advice to playing in time trouble: “Appear weak when you are strong and strong when you are weak.” This requires great self-control and good acting skills. Some chess players can send fake tells, bluffing the opponent into believing that they are not happy with their position and have just blundered something. Then when the unsuspecting victim goes for the allegedly winning line, it turns out that the hunter has just become the hunted! Or, conversely, if you blundered something terrible indeed, you should never show it and keep playing normally.

In the video above, Vishy Anand finds himself in an extreme situation, having just one second on the clock, and gives a phenomenal masterclass on handling time trouble. As you watch the video, analyze his actions, and try to recognize some of the principles mentioned above. Maybe you will even find something he could have done better!

If sweating it out and watching your hair turn grey from stress caused by playing in time trouble too often is not your cup of tea, you can always download Play Magnus and face Magnus Carlsen, Judit Polgar, Wesley So and other world-class Grandmasters in a relaxed and comfortable atmosphere. Feel free to take all the time in the world to beat them - but it will still be a formidable challenge!

Playing in time trouble is tough! What are the dos and don’ts when you are low on time? 

How to Play Chess When You Are in Time Trouble

When preparing for a game, we can choose between paying much attention to opening preparation and analyzing/memorizing variations or opting for the “fresh head” strategy.

Many Soviet chess experts blamed Boris Spassky’s loss to Bobby Fischer in 1972 on Boris falling for the “fresh head” approach, playing tennis or blitz instead of chess studies. However, it is more probable that Fischer, a hardcore chess fanatic, was simply a better player at that time. After all, he had a surreal rating of 2785, while Spassky was rated “only” 2660.

In the World Chess Championship match in 2000 between Garry Kasparov and Vladimir Kramnik, Garry failed to win a single game. Kramnik recalled that game after game, his opponent was looking more tired, and dark circles under his eyes kept becoming increasingly visible. It was clear that Garry and his team have spent an enormous amount of time on opening preparation, but they failed in destroying the Berlin wall.

So, which approach is better? There is no definite answer. However, there are a few tips worth mentioning. I hope they will make it easier for you to decide which strategy to adopt depending on the circumstances.

The higher the rating of the player, the more theory is typically required to memorize. If we go into extremes, novice players usually don’t prepare at all, while top Grandmasters can spend up to a few hours before the game.

Alexander Grischuk once wittily replied, “My whole life!” to the question about how long he had been preparing for the game against Shakhriyar Mamedyarov.

Club players often make the mistake of trying to imitate the actions of top Grandmasters, even though at their level, games are more likely to be decided by tactical errors than by getting a slightly better position in the opening. Or, a polar case, some of them neglect preparation and play something random after rushing to the tournament from work. A golden middle is called for.

There is no need to feed yourself page after page of chess analysis if you can’t remember it all that well. You probably saw Magnus Carlsen, Vladimir Kramnik, Vasyl Ivanchuk, and other chess titans recall games of other players that took place decades ago. They even remember the player names, tournaments, years, and what happened next! However, there are also top GMs whose memories are less exceptional. And as you go down the rankings, you are starting to see people who can’t remember what they played yesterday!

Suppose you keep noting during the games that you can’t recall the analysis that you have been rehearsing before the game. In that case, it makes sense not only to work on improving your chess memory (this is a serious topic of its own!) but also to reduce the load of theory for now.

Vladimir Kramnik’s opening files are particularly notorious. From what I have heard, if you open a file for a specific variation and start pressing “Page down” in ChessBase, the scroller barely moves at all!

There are some exceptions to this rule, but cramming up theory before the game is not a particularly exciting process for most people. Some pros are getting so fed up that they start promoting Fischer Random, chess without castling (hello, Vladimir Kramnik!), and other variants of the game that cut down on the amount of preparation and memorization.

Therefore, if you are already feeling low for some reason, it is probably not a good idea to become even more depressed by going over theory hour after hour. It may be better to take a walk or relax in some other way that you enjoy.
Also, if you are burnt out and not hungry for chess anymore, you should probably avoid overloading yourself even further with chess theory.

This is very similar to the psychological state. Memorizing variations is tough work. If you are ill or tired, it often makes sense to preserve energy for the grueling game itself instead of extending your workday for another few hours.
Tournaments, where you have to play two or more games per day, are more exhausting than traditional ones, so for these events it also makes sense to cut down on the preparation.

If your opponent’s repertoire is very narrow, i.e., he keeps playing the same lines over and over again, then it makes a lot of sense to dedicate some time to preparation, allowing you to come up with an exciting novelty and to surprise your opponent.

