Chess coaching - tips for parents

The purest form of love in this world is the love of parents for their children! The love is selfless, very deep and unconditional. Parents always give the best of the worlds to their children! Good values, good education, comfort, whatever possible to their capabilities. They send their kids to the best of schools, get the best possible personal tutor at home and try to give their kid everything which probably even they never got! Such is the love of parents!

When it comes to education, parents normally understand what type of teacher their kid is more comfortable with. However, when it comes to chess, most parents are lost! Chess is becoming extremely popular in India. It is being recognised as an intellectual sport, something which benefits a kid's mental growth. It is getting recognition and support from Government of India and from the private bodies so more and more parents look forward to make their kids a future chess champ! While some teach chess to their kids just like they do abacus or any other stuff to supplement the mental growth, others take to chess more seriously. Where to start and how to start is a big issue with parents right from the word go!

Let me clear some myths first. The popular belief is that chess is a very cheap game - just buy a chess set and get started! But the reality is so much different! Chess is one of the most expensive sports today. Yes, you do not need to spend on equipment but chess coaching is extremely expensive. The better your kid becomes, the more expensive the coaching! Also, you need to spend huge amount by way of travelling, hotel, food etc.

To start with it is always better if you have someone in the family to coach the kid or if you have a chess club nearby where you can take the kid. The real problems start once the kid starts showing some interest and progress and it is time for parents to look for personal coaches with individual attention!

In my last 30 years' association with chess, I have been a successful player, a coach, a student and a lover of the game! I have heard the problems of parents in finding good coaches and many coaches have shared their problems related to huge expectations of parents from them!

Many parents themselves are not familiar with the game and always compare chess with studies and think if the kid knows that two and two make four, then he should be able to play good chess! What parents need to know is that chess is not Maths! It's different! There's no formula for success in chess! There's no set portions like school - if you mug up 100 pages of a book, you do not become a great chess player! Chess is much more complicated, it requires knowledge, understanding, application. Sometimes you need to follow the rules and sometimes you need to break the rules! Sometimes castling is a good idea, sometimes keeping your king in the center is safer. One needs to sacrifice at times, at other times sacrifices are uncalled for! Attacking chess is better in certain positions whereas some positions demand solid chess. Chess is not easy and that is what makes it attractive, after all who wants to do easy things?

We will all appreciate that all kids are special and all kids are different! Some kids can pick up the game fast, whereas others take months to understand the basics. Chess is my family game! No one taught my father to play chess. He just saw others in the family playing chess days after days and learnt it himself just by observing them move the pieces! I am not sure I would have learnt chess like my father- just by observing! I had to be taught by him. He taught me chess when I was seven. So what I mean is we are all different and have different power of grasping different things! Still we are all special, isn't it?

I have seen parents trying some coach for some time. Initially they like the coach but soon they realise that their kid is not progressing the same way as other kids. They start thinking that perhaps the coach is not good, time for a change! When you decide on a coach, do a good research on how the coach is, whether he is suited to your kid, whether he has the time to give to your kid, whether you can afford his coaching for a long time. Once you are satisfied that he is the coach your kid wants, give the coach time. No coach is going to do magic to your kid in one day! The coach should be dedicated and should understand what your child needs. A good coach will get to the level of your child and make the kid love the game and enjoy the game. It might take different amount of time for different kids. Basically the first important advice - do not change coaches after every interval. Give the coach time to work with the kid. Results take time. It doesn't happen in one day. Success comes after years of hard work! Let me give you a small example from my life. I started playing chess in 1988. I was a child prodigy at that time, very talented according to everyone! In my first Nationals (Under 10 girls) in 1989, I was second! After that every year I was the favorite to win the age group nationals but kept coming second and third always! Then in 1993, I surprised everyone by winning National Under-14 girls as well as the National Under- 18 girls within a month! Do you think that I suddenly became a great player in 1993? No. I had been improving over the years, just that the results were not coming and once it started coming, I was unstoppable! Years of hard work was finally paying off! This brings me to another point. Sometimes your kid is working with a coach for one year or two years and results don't come. Suddenly you shift coach and in a month the result starts coming and you think wow, this coach is great! Do you think the new coach did magic in a month? Most unlikely. Of course the new coach could have added new perspective, but you need to understand that the other coach's efforts are now bearing fruits! So basically have the faith in your coach, give him time and then decide.

One common problem which coaches face is that parents start giving homework to the coaches! "Sir, I am sending you all the games of my kid. Please analyse them!" Are you really giving homework to the coaches to be done for free? If your kid is a regular student, say he avails 10 hours of class and then say you give the homework of an hour to the teacher (!!), that is still understandable. But many parents want one hour class and one hour homework to be done by the teacher...is it really fair? Most of the coaches are professional teachers. When your kid is not taking class, the coach is working with some other kid, you can't expect them to do loads of homework for you. Ok, sometimes it is possible, but expecting that always lead to friction.

One common problem which coaches find is mothers telling "I know my child!". Yes a mother understands a child, undoubtedly, but sometimes our love makes us blind! I recently saw an English movie named "Searching" where at the start a father says "I know my daughter" and towards the middle says "I did not know her!" It's very common, specially for all mothers (who clearly love their kids and know that no one in the world can love the kid to that extent) to say "I know my child. He can do this. He cannot do this." You might be wrong sometimes. You know your child but the coach knows the game. Sometimes, you have to give all powers to the coach and see- maybe he can do magic, maybe he can make your kid do things which you never imagined!

