Interviewing Cha_ChaRealSmooth
This article is a transcription from the interview, with Spanish subtitles, available in the YouTube Chanel MoreMao Dice:
Interviewing Cha_ChaRealSmooth (Spanish Subtitles)
MoreMao
Hey, Cha_Cha!
Hey Mao!
MoreMao
how are you?
Cha_ChaRealSmooth
I'm good. Thank you. How about you?
MoreMao
ehh... fine, fine. Like it's being cold these days here
Cha_ChaRealSmooth
No, really? Here as well, yes.
MoreMao
Remember me, ¿where are you living at this moment?
Cha_ChaRealSmooth
I'm in Yerevan, Armenia.
MoreMao
Okay, is it cold? You have the seasons there?
Cha_ChaRealSmooth
Yes, of course. Very cold. It's very cold in the winters.
MoreMao
Uh huh... I would like to interview you, because many friends asked me like you should interview Cha and that's why you are here. Tell us a bit about you. Where did you grow up? Have you been out of Armenia?
Cha_ChaRealSmooth
I've always been here. Born and raised
MoreMao
in the same city?
Cha_ChaRealSmooth
In Yerevan? Yes.
MoreMao
How old are you?
Cha_ChaRealSmooth
You don't know how old I am?
MoreMao
no
Cha_ChaRealSmooth
Okay, guess
MoreMao
26?
Cha_ChaRealSmooth
No.
MoreMao
22
Cha_ChaRealSmooth
No. Curioso once tried to guess, Issac, he said 28. But it's still not close. I think some of the Spanish people know my age, they found my FIDE profile.
MoreMao
Mm hmm.
Cha_ChaRealSmooth
And there it says the year I was born. So I was born in 2002.
MoreMao
uh! you're very young,
Cha_ChaRealSmooth
Sí!
MoreMao
19 No? kind of...
Cha_ChaRealSmooth
Almost.
MoreMao
Almost... Like, soon. You're going to have 19, no?
Cha_ChaRealSmooth
Yeah.
MoreMao
Okay,
Cha_ChaRealSmooth
technically.
MoreMao
What is your elo FIDE, your FIDE elo
Cha_ChaRealSmooth
FIDE it's very low, FIDE is 2000, in the low 2000, right now. I dropped a lot of rating. I haven't played the chess tournament in maybe a year, year and a half, at this time because I had to stop to study to get into university. So I didn't play any chess. And now I am studying so, not so much time to play professionally... almost two years already.
MoreMao
How did you meet 4pc
Cha_ChaRealSmooth
I saw it randomly. On chess.com (chess punto com!) I just see four player chess. I click on it. It was interesting to me. I liked it. Then yeah, I just started playing.
MoreMao
What do you think about the situation of being blues and greens at this moment in time 4pc
Cha_ChaRealSmooth
It's really not as bad as a lot of people think. Especially aborting games, they... when you see your blue or your green at the start, you already start to feel bad and no, you just have to play good moves. The most important thing is for you to have a good opposite of course going to support you. But even important is for you to be a good opposite for you to support your opposite too. All the openings are fine: Classical, Sicilian,Caro Kann; most of the team's openings. They work fine in FFA, but you have to be more precise if you're blue and green because you make one mistake then you get mated or you lose a lot of material. So you have to be very careful when you play but if you play good, if you don't make mistakes, it's totally fine. Of course a lot relies on your opposite, but you can say that for Red - Yellow too: if you're red and yellow plays bad you're gonna get mated.
MoreMao
so in your advise, in your opinion is not a matter of oppenings.
Cha_ChaRealSmooth
It doesn't matter. You can play d6, c6, you can play c5, you can play Nf6, even.
You have to play good moves. Most of the people that complain, sure they have a point, I understand what they're saying. But you know, instead of complaining, they should really concentrate and work towards getting better at the game. This is what I always say. Because even if you maybe get some kind of not a