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Estate News

talented player may be found among the In the following position, it is Black’s move. Let us analyse both the strategic
many learners. This raises the question, and tactical elements of the game.
what is wrong with the standard of chess
at primary school level?
Gone are the days when 9- and 10-
year olds such as David Friedgood and
Piet Kroon competed successfully at the
South African schools’ championship and
played a high standard of chess. Perhaps
it is time to learn from the mistakes
players often made.
• Magnus Carlsen, the present world
chess champion, said once in an
interview that chess taught him to sit
still and to concentrate at the age of
eight. He quickly realised that chess was
a difficult game and that he needed to
improve his thinking and understanding
of the game.
• Five-minute chess is ‘little skittles’ and
great fun, but the Russians believe it is
detrimental to good chess. The Russian
Chess Federation banned their juniors
from playing five-minute chess. The
above scenario simply would have not
occurred.
Many top-class players spend hours • Strategic components: Black has • Continuous strategic and tactical
practising and improving their chess the advantage in terms of space and analysis occurs after each move. If Black
thinking skills. This raises the question, development. White’s C3 square is weak. achieves the above short-term strategic
“How and what should the chess player Black’s pieces are poorly placed and Black plan, then the position is reassessed,
consider in his thinking when playing the controls the g-file. and another short-term plan is devised.
game?” • Tactical component (removing the
The table alongside, on page guard): If Black plays Rxg1 check then Playing tournament chess is hard work
10, summarises some of the main White is forced to play RxR and this and one cannot rush when playing. It is
components of chess thinking during the followed Bxh3. Black converts his strategic an examination of one’s chess thinking
game. advantage to a material advantage. skills. To be successful, young players
If the chess player begins to think • Strategic plan for Black: Queen moves cannot play as described in the story of
logically about the moves and in to C7 ➔O-O-O➔ advance of C pawn the primary schools’ chess match and
accordance to the thinking skills, it is to open the position with N eventually their thrashing in the simultaneous
impossible to play the game quickly and moving to D4. games against Richard Morris.
therefore it is necessary to spend time
when considering what moves to make.
The player at an early age must practise
to acquire these skills. This does not
involve playing the game at breakneck
speed.

Types of thinking during a
tournament chess game
The classical chess time limit is 90
minutes for the first 40 moves, followed
by 30 minutes for the rest of the game,
with an addition of 30 seconds per move
starting from move one for each player.
The critical question is, how should
each player use his time? Botvinnik,
a former world champion, suggests
the player should devote his time to
analysis and tactical considerations,
and his opponent’s time to strategic
considerations.

The Villager • Issue 10 2020 • 11