Everyone loves to see Shahrukh Khan scolding the girls to take out the best in them and then making them champions in the movie Chak de India! "Wow, what a coach, he knows how to take out the best from the players!" But a coach scolding your kid for a minute is completely unacceptable! "How dare he scold MY kid?" I met a guardian once and asked her how the coach is and she spoke wonderful words for the coach. In a couple of months she had changed the coach. The reason - the coach scolded the kid one day which demoralised the kid for life! Instead of pointing a finger at the coach, wouldn't it be better to explain to the kid why the coach was angry for one day in one year? Do you remember the days when your little baby tried to walk for the first time? He tried but he fell and you laughed at it and were happy he is trying. Due to continuous trying the baby finally succeeds one day to actually take the first step forward in this world! When the kid is trying to walk, you are happy to allow him to try and fall, why do most of you become over protective when the kid is trying and falling at a later stage in life? Allow the kid to fall and then get back to his feet, only then big steps can be taken! When the kid will finally succeed, no one will be as happy as you are! Maybe when the coach scolded the kid, he wanted that the kid should fall once so that he learns to stand forever! So basically let the coaches do their work without trying to be an overprotective parent!

I get different queries from parents. One parent called me up and said "I want a very good coach who will not have a life of his own for my two kids. Basically his life will revolve around the kids, and only when the kids don't need him, he can do what he wants!" They wanted an IM or GM level coach for kids who were talented beginners, and they wanted a coach to be like a slave! It is difficult what to tell such parents! A dedicated coach is understandable but "no life of his own" at an IM/GM level? Or for that matter any human?

A guardian once came to my house. They wanted me to coach a beginner kid. I told them that I will not be able to coach the kid but I offered someone very reliable and dedicated. "We haven't heard the name!" I wanted to ask them how many names in the chess world do they know! Parents are ready to give their kids to me but are not ready to give their kids to the person I am recommending! If you do not have faith in me, why did you come to me in the first place, came the thought from within but I kept quiet! This is an internet age. Anything you want to know about a person, you can google it out, specially things like achievements of a person in his profession or even social life. Don't be lazy, do some homework on your probable coach!

Another guardian caught me in some tournament and was pestering me to coach his kid. I told him that I have come out with a ChessBase DVD (Strengthen your chess foundation) which is around Rs.1100/- in India and will give 6 hours of training. Maybe the kid should first see it, they can see whether they like my ways and then approach me again! "Ok, that my kid cannot sit and see, but will you coach my kid?" What should I answer such parents?

One big problem which parents face while looking for coaches is to go with big names or not? This will depend on your child and also on your affordability. During my childhood, there was no concept of a 24x7 coach sitting and observing what I am doing. My dad was my main coach. Before starting for office he would give me task - do this book- and would go. After he returned, I would tell him how many hours I did and exact pages which I covered. I did not have to be forced. I was okay to see chess alone. In fact, if you ask me, today I am more lazy to work alone than I was at that time! Today I prefer company to work on chess with! So what I mean is your child could be what I was in my younger days or could be like what I am today. If your child needs a full time coach, then you cannot expect a coach who has a 100 students to be the perfect one for you. If you hire such a coach, then it will be a mismatch and will lead to differences. On the other hand, if your child is very disciplined and all he needs is guidance and rest can manage on his own, then definitely the big names will be the perfect one for him. Also, many coaches work silently without being named! I was recently discussing this coaching issue with a friend of mine who is a GM. He said chess is perhaps the only sport in which the players do not actually disclose their real coach's name! People tell the name of one coach whereas secretly they are working with someone else! So while choosing coaches, use your intelligence and intuition, just like you do when deciding to make someone your friend or not!

Most parents complain that the coaches do not give time and most coaches complain that the kids never have doubts during class time when it is chargeable but all doubts come up over phone when the coaches are probably busy with other stuff! It is very important to hire a coach whom you can afford, instead of trying to extract more from a coach whom you cannot afford. How do you feel when your office boss wants you to work overtime? Once is understandable but if it recurs, you definitely don't put in your 100% to work, do you?

Many parents complain. We have spent 2 lacs on his chess and still no results! Have you ever kept track of the school expenses of the kid in his entire school life? He starts earning only after you have spent lacs and lacs of rupees in his entire school and college life. You never complain about it. Say you spend huge money on tuitions on History and later in his life your kid may even forget the H of History. Do you complain why you invested in the history teacher? You just think that it just helped in the school grades and probably the knowledge of History subconsciously may help the kid somewhere in life. Then why do you treat chess like a business? I invested so much, I should get immediate returns! When you are investing in chess, think that you are investing in your kid's brain, for its development. You may not be able to understand how it is helping the kid but probably your kid has become more focused, concentrates more, sits in one place more than earlier, probably he calculates his Maths better than earlier or maybe his imagination has developed! The benefit of chess is not restricted to chess results alone. I once asked my good friend and former World Junior Girls Champion, WGM Soumya Swaminathan as to how she was managing to spend huge amount on her foreign trips without feeling bad about losing so much money? Her answer was an eye-opener for me! She told me "when a person studies to become a doctor, an engineer or an MBA, he too has to spend huge amount, isn't it? Similarly I am also making an investment for my chess future, for my betterment in chess!" I was inspired by Soumya! Since then I have made a lot of foreign trips, trying to play in strong tournaments without bothering about losing all my bank balance! It's an investment for my chess!

