Your questions answered by Natalia Pogonina - 3 |
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| Saturday, 10 April 2010 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 Seven more Q&As this week (feel free to send me new ones): Q1: What do you think about abolishing women's titles? A1: I believe that currently women's titles serve as an additional motivation for girls. Thus I don't see anything wrong or sexist with them. Probably in the future, when we might have more strong female players, there will be only universal titles. Q2: How do you memorize so many openings? A2: I don't have such a great memory for openings and memorize key ideas, piece placements and most critical refutations. Everything else can be found over the board, if you are a good player.  Q3: What was the largest chess prize you ever won? A3: Prizes in women's chess are rather modest as compared to men's. I think it was €6,000 (about $8,000) at European Championship last year. Btw, there's a poll at Pogonina.com about this issue (see left panel of the website) - feel free to vote. Q4: Do you want your kid to become a chess grandmaster? A4: I want him to choose his occupation himself. If he likes chess, then why not; if he doesn't, I won't be trying to talk him into it. Q5: I suck at Math, is it possible for me to play chess well? A5: It seems that the relationship between Math skills and chess is strongly exagerrated. I myself and many of my friends are pure humanists, and it doesn't prevent us from playing.  Q6: Should I stay at the board during all the game? A6: While some people try to make the most of it and keep thinking even when it's the opponent's turn, I believe this approach is not suitable for most players. That way you often waste a lot of mental and physical energy ("what if he goes there?!") and then see a totally different move! Being surprised and tired, you are likely to blunder. Therefore, when my opponent is pondering his/her move, I prefer to relax a bit, take a walk, drink some tea, etc. Q7: Can you tell me the strongest line against the Sicilian? A7: There are no "the lines" for humans. Unlike chess engines, we are not fighting for ethereal 0.05 of a pawn each move. Depending on your chess tastes you may choose a lot of different options which are all more or less equal. Related articles: Your questions answered by Natalia Pogonina-2 Your questions answered by Natalia Pogonina 
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