However, if your opponent plays a huge number of different systems and seems to pick them at random, it is probably not a good idea to cram up all of them. This is just too much work, and you will still probably forget most of what you have learned (“chess memory” strikes again!). Still, experienced players trust their gut feelings. Sometimes there is no logic to this, but you somehow KNOW that the opponent will play exactly that. In such cases, you might as well grant the line some attention before the game.

When Vasyl Ivanchuk was in his prime, other players used to joke when discovering that they were paired against Chucky that they got “a free evening” – back in the day, it was close to impossible to predict what Ivanchuk may be interested in playing. Thanks to his phenomenal chess memory and passion for the game, he could choose pretty much any popular opening.

Vasyl Ivanchuk vs. Vladimir Kramnik in 2017. Two chess legends with exceptionally sharp chess memories. Image by Anastasia Karlovich.

As you can see, it is hard to give concrete recommendations. There are many factors involved. However, for a typical club player, rehearsing lines before the game should probably take between 15 to 60 minutes. If you never prepare at all, this probably means that you don’t work on openings seriously enough. If you imitate the top GMs and spend a few hours before the game to digest chess analysis, you are probably shooting yourself in the foot by spending precious energy that you could use during the actual chess duel.

To have something to rehearse, you should start by creating your openings files. How do you build an efficient opening repertoire based on your specific needs and abilities? What opening tiers are there, and how do you tell a sound opening from an unsound one? How do you study openings step by step? Magnus Trainer will help you navigate all these important topics and many more under the guidance of Magnus Carlsen. You will also get to master the openings of your choice, focusing on the plans and typical ideas for both sides, reviewing model games, solving instructive exercises, and familiarizing yourself with cutting-edge move orders.

How long do you prepare for a tournament chess game? And how long should you do it? 

Preparing for a Chess Game: A Fresh Head vs. Studying

If you check out chess forums where people enjoy bitterly arguing over such topics as "who was the greatest player of all time?", you will often see arguments about modern chess ratings allegedly being inflated. For instance, you will encounter claims that Bobby Fischer's 2785 rating points in 1972 were worth more than Garry Kasparov's 2851 in 1999 or Magnus Carlsen's 2882 in 2014.

However, what we are witnessing in open tournaments right now is gradual rating deflation. Barring bright juniors shooting through the roof, most of my friends and acquaintances are shedding rating points despite feeling like they have improved their game. Of course, one should take the latter claims with a grain of salt: as players age, they seem to better grasp the game's intricacies, but their practical skills deteriorate. Also, chess keeps evolving very fast, so, quoting the Queen of Hearts from "Alice in the Wonderland":

It takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!

Still, whereas a few years ago, I more or less knew how a 1700, 2000, 2300, and 2600 were supposed to play on average, now you have no idea what to expect regardless of the rating of your opponent. For example, in one of the rounds of the recent Nezhmetdinov Memorial, I was paired against a 12-year-old kid rated 1747. Typically, this should have been a piece of cake for me, but this guy dispatched me quite confidently. He played the opening well and fast, and all his remaining moves in the game matched the first line of Stockfish. I don't even think he was cheating! You see such "miracles" left and right these days, so they are not something extraordinary anymore.

Another participant of the event, a Grandmaster aged 29 and rated 2462 who usually is quite consistent, lost in the first two rounds to players rated 1985 and 1925, then bounced back in a couple of games, drew a 2011, won a couple more matches, lost to a 2265 and withdrew from the tournament after Round 8. Over these eight rounds, he shed 26.3 rating points, which is quite a lot for someone with a K of 10.

A 40-year-old player from my home city rated 2147, who is considered locally to be quite strong and recently had a rapid rating of 2350+, lost a whopping 81 rating points in this tournament.

On the board next to me I overheard an amusing dialogue between a small kid (1784) and an experienced man (2012). Before the game, they started comparing their Lichess ratings in blitz, and it turned out that both of them were rated between 2300 and 2400 there. These numbers were actually higher than I expected. Guess what? The underdog won the game rather effortlessly as if the ratings were reversed.

I could go on forever bringing up similar examples, but I guess you see my point already.

What are the main reasons for rating deflation in open events?