Success in chess comes when there is a great bonding between parents, student and coach. Dedication from all three sides is important. Choose the right coach, trust him and give him time, not time-pressure! Results will definitely flow one day! Perseverance is the keyword!

Diary of my solo trip to France!

This year I have been playing a lot of chess, specially abroad. I have worked immensely on my chess in the recent years but somehow they are not reflecting in my results for quite some time and somehow I feel that good results can come any moment! So I am trying hard, very hard, putting in a lot of time, money and effort! You might be wondering why does one need to play abroad when there are so many tournaments in India? I feel it is best to avoid known faces in India who keep judging you after every game. Any tournament you play there are always some older, wiser men, who have seen you since childhood and who never fail to mention that "you are playing bad!" after every draw or loss that you make! I find it very demotivating. I am playing chess for 30 years and after giving my full life to it, I wouldn't like a passerby to judge my performance after every game! I want to play chess because I enjoy playing chess and not because I have to give my performance report to some "uncle" (in India this is how we call elderly strangers who are our dad's age)who has never invested in my chess!

After my Commonwealth tournament this year (where 'as usual' I missed medal due to last round loss!), I had intended to take a small break from tournaments and work on my chess. But that was not to be! Immediately after I was back home, I got an invitation for a closed International Masters' (IM) tournament in Metz. A player had dropped out last minute due to visa issues and they needed a last minute replacement. A closed IM tournament where I would be the 9th seed out of 10 players was very exciting! Of course, being an IM, I was not looking for a norm but I really wanted to add some rating points. I had a Schengen Visa but last minute tickets are expensive and last minute planning is tedious and so I was in two minds. Finally everything worked out properly, thanks to the 17 -year- old organiser of the Metz tournament, Alexis Cahen, who helped me with everything related to this trip! Before a foreign trip, I normally have a 1000 questions and Alexis showed the true quality of a chess player and answered all my questions patiently! He even suggested and helped with the next tournament after Metz and I am glad that I followed his suggestion! Finally it was decided that in the France leg of the trip, I would play in a closed IM tournament in Metz (4th EFE Metz International Chess Festival from 23rd to 29th July,2018) followed by a swiss open tourney in Wasselonne (22nd Open International de Wassellonne A from 2nd August to 5th August,2018).

Before I start my beautiful journey of France, I want to point out to my non-Indian readers about the difficulties faced by Indians when travelling to Europe. As there are so many Indians in all European tournaments (due to the growing popularity of chess in India), it is very easy to be ignorant about their hardships to make every trip to Europe. People living in Schengen countries do not need any entry visa to visit other Schengen countries and can travel by road to the tournament, possibly just driving in their car. So all they need to do is choose one good tournament to play and return home. On the other hand, when one travels all the way from India to Europe, covering more than 7000 kilometers, paying a huge airfare, things are not that simple! The first problem starts with visa. Arranging all the relevant papers for visa is a nightmare for me always! While some embassies are relaxed with the documents needed, others ask for details of stay 'every' night that you are in a foreign country! These embassies take a long time for the processing of the visa (sometimes 20 days) and so you need to have everything planned out including hotel reservation before your trip is confirmed. If your hotel reservation is non refundable, it adds to your worries. If you have a flexible hotel reservation, you obviously pay more! Many people get the visa for the exact duration of the trip, which means next time they plan a trip, they need to start everything all over again! Luckily for me, the French embassy had given me a two years' Schengen visa when I last applied and that is why I have been enjoying my trips with lesser problems! The next problem an Indian faces is finding a series of tournaments which go one after the other. When one spends huge money on flight fare, it is impossible to play just one tournament and come back as that single tournament becomes very expensive. So normally when I travel abroad, I look for two to three tournaments continuously, so that on an average I spend less per tournament. If the tournaments are in different Schengen countries, then of course internal travel is also a huge problem! Now probably you can understand why most Indians do well when they play abroad - when one takes so much trouble to make a foreign trip, then one obviously puts in a lot of effort to make it a success!

Collage of the wonderful people who made my trip memorable! Maurice Guesnerot, Michel Veit, Martine, Alexis Cahen, Stanislas Loiret and Camille Rolland! When you meet such wonderful people, you feel that foreign trips are worth all the trouble - they give you lifetime memories and some strangers become your friends forever!


After sorting out everything related to the trip, I was on board the Etihad flight Kolkata-Abu Dhabi- Paris. A solo trip always means excitement, fear, hope and some worries! So whenever I start a solo journey all kinds of thoughts enter my mind! There are always thoughts about how the journey will be, specially the bus and the train journey with the heavy luggage- there is always some Indian food in my suitcase, so it is never light! After a long journey, I reached Paris Charles de Gaulle airport. I had 8 hours in hand before the Ouibus would take me from CDG to Metz! When planning my trip, I had chosen the direct bus to Metz from the airport, even though it meant a long wait after my flight lands. I had a reason behind it. When I visited France in December end last year, I had a very scary experience in a metro train when some people tried to snatch my purse which had my passport! I had a narrow escape then but that had happened exactly after reaching France, when going from Paris CDG to EST in different trains and metro. This time again I was travelling alone and wanted to have a safe journey! After I got my luggage and had hours to myself, I started thinking that one should have a very good friend in all parts of the world! Imagine, 8 hours in the beautiful city of Paris and I could do nothing but kill time. A friend there, to show me around would have been so wonderful!

