Your questions answered by Natalia Pogonina-29 |
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| Friday, 24 December 2010 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 The rules are simple - send us your questions and see them featured in the weekly Q&A column! Q1: Are Hou Yifan and Ruan Lufei strong players? Did you get a chance to play them? A1: By definition, participants of the final match for the Women's World Chess Champion title are strong players. I have an even score against Hou Yifan (+1 -1 in standard chess, a draw in rapid) and a positive vs Ruan Lufei (one win in standard chess). Q2: How do I calculate a long variation? A2: This is a very serious and general question. First of all, if you have trouble visualizing the position at the end of a variation (or forget where the pieces are, etc.), you should solve special exercises and probably use software that helps improve visual memory (often connected with playing chess blindfolded). Secondly, it is important to know what to calculate, and what not to calculate. As humans can't simply review all the moves, a lot depends on intuition. The stronger the player, the better usually his/her intuition is. Thirdly, often people calculate a variation correctly, but end up in an inferior position. This has to do with weaknesses of positional understanding, i.e. evaluting the resulting position in a wrong way. Q3: Well apart from being a chess grandmaster I have been working in a regular job for more than 20 years now, and I made enough money to have a good living. But what I don't understand and what I will never understand is how pure chess professionals are making enough money in chess to survive or to have at least an average life standard. Maybe you can explain to me that phenomen, because you claim you are a pure chess pro and you obviously like it. Also you have to co-support a family. (sent by a GM rated about 2550, at one point #32 in the world - Pogonina.com) A3: First of all, I admire your example in the sense of being able to play chess that well while having a regular job. You may serve as a role model for millions of amateur or semi-pro players out there. As to your questions: there are many intricacies. For the last few years I have been ranked 13-29 in the world among female players (that's a 2742-2715 range for men). Of course, my tournament earnings are lower than top male grandmasters', but, for obvious reasons, they are definitely higher than what male grandmasters of my FIDE rating earn. Also, as you may have noticed, I am a rather active person. That leads to additional business and sponsorship offers, endorsement requests and so on. Another thing is that I am an optimist who enjoys life and tries to help other people enjoy it. Of course, I could start moaning here and there that "an athlete of my level deserves better conditions" and so on, but would it make much sense? I believe each of us has what it takes to improve his/her own life, and there is no need for complaining or begging for help from others. Instead, for instance, one can either get a regular job (like you did), or create more chess-related projects (like I did). Q4: IM Martin wrote at chesscom some time ago that just 15 minutes of serious chess studies per day was enough for improving your rating by one point per week. Do you think that is realistic for a player in the 1200-1400 region? Would it be realistic for a player in the 1400-1600 region? What training would you suggest to a DIY Chess Improver limited to 15-30 minutes per day? A4: IM Andrew Martin, right? There are no formulas of progress that work for everyone. A lot depends on the quality of the training, talent and other ingredients. However, let's do some quick calculations. One rating point a week is 52 points per year. As we have written at Pogonina.com, some people managed to increase their rating by more than that while being in the 2700 range. Of course, they spend way more than 15-30 minutes/day on chess, but still. For beginners (1200-1600) it is very easy to progress to the next step, so even minor efforts should pay off. On the other hand, 15-30 minutes per day won't take you a long way. Once you get to club level, you will either have to spend more time on chess (don't forget to count the time one spends on tournaments - that's a LOT), or admit that your activity has nothing to do with training or improving. Another estimate: 15-30 minutes per day is about 91-182 hours per year. If a game (including preparation, relaxation, trip to the venue, analysis) takes at least 6 hours, that is 15-30 rated games per year WITHOUT any training at all. If you cut the number in half (50% training, 50% playing), that's 7-15 games per year with a tiny bit of chess work in between. This won't allow you to improve. At best, it will allow you to remain the, let's say, 1700 you will be by that time. Is it worth half an hour of your time per day? I am not sure, but it's your time, so only you can decide. Having said that, I can suggest two options that seem reasonable to me: 1) (Typical for most disciplined amateurs) - try to allocate a certain amount of time on chess studies during holidays, etc., when you can play in a tournament and study without being distracted by daily chores. This will allow you to concentrate on chess and boost your results. You may also want to check out my article on tournament planning. 2) (For pros, freelancers, retired people, etc.) - if you have a lot of spare time, you may train in a more rigorous fashion, like pros do. Q5: I was asked to think about how to form or start up a chess tournament with a high learning momentum for players who want to learn (more) off the game. So talk, why you did this or that move, comment position, points of attention etc. Q: do you have experience with such a tournament? All advise would be very welcome. A5: You are probably referring to vote chess. I have played vote chess vs the World at Chess.com & am involved in another match of that sort at ChessGames. Vote chess allows team members discuss moves, share ideas, lets the stronger players mentor the less experienced, etc. You can check out the corresponding section at Chess.com. Good luck! Q6: What are your views on the amount of press coverage and exposure given to the Women's World Chess Championships? A6: You probably know the answer yourself. Chess deserves much more coverage in the media than it has now. How can we expect the general public to follow a match for the women's crown when most of them think that Kasparov is the reigning world champion? Q7: How will you be celebrating Christmas? 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