About one month ago, I received a vocal message from Rony Shalman, a good friend of mine from my time in Israel, a passionate all-attack chess player, and a keen beekeeper.
When I moved to Israel from Denmark, from postdoc to postdoc, I was eager to teach chess. Teaching chess has always been a motivation for me to keep studying and training at chess, and it is always been fun and relaxing after a long day of work.
Relaxing may sound like a wrong adjective for a game so amazingly complicated as chess; it may occasionally be even overwhelming! But if you embrace all this complexity accepting that you don't have to understand it fully, and just filter it through your mental framework, then, it is rather fun both when you get it right, and when you don't and you are forced to investigate the reasons things did not work out as you thought, but that's another story.
The voice spread somehow and Rony came to me soon after I moved to Sde Boqer, in the Negev Desert. It is surprising how many strong chess players orbit around the desert in Israel, which makes me think that a good share of sun and impressive landscapes may actually help to play better! It surely helped me being happy, at least.
Rony wanted to study chess, but before agreeing to help him, I needed to know a few things. I did not care about the fact that he was a middle-aged man, age is no limitation to learn more about chess. I wanted to understand his level (a few games between us made the job), how much time did he want to invest (2 hours a week for a class + some sporadic hours playing online and solving exercises during the rest of the week), and more importantly, I was excited to know about his goal.
When you start studying chess having a goal is everything, as there is no limit to the number of things you can learn and practice about chess. Determining a goal will automatically give you an idea of how much time of the week you have to invest, for how many months/years, if you could do it by yourself or if you better get a coach, if you will have to plan travelling for tournaments, etc. Of course, you can enjoy chess also playing with no goal. Too many times, however, I see players who have dreams but no plans, and that's a pity because they remain left with a bitter taste in their mouths, regardless of their potential.
The goal does not necessarily have to be easy, but you have to be realistic. My goal during my PhD years was to become FIDE Master and I managed, although I only had little free time available. It also helps when your goal is measurable. Unless it is a goal that you are going to reach in a few weeks (then it is probably a too simple one), you will have to track the road towards your goal. In my case, I had the ELO rating system that was telling me how far I was from the 2300 FIDE threshold needed to become FIDE Master. If I was studying and playing well, my rating was going up. When I was losing...
So Rony told me: "I played my friend and lost 3-0".
"OK" - I thought, let's see where it goes.
"The next time I play him, I want to be the one who wins 3-0!".
That was a curious goal, I thought, as it was not really about him fighting against his own limits, but against another chess player (who for what I knew could have been another beginning as well as an International Grand Master!).
"Why not? Let's do it!" - I decided.
You must not underestimate how the hatred for another chess player can motivate you becoming stronger!
We have agreed on studying some time between 6 and 12 months. I have told him that working for less would not help him much, and I did not know if I would have stayed longer than 1 year (in fact, 13 months later, I moved to the Azores Island for another postdoc).
It did not take me long to discover how Rony liked to play and which ones were his strengths and weaknesses. Look at this bomb:
1. e4 d5 2. e5 e6 3. d4 c5 4. Bb5+ Bd7 Not a common choice again the French Defense. Usually, the white bishop goes to d3 or e2, rather than being exchanged for the less active bishop of Black.
5. a4!? Bxb5 6. axb5 b6 (diagram). The follow-up was nonetheless, interesting. Rony decides to double his pawns to open the a-column for his rook.
7. Nf3 c4 8. Bg5 Be7 9. Bxe7 Nxe7 10. c3 O-O Here we mixed a bit of development, direct attack, and positional play, which is not very consistent but there are no mistakes.
11. Ng5! g6 (diagram). The knight jump tells a lot about Rony. He is targeting the Black's king with a queen+knight tandem.
12. f4 Nf5 13. g4 Ne3 Uncompromising chess.
14. Qe2 Nxg4 15. Qxg4 f5 16. Qh4 Qd7 (diagram). White has got an advantage, but he needs the help of the rest of his army to break down Black's defences. Rony knew that.
17. Nd2 h5 18. Ndf3 Qxb5 19. Rb1 Re8 20. O-O Nc6 (diagram). I like 19.Rb1, defending the weaknesses before launching the final attack. One should never overlook the opponent's resources to complicate the game. White is winning and does not need to overcomplicate the game.
21. Nh3! Na5 To allow the queen to enter the weak squares. And a picturesque mate follows
22. Qf6 Kh7 23. Nfg5+ Kh6 24. Nf7+ Kh7 25. Nhg5+ Kg8 26. Qh8# 1-0
Here you can see the game in one go: https://lichess.org/XheSrcJd#51
So my job as a coach was to instil a healthy dose of positional play and prophylactic thinking in an aggressive player who looked for all-in attacks since the first moves. Good luck to myself! But that is exactly how most players start, after all.
Week after week, day after day, Rony was doing very quick progress. He learned not to rush the attack before his pieces were developed, to identify weaknesses, formulate a plan, the importance of time and the concept of the initiative. It was a lot of work for both of us.
Then, I had to leave the beautiful desert for the rainy and also beautiful Azores.
The interesting part of my work with Rony was that our teaching was not unidirectional. I learned a lot about bees and apiculture! We also went to collect a hive together once, and I helped him taking photos with my macro lens. Here is the link if you want to see humans handling bees with no protection. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgVmNvGOxpk
I also helped him to finish his supplies of honey, which was probably the best I've ever had.
This is what I thought was the best until a few weeks ago, at least, when I received a vocal message from Rony.
"Do you remember what you asked me when you started to teach me chess?"
"Of course" - I was thinking, I know how stubborn I am!
"Three hours ago, I beat my friend 3-0!"
He was clearly excited in his voice and so was I.
This is the best feeling that a chess teacher can experience.
"I just did it. The work is done". Said Rony
And in my head, I was replying with the same exact words.
Todah Rony!
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