This is what attracted me the most at Paris airport : Incredible India ad!

One needs to take airport shuttle (it's a train which you can avail for free to go from one terminal to another at CDG) to go from the terminal 2 (where my Etihad flight landed) to terminal 3 (where I had to catch the Ouibus from). If you need to wait for hours like I had to, then you must wait in terminal 2 and not at terminal 3 which has no chairs to sit. I actually took the shuttle, went to terminal 3 much ahead of time, then realised that there was nothing there- no shops, no chairs, it was just a terminal for trains and buses, so I took the airport shuttle again and came back to terminal 2 and grabbed a good chair to spend many hours! The most difficult thing when sitting idle when alone after a flight journey is to control sleep! I was really scared that I would fall off to sleep and miss my bus! Finally I did manage to stay awake! My Ouibus was around 4pm. So a little before 3pm I left for terminal 3 and reached there well ahead of the scheduled time of my bus. I must say that I really liked Ouibus and would avail it in future too! The drivers of Ouibus seem very friendly and happy to help with a smile! A pleasant smile in a foreign country where people are happy to help you, gives a nice feeling! My driver asked me which country I came from and then said "welcome to France"! The bus had a toilet, wifi and charging point. Till the next stop 'Bercy', I was one of the two passengers in the bus (!!) but soon after the next stop, the bus was full! The journey was of 5 hours 40 minutes and midway during the journey there was a stop for around 20 minutes for refreshment. The bus was perfectly on time and I was very happy to see my good friends from Metz waiting for me at the bus stop!

In the picture above I am with my good friends cum wonderful hosts, Camille and Stanislas, who opened the door of their house for me! Stanislas is a chess coach by profession who enjoys the beauty in a chess composition and specializes in solving them while Camille is a clinical phychiatrist. Both of them play and enjoy chess and love Indian food a lot!

I really like the concept of the Metz tournament. I had played a similar tournament in Nancy, France in 2016 and loved that tournament too for the format and for the wonderful organisation but after that year they changed the format of the tournament. Let me tell you more about  the Metz tourney. They have a lot of round robin events held simultaneously. Two events  started two days before the other events - Group A- a closed WIM tournament and Group B- a closed IM tournament with 9 rounds in seven days. Then there was Group C to Group M - so totally thirteen separate round robin tournaments and finally Group N where they made a small swiss with the remaining players! There was a total of 149 players in the festival. Basically as I understand, the idea is this - they take all the entries and then group them in different round robins as per rating. The advantage for players is that they get to play players of similar rating- not too high and not too low. I personally prefer this format to swiss events where you have to play players 300 points up and down and prove yourself. This event where you play players 100 points up and down makes more sense to me. You do well with players of your strength, you reach the next level and basically have a steady improvement!

The tournament hall was very spacious. You can see the events- Group A and group B in progress in the picture above.

The festival was very well organised. There were a few side events. One of which was surprisingly won by me!

In the picture above, next to me is the representative of the Mayor of Metz and behind me is Philippe Nolot, president of the EFE Metz Club. I won my first tournament abroad - a mini Fide rated blitz event on 27th July in Metz! The interesting thing is that initially I had decided to just watch the blitz event as I was not sure my stamina would pull after two rounds of the round robin games (4 hours each) that day. Then I decided to play 2-3 rounds and withdraw whenever I get exhausted and then I actually went on to win it, surprising myself!

Here, I am with Alexis Cahen, the ambitious 17-years-old organiser of the Metz tourney and now a good friend! He completely defies his age with his mature behaviour! I am extremely thankful to him for all the help with this trip! He not only invited me to the Metz tourney but also helped me with the Wasselonne event and strongly recommended that I play it! I am glad that I listened to his advice as Wasselonne was a success for me!

When I was young, I used to judge people a lot and that is why I had problems making friends abroad as they were very different from me. I have matured with age and have stopped judging people and like and accept them as they are. Probably this is why I make more friends these days! In India I see people playing chess to win, to be the numero uno! In Metz and later in Wasselonne, I met people who were playing chess for many different reasons, not just for winning! Some played it to forget their life's problems temporarily, some to not get Alzeimers' with age while for some, this chess addiction would keep them away from other harmful addictions! I found this very interesting! The tournament hall was a little hot for me (the temperature was much above 30 degress) and in France people do not use fans generally, but somehow I used be be happy with everything and that helped me to play good chess! I finished 5th after my only loss in the last round with the ultimate champion, Piotr Murdzia of Poland. I gained 14 rating points although I could have finished much better, specially had I not drawn a clear edge position in round 6.

The final ranking crosstable of the IM tournament.

Two players made IM norm in the tournament- Victor Stephan of France (photo top left) and my good friend now Pierre Villegas of Monaco. In the picture above, Pierre is trying some Indian food!

