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Grandmaster Insides First edition 2017 by Thinkers Publishing Copyright © 2017 Maxim Dlugy All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a re trieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission from the publisher. All sales or enquiries should be directed to Thinkers Publishers, 9000 Gent, Belgium. Email: [email protected] Website: www.thinkerspublishing.com Managing Editor: Romain Edouard Assistant Editor: Gunter Deleyn Software: Hub van de Laar Proofreading: Daniel Vanheirzeele & Aman Hambleton Graphic Artist: Philippe Tonnard Cover Design: Mieke Mertens Production: BESTinGraphics ISBN: 9089492510082 D/2017/13730/3 Grandmaster Insides By Maxim Dlugy Thinkers Publishing 2017 Key to Symbols used a good move ± White has a serious advantage ? a weak move =+= Black has a serious advantage !! an excellent move +- White has a decisive advantage ?? a blunder -+ Black has a decisive advantage !? an interesting move � with an attack ?! a dubious move i with an initiative <- 0 only move --+ with counterplay = equality tJ. with the idea of 00 unclear position 0 better is 00 with compensation for the sacrifi- :s; worse is ced material N novelty White stands slightly better ± + check =+= Black stands slightly better # mate 4 Contents Key to Symbols used & Bibliography ........................................................................ .4 Introduction ............................................................................................................... 6 Chapter 1-How I grew up to become a Professional Chess Player .........................9 Chapter 2 - Key Moments of Development as a Child ............................................ 19 Chapter 3 - Integration of Chess Into Normal Life .................................................. 25 Chapter 4 - The Role of Blitz .................................................................................. 29 Chapter 5 - Development of Necessary Skills: Tactics & Strategy .......................... 39 Chapter 6 - Improvement Secrets ...........................................................................47 Chapter 7 - How to Study Openings ....................................................................... 53 Chapter 8 - Learning a new Opening System ..........................................................95 Chapter 9 - Preparation for a Match .................................................................... 105 Chapter 10 - Preparing for the Next Round in a Swiss Tournament .................... 139 Chapter 11 - Analysis & Para lysis .......................................................................... 147 Chapter 12 - Touching the Stars ........................................................................... 159 Chapter 13 - Enhancements: Dvoretsky, Geller, Gulko, Deep Blue ...................... 173 Chapter 14 - Rubbing Shoulders with the Greats ................................................. 185 Chapter 14a - Garry Kasparov .......................................................................... 185 Chapter 14b - Viswanathan Anand .................................................................. 211 Chapter 14c - Misha Tal ................................................................................... 227 Chapter 14d - Vassily Smyslov ......................................................................... 235 Chapter 14e - Boris Spassky ............................................................................. 243 Chapter 14f - Vladimir Kramnik ....................................................................... 247 Chapter 14g - Anatoly Karpov .......................................................................... 257 Chapter 14h - Magnus Carlsen ......................................................................... 273 Chapter 15 - Crucial Games .................................................................................. 279 Chapter 16 - Chess Writing ...................................................................................349 Chapter 17 - Amazing Games and Combinations ................................................. 359 Chapter 18 - Blitz and Rapid Successes and the Reasons for them ......................387 Chapter 19 - Grandmaster Insides ........................................................................ 391 Epilogue .................................................................................................................405 5 Introduction I started to play chess when I was 7 years old, which was average for Russia, or more precisely the Soviet Union, the country I was born in. I immediately fell in love with the game of chess, and still carry that love more than 40 years later. I loved chess because, thanks to the tutelage of my father and grandfather, I was able to chal lenge adults and felt special being able to compete with many of them on even terms. After a successful career in finance and management, I recently came back to my big love - chess, by deciding to spend a substantial amount of time teaching the game that gave me so much joy and happiness. As I am no longer an active profes sional chess player, having left the circuit about 25 years ago, my current level of play is extremely volatile; one day I could be beating a 2700 player, while the next I may lose to a good club player who manages a creative attack. This gives me an excellent vantage point from which to examine what makes a Grandmaster tick, as both strong moves and horrible blunders can be produced by one and the same head - not only in the same tournament, but even in the same game. The concept of explaining precisely what a Grandmaster sees and what he does not came to me after some of these roller-coaster events. I firmly believe that under standing the true scope of an average Grandmaster's potential will help players of all levels better their game. How? You may ask. My answer is simple: by showing the human side of Grandmas ters, players of all levels will know that their aspirations to become better are quite realistic, as even the highest title in chess does not guarantee against a healthy portion of mistakes, miscalculations and outright blunders. Besides this hopefully inspirational chapter, which you will find towards the end of the book, you will also be able to follow my exploits as a player who once made it to the top 50 in the world. In my relatively short professional career, spanning about 6 years, I came close to qualifying for the Candidates tournament, won the World Junior Championship and all the major Open tournaments in the U.S. Although this book will by default be quite biographical in nature, my real goal here is to make it very instructional. The focus will be on how to improve your game 6 whether it is for your child who is five or six years old, or for a master that has stalled in his progress. By making a note of what and how I studied at every stage of my development and what mistakes I have made, you will find many interesting examples of ideas you may want to repeat or avoid yourself from my career. I will put these in italics in the text so you, dear reader, will have an easier time spotting them in the book. Hopefully those memories, along with games and opening analysis from the past, will guide you towards a better understanding of how to improve in chess. Maxim Dlugy January 2017 7 Chalrier I Howla proles i--I-I ehess player I have always loved games and thanks to my parents, who cultivated that interest in me, I would always play competitively with adults. One of my favorites was the game "Cities", where players alternate naming cities starting with the last letter of the previous players choice. So if someone says Paris, you can say Strasbourg and your opponent needs to name a city starting with the letter G. This required pre paration; I remember browsing through index of city names, trying to remember cities that start with tough letters, such as Y or X. That was the first step. Then I would prepare to spring traps on my opponents by remembering cities that end with tough letters like the letter X. This laid the basis to my approach in preparation fo r playing games; this method became indispensable when I became a professional chess player. I was always interested in game theory and in the ability to improve my own skills so I could win. I don't know why winning became so important, but I firmly believe that a strong desire to win is necessary to become a truly strong player in chess. Only this can push one to work at learning more and more about an ultimately infinite game. I learned chess from my maternal grandfather, who was a very strong player of about 2400 strength. He played for the Dinamo Moscow chess club team, with 9 Chapter 1 David Bronstein, on board one. I have a photo of him playing a tournament game against Vassily Panov, the collaborator on the Panov Botvinnik attack in chess theory. That game ended in a draw. Unfortunately my grandfather died, right af ter he showed me how to set up the pieces and some of the rules of chess. My David Bronstein (photo Jos Sutmuller) father and my paternal grandfather took over from there, playing chess with me to compensate for the loss of such a potentially wonderful teacher. When I was seven, kids played chess at the summer camp I was sent to, but from what I remember, we all hardly knew the rules and were making them up as we went. One of our inventions was that if only the