First and foremost, FIDE has been gradually decreasing the rating floor. Initially, it was 2200. In 1993, the floor was reduced to 2000, then to 1600 in 2004, to 1400 in 2006, to 1200 in 2009, and to 1000 in 2012. On paper, this looks like a great idea: why not allow people of all skill levels to obtain ratings and see how they compare against the world's top players? Also, this is beneficial for FIDE, as they can report a larger player pool to potential sponsors and earn some money from the players themselves. However, in practice, this system has negatively affected both the newcomers and, particularly, the already established players. Here is how it works in a nutshell:

Josh is a 5-year old kid who diligently studies chess in a club and has a great personal coach. To start gaining tournament experience as early as possible, the boy plays a local event against other kids and gets an initial rating of 1038. Since Josh works hard and smart, he keeps improving rapidly and should have been rated about 1500 by age 6. However, his actual rating is, in fact, only 1176 since he keeps mainly playing against his peers, who are also improving quite quickly. By age 8, he is rated 1500+ and starts playing open tournaments, while his real playing strength is more like 1700-1800. As the adults facing him acknowledge quickly, he is much better than the rating suggests, so for them, it is by no means possible to score close to 100% against him, as the rating difference implies. The result is that the grown-ups keep losing rating points against the bright chess prodigy, while he is not gaining them fast enough to obtain an "adequate" rating.

To compensate for this phenomenon, junior players and newcomers in general rated below 2300 have a K of 40 (compared to 20 for most players and to 10 for players who were rated 2400+ at some point in their careers). Still, most of them don't play enough games to close the gap between their real playing strength and the official Elo.

This leads us to point #2: the COVID pandemic made things much, much worse. Right now, there are armies of promising juniors out there who are hungry for progress and who haven't had a chance to play live rated tournaments for the last year. By training hard and smart and playing online, they improved by a few hundred rating points, which is not reflected in their Elos. If you get sucked into facing such guys, getting only a couple of points for a hard-earned victory, and squandering close to 20 (10 for 2400+ players) in case of a loss, be prepared to kiss your rating goodbye.

Let's say we have 25-year old Jessica (2025) playing against 8-year old Mathias (1505). As the rating difference between them is 520, Jessica is expected to score 0.96 points against Mathias (see the table above). If she wins, she will gain (1-0.96) * 20=0.8 rating points. If Mathias wins, he will net 0.96 * 40=38.4 rating points. As you can see, Jessica is not motivated to face such an opponent because she will probably have to work very hard to earn that meager 0.8 points. And in the long run, she will lose a lot of rating points by taking on such opposition.

Of course, I am not the first person to raise this concern publicly. There have been other cries for help before. For example, in 2019, before the pandemic, Walter Wolf wrote a column for ChessBase, addressing this issue and advocating for a tricky mechanism:

To better account for the increasing playing strength of young players one could slightly raise the K-factor of the winner and slightly lower the K-factor of the loser in a game between two juniors. The winner then would gain more rating than the loser would lose.

A similar plus is necessary when adults play against juniors because the overall Elo level of junior players can only rise in games against adults.

In his recent FB post, GM Alexander Moiseenko estimated the average rating deflation to be somewhere around 200 points and suggested the following measures:

Assign the initial rating according to the player's performance. According to him, right now, FIDE uses a weird formula that takes into account the average rating of the opposition, so "even if you score 9/9 against 1200-rated players, you will receive a rating of around 1500."

Bring back the "350 points difference" rule and award 1.1 rating points (for K=10) to the winner if s/he is rated 350+ points above the loser.

Introduce the "350 points difference" rule in rapid and blitz.

One can come up with many other suggestions. It is a matter of acknowledging the problem and initiating an expert discussion within FIDE.

Since FIDE is unlikely to mitigate this issue in the nearest future, here are some of the possible options that my friends and I came up with during internal discussions:

• Play only events with a relatively high rating floor. For instance, 2000+. In such tournaments, the percentage of underrated kids is smaller than in open tournaments where, let's say, everyone, is allowed to participate.
• Stay out of live tournaments for a while and focus on playing online (a questionable decision since these are two very different formats).
• Find "chess reserves" where the players are relatively old. This is what some norm hunters do, by the way: prey on the overrated opponents in round robins instead of dueling underrated kids in open events.
• Quit competitive chess (haha…or not?!).
• Ignore your rating entirely for now and focus on chess improvement if you genuinely love the game.

Anyway, if you are frustrated about youngsters chipping your hard-earned rating points away, I want to let you know that you are not alone!

Are you tired of endlessly facing cheaters online and of getting shortchanged by underrated juniors in live events? Check out the Play Magnus app, where you can challenge such top players as Magnus Carlsen, Judit Polgar, Wesley So at a fixed age and playing strength. Isn't it a pleasure to get a fair fight and to know what to expect from your opponent?

Wondering why chess players are losing rating points left and right? Rustiness, old age, and poor physical shape might not be the key reasons! 