Enjoying a photo-session with my favorite boy of France, 10-year-old Clement Kuhn and his sister Mathilde Kuhn. I fell in love with this talented kid when I first saw him in my last trip to France in a tournament in Vandoeuvre. The striking thing about him is not just that he plays strong chess but most importantly for me, he always keeps smiling!! His smile is captivating! I am planning to learn some French to be able to speak to him!

With Ernesto Dillenschneider, one of the arbiters of the festival. In the gap between two rounds, I had noticed that the arbiters would play non-stop blitz very enthusiastically amongst themselves!

My next destination was a 7 round tourney in Wasselonne. I had three days to relax before the tournament began.

My host Maurice was one of the organisers of the tournament. He was very kind enough to come all the way to Metz to pick me up three days before the tournament and drive me to the beautiful town Marlenheim, the place where he stayed! More about Marlenheim later. The above photo was taken by me when Maurice took me around to see the beautiful city of Strasbourg. I also met his daughter and his two lovely grandchildren in Strasbourg!

Strasbourg is beautiful, as can be seen in the picture above! The Cathedral was lovely, the streets were very lively. I was in love with it at first sight!

Maurice took me around in Strasbourg  but I felt I need to come back to Strasbourg again. It is a place where I wish to spend more time, it looked beautiful!

I love to photograph the sun and the sky everywhere!

Maurice was really amazing. He saw to it that my stay becomes really memorable! The day when he was busy, he sent his friend Martine to take me around to see the vineyard and the nearby locality in the beautiful town of Marlenheim!

The two hours walk around Marlenheim with Martine was awesome! I realised that Marlenheim was all about beautiful houses, fresh surroundings, fruits, vegetables, flowers specially geranium and...

...the vineyard! Was really nice to walk through it!

There are two advantages of walking up the vineyard. You could see the town of Marlenheim from the top and secondly that was all the exercise you needed in the day! You could keep walking upwards endlessly and it was beautiful!

Hotel de Ville is not a hotel! It's a townhall.

The short trip around Marlenheim with Martine was truly memorable! Marlenheim is very peaceful, calm and quiet place with fresh air, no pollution and is a very clean town.

Everything I would need in Marlenheim and Wasselonne was very well taken care of by Maurice. His friend Michel would pick me up and drop me back home whenever Maurice was busy. Michel is a music teacher who told me that he played chess to produce beautiful games and he even showed me a beautiful game full of sacrifice played by him in an earlier tournament and later even in the Wasselonne tournament he played a beautiful game and was extremely satisfied. It is so nice to see that my favorite game gives pleasure to different people in different ways!

I stood third in Wasselonne (I could also put it as joint first as six of us tied with 5.5/7), was unbeaten and this is my best standings in a classical open tournament outside India (I once did well in Bangladesh, came 3rd , but that was more than a decade ago and Bangladesh feels same as India!). Maurice and his friend Michel were the ones because of whom I could play well - they together took care of everything else - including dropping me at Strasbourg train station on the last day. On my part, all I had to think of was playing good chess! There was nothing else to worry about!!

Wasselonne tournament A was a 7 round swiss tournament for players rated above 1700. Tournament B was for 1401-1799 level and tournament C for less than 1500 players. There were 63 players in my tournament A. What I like about the France tournaments is the lesser number of players! Many organisers brag about their tournaments getting a lot of participants but from players' point of view, more the number of players, the weaker is the tournament generally, specially if you drop points in the initial rounds. I drew round one. But then I marched strongly ahead with four straight wins and due to the lesser number of players, I started getting strong opposition very soon. From round 4 onwards, I was on the stage (the top 4 boards were played there, those games were live, not just on the internet but at a few places in the tournament venue with giant screen showing the games which the spectators could enjoy!). After the end of 5 rounds, I was the sole leader! Then in round six I drew the top seed, the young GM Bellahcene Bilel, who was the favorite of everyone there! I was close to my dream of winning an international open but with the final round draw, it still was only a shared first place, third by tie breaks!

The final top ten standings in Wasselonne tournament A. I was half bucolz less- bucolz is the sum of opponent's points. Next time I win a player, I must boost his confidence after the game and tell him to fight back strongly!!

Everyone in Wasselonne is very friendly! I normally do not miss the prize giving even if I am not getting any prize but this time it was different. My train from Strasbourg to Brussels was at 3 in the afternoon as there wasn't any later train which would go directly to Brussels (I had to take the flight from Brussels to my next tournament at Abu Dhabi the following morning). This meant that I had to leave without attending the prize giving ceremony. The organisers were very kind enough to give me my prize before I left.

I went to Brussels with the two trophies I won, one in Metz and the other in Wasselonne and with some very fond memories of France! All my good friends outside India are mostly from France and this trip added more to the list!!

I give below an interesting win by me in Wasselonne.

                                           Mohota Nisha (2268)- Lerch Patrice (2388)

We reached this position in my 5th round game in Wasselonne after Black's 22nd move. Can you find what I played here?

I played 23.Nfxe5!? Ok, I did not have something concrete but I felt that this is the move I must go for. My central pawns will give me some compensation. Play continued 23...dxe5 24.Nxe5 Bd7 25.c4 Bf6 26.Nxd7 Bxa1 27.Nxf8 Qxf8 28.g4 Ng7 29.e5 Qd8 30.Kg2 Qh4?!. This move was uncalled for. 31.g5! Now I had some threats to trap the Queen with Re4 and Be2. Play continued 31...Qd4 32. Bd2 Re7 33.f4. We reached the following diagram.

I keep telling everyone (even in my ChessBase DVD, "Strengthen your chess foundation" I have said the same) that you must keep putting pressure on opponent and everyone crumbles under pressure. Here finally my opponent made a huge mistake in a slightly uncomfortable position. He played 33...Nf5?!. How did I finish the game?

I played 34.Bxf5! The knight was the best defender of the black king. Once it is gone, the game is over! Play continued 34...gxf5 and then came the shot 35.Rxa1! Now it's winning for me. Black cannot take 35...Qxa1 due to 36.Bc3 followed by e6 check, when the Black's king looks paralysed! I soon won the game with my two extra pawns.

A good win and a good result definitely helps in making a trip unforgettable!

P.S.- Some of the photos of Metz tournament which I have used are by Alexis Cahen.

Reykjavik Part 2 - Meeting Bobby Fischer!

My last blog post was a big pictorial report on my Icelandic trip. Here's part two dedicated to our chess legend Bobby Fischer!

Fischer passed away in January 2008 at the age of 64 - the connection between the 64 squares of a chess board and him seems so deep rooted! I remember when I read about his demise, I was very sad at not having got a chance to have a glimpse of the God of Chess in person!

The eleventh world champion would have turned 75 on 9th March 2018. This is when we had a rest day at our tournament, Gamma Reykjavik Open: Bobby Fischer Memorial and I was out exploring Iceland!I had already finished seeing some beautiful places and the last part of my journey was 'in search of Bobby Fischer'!

We arrived at the Cemetery of Laugardalur Church, Selfoss. Before this trip, I had never visited any cemetery. It just gives a sad feeling to be in a graveyard or anywhere which reminds of someone who is no longer with us. But I was myself surprised how happy I felt the moment I stepped into this cemetery. Probably in the hearts of chess players, our hero Fischer still lives through his games and being there I just felt like finally I met Fischer, that too on his 75th birthday! It was an amazing feeling! Fischer was the reason I wanted to be in Iceland and everything now seemed like a dream come true!

Our final destination was a place you must visit if you love Bobby Fischer - the Bobby Fischer Center, which is very close to the cemetery at Laugardalur. It is a memorabilia of Fischer and I believe it also constitutes the Selfoss Chess Club. The entry fee is 1000 ISK. The place was very quiet and in fact the Center was closed when we arrived.  The shop below gave a phone number and my friend Oli made a call to the owner and soon the center was opened!

In front of the Fischer Center, there is a giant chess board, something which always excites me!

The entrance to the Center and as soon as you enter you see Fischer everywhere!!

Chess got unprecedented popularity in 1972 during the Fischer- Spassky match in Reykjavik. Here you can see the replica of a chess board used during the match!

I found many interesting cartoons related to the match which were eye catchers!

Basically you just feel yourself transported to 1972 amidst Fischer and Spassky! There are a lot of books and souvenirs on sale and my friend Oli gifted me the book that I am holding "The Enigma of the Lewis Chessmen- The Icelandic Theory"!

I think we have all seen this magnificent game between Byrne and Fischer where 13 year old Fischer beautifully sacrifices a queen and wins in style! The scoresheet of this game can also be taken as a souvenir!

A T-shirt souvenir with Fischer's famous words: "I do not believe in psychology, I believe in good moves!"

When I talk of Fischer, I must also admit that I deeply respect Spassky too! He has always supported Fischer even though he lost the match to him! I hope that someday I get to meet him!

9th March 2018 was really memorable for me.. the feeling of having met the legend no one in the chess world can ever forget!

Beautiful Reykjavik, Iceland!

Every chess lover is familiar with Reykjavik, Iceland! The reason: the Bobby Fischer- Boris Spassky World Championship match of 1972, which brought chess to the notice of the whole world like never before! I always dreamt of playing in the Reykjavik Open for the same reason - I wanted to visit the country which loved the chess legend Fischer! Finally this year my dream came true! I made it to my dream destination when the international chess event was dedicated to the chess king (as the late Fischer would have turned 75 during the event!)and named "Gamma Reykjavik Open 2018- Bobby Fischer Memorial". The tournament was conducted at Harpa, which is a beautiful concert hall and a conference centre, from 6th to 14th March, 2018.












    A look from the flight really made me feel that I was in my dream Ice-land!!

In the above picture, I am with my elder sister WFM Swati Mohota, who is a chess teacher in a reputed school in our city Kolkata. 'Didi' (for foreigners- this is how people call an elder sister in our national language Hindi) loves globetrotting and visiting new countries and Iceland was really our dream. Finally it came true and luckily we made it together! Don't be misguided by the picture and the country's name, Iceland is not all ice!

Iceland gives a feeling of being close to the chess king Fischer! Here I am admiring his photo at the tournament hall at...

...Harpa, very difficult to capture in a camera, it is a beautiful and unique piece of architecture!

You can hardly recognise me in the picture above as I am so well covered to protect myself from the wind! I would enjoy the wind immensely for 10-15 minutes but then would freeze, with red face and hands!!

...It was much easier to recognise my face inside the tourney hall...

...or anywhere else inside Harpa!

Just outside the tournament hall you could feel yourself being transported to the 1972 match, with pictures of Fischer and Spassky everywhere around! In the above picture my sister Swati is attempting a hand shake with Bobby!

The walls were also decorated with big pictures of chess legends and my favorite definitely is Judit Polgar, I became her fan even more after I met her in Zurich 2016 as I realised that she is not only a great player but an amazing human being as well! I liked her views on life! A good human being makes a greater impression on me than just a great chess player! I was also happy to see my good friend Harika's photo among the elites, I have seen how she has dedicated her full life for chess and reached the top spot where she is today!

The outside view from the glass walls of Harpa!

There are a lot of things I liked about this tournament (beautiful city- Reykjavik- and awesome Harpa and its surroundings) but most important for me was the spacious tournament hall! Three wonder kids were playing there and I was simply in love with all of them - Nihal Sarin, Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu (both from India) and Nodirbek Abdusattorov (Uzbekistan) - I could keep standing near their boards for a long time watching them play without disturbing them. I really did not care who the top seeds were, for me these three kids were the top seeds and I wanted to enjoy their games and learn from them as much as possible! I also admired their opponents who would manage to cross the 'hurdle' which these kids were - although I do admire these kids so much, it is not easy psychologically to play against them - the kids are world famous which means every move is being watched,discussed and criticized by one and all. Moreover, the kids are tiny tots to look at but they play brilliantly, make their moves, walk the full tournament hall, keep coming on and off at the board and do most of their calculations blindfolded! When experienced Grandmasters hold their heads to sink deep in the position, these kids play chess so effortlessly, as if it is really child's play! I observed that Abdusattorov got up less from his board and what was eye catching was that he keeps moving a pawn in his hand while thinking- just like Boris Gelfand!   The water bottle shown in the picture above- Icelandic Glacial-are the free bottles provided to all  the players by the organisers.

With one of my super favorites, Nihal Sarin! The first time I saw Nihal was in mid 2015 when he was 2100+. He was playing immensely well in a tournament and his game against an International Master was being played next to my board. I was watching his game very keenly. It was an intense fight and his opponent's flag fell. Result was written in Nihal's favour. After the game Nihal's opponent told him (perhaps, a little fondly but actually I did not like someone telling like this to a eleven year old boy) that he lost on purpose on time because Nihal was a kid and that the game was a draw and even showed some draw in analysis. I witnessed till here. Later I got to know that when Nihal went and told this incident to his mother, she told him to go to the arbiter and change the result and make it a draw!! It was an important tournament and that half point could mean a lot for a kid with rating 2100+, but that brave decision really won my heart that day! With such principled family, this boy will go far I thought. Since that day I am Nihal's secret admirer! In this Reykjavik trip, he was there with me and a few other friends (we were seven of us) during the long flight journey and I realised what made Nihal an amazing chess player...this little genius cannot sit without chess for even 5 minutes! All he loves to do is discuss, analyse and play chess! We had a long journey Reykjavik-Copenhagen-Moscow-Delhi and then back to our respective cities and so I got to be with Nihal for around 40 hours. I did not see Nihal sitting without chess at all. He would quickly go to any one who had laptop or phone with a chess board open and start discussing some moves. If nothing else, he would start blindfold discussion! His mind never gets tired of chess! With such passion, what he has achieved till now is just the beginning!

People admire champions. I admire the ones who are behind the upbringing of champions! It was a big moment for me to meet Henrik Carlsen, father of world champion Magnus Carlsen. The senior Carlsen was playing in the tournament (I later learnt that he is a regular at the Reykjavik Open) and one fine day I decided that I must go up to him and speak to him before the game begins - I had so many questions to ask! It is funny - if you leave me next to Magnus Carlsen, I will stand like a dumb person, not knowing what to speak. However, when I walked up to Carlsen's dad I had so much to ask- "How does it feel that your son became world champ in a sport you love? How were the initial years, was his childhood different from other kids?" etc etc. I could actually speak to him for hours but the game was to start and I spoke around 2-3 minutes, wished him luck and felt very happy within!

Ok, now let me take you outside the tournament hall.

Just outside Harpa. Why are my hands always near my ears? ..Is it for not hearing anything bad as told by Mahatma Gandhi? ..Not really!! It was very windy there and my two caps and jacket's hood were not sufficient to cover my ears! So if you go to Reykjavik, go prepared with a really good cap!

A beautiful structure close to Harpa, although I do not know its name or significance.

Are you able to spot Harpa far behind in this picture? It was a short walk from here.

A view of the street we loved to walk to enjoy the wind!

My sister loves to see different churches, so a visit to a church close to the tournament hall was one of the first things we did!

Window shopping! Some of my friends had told me that Iceland is the most expensive country they have visited! I would wonder "how expensive and what exactly is expensive?". I got the answer after going there! Everything wonderful comes at a price and Iceland is no different! It indeed is the costliest country I have visited! Let me compare with my city Kolkata. I buy eggs at Indian Rupees 54 a dozen and when the shopkeeper tells me the price has gone up to Rs.60 a dozen, I make a note in my mind,  price rise! In Iceland I would buy eggs at Rupees 400 a dozen at the cheapest shop, almost nearly seven times the rate I pay in my country. Of course Rs.400 is not that big a deal but am talking only about eggs now. At the airport we spotted a nice woolen hat. We looked at the price- it was approximately Rs.11,000 (for foreigners- approximately 130 Euros)!! In the very initial years of my service life, this would be my month's salary! Of course that was much more than a decade ago but what I mean is that this amount for a hat is too much by Indian standards.
Here, I would add a note on currency. In Iceland they use Icelandic Krona but you might not need cash at all. Cards are accepted almost everywhere except for public buses (Company named Straeto) where you have to pay exact change as the drivers do not carry cash and cards are not accepted! The local passengers use seasonal tickets so if you need to pay for one way travel, you need to have exact change. The bus ticket in the bus we took to the tournament hall (around 15 minutes drive) was 460 Krona per person one way, which was approximately Rs.300. The minimum bus fare in my city is Rs.6, so this was 50 times more!

Even though Iceland has the disadvantage of being expensive for tourists, it is by far the best country I have visited! (I have visited almost 30 countries). If you can afford it, you must visit Iceland - it is worth every penny spent!

For me songs are awesome if they have good lyrics and a country is beautiful if it has wonderful people! Extremely thankful to Oli and Gudrun  who made our stay in Iceland extremely memorable and did so much for us that at times I would look at them and think are they real or am I just dreaming!! They did for didi and me what I wouldn't even expect my closest relatives to do! If I meet more such people in life, I will definitely start believing that the world is full of wonderful people and my outlook towards life will become even more positive than today! 

With Dora and Micro, our wonderful friends, I still miss them! I learnt that in Iceland there are no stray cats and dogs, only pets exist. 

With Icelandic horses!

Now I will take you around to a few places we visited on the rest day of the tournament.

On the day of sight seeing, my sister Swati was  eager to find snow somewhere to play with. The snow had mostly become ice everywhere but here she found some snow and was very happy!

The view outside during journey! Simply beautiful!

Geysir was in our list of 'to visit' places and we made it there! Click here to watch this awesome video captured by me which will definitely make you want to visit Iceland! Mindblowing, isn't it ?

This one contains some details of Geysir.

Didi rightly said that geysir gives the feeling of a dream sequence in our Hindi movies (whenever Indian movies show someone dreaming, they use smoke effect to let the public know that it is a dream). For us, being there watching Geysir itself seemed like a dream! Overall Iceland experience was indeed a dream come true! Do not forget to notice the lot of tourists who had gathered to see the beautiful sight!

Another very beautiful destination was Gullfoss Waterfall! You will notice that I had become red due to the cold. Most difficult thing was to take photographs. To take a picture one had to open the gloves and the wind would start its job of freezing you!! Didi and I both enjoy cold but the hands were actually pricking after 1-2 minutes. We did enjoy the experience of gloves on, gloves off!!

Gullfoss Waterfall is awesome, right?

If you go to Gullfoss and if you are a fish lover, do try this sandwich, it was yummy! This was the best tuna fish I ever tasted! This brings me to another important point - Iceland is  very famous for fish! (But I was told that the tuna fish is imported). Do try it!

We dropped by to peep into a hot water swimming pool..here I am at the top of the pool...

...this picture will give a better view. We saw the people enjoying in the hot pool and then they would run  to the cold water! This reminds me, hot water pool is a very common and interesting thing in Iceland which one must try! My sister had this interesting question as to why people need hot pool when there is bath tub at home? We were told that the idea of hot water pool is to keep the body warm and to keep the face up above water so that it gets fresh air! This is how it is different from a bath tub!
Speaking of water, any tap water in Iceland is drinkable, so you never need to buy a bottle of water! The Icelandic water is good to drink and also good for the skin and hair and everything else!

Iceland has surplus of electricity production- mostly from renewable sources- and so people do not have to worry about electricity at all. Aluminium and fishing industry are the important industries in Iceland.

I found this written at the airport! It is very interesting that genealogy, or family history, has a very special place in Iceland. It is the study of families and the study of their lineages. Basically there is an online database for people of Iceland. they can sign in and search how they are related to another person - they could be related through forefathers, 10 generations back or so. It is amazing that such a wonderful record of facts is maintained online!

Are you looking for inspiration to visit Iceland? Look no further!!

On a personal note and a little off topic, I saw the hardcopy of my DVD, "Strengthen your chess foundation" for the first time in Reykjavik, after a year of its release! Why, you might wonder! Well, I have soft copy in my computer and I gifted the few DVDs I received in packed condition, so never got a chance to open the pack and look inside. In Reykjavik after gifting it to a friend, I opened my DVD cover and installed it for him and before I installed it, I was like "Wow, this is how my DVD looks like!"

                                        IM Nisha Mohota- IM John Bartholomew, White to play.


Being a chess player, it is impossible not to include any chess trivia from a full tournament! This was my seventh round game. I was white against John Bartholomew of the US. This was the critical 40th move, but as you can all spot, it is very easy now for white to bring home the full point. I played 40.Rh7! and soon won the game. Black is losing everything.

Iceland is beautiful and the people beautiful at heart add to our joy! I hope you all enjoyed this journey to Iceland with me. I have beautiful memories of my trip and so I wanted to share it with all.Part 2 of this article (which will be very close to my heart) will be published soon.


P.S.- I know this blog post has been long, but if you truly love something, don't you have tons to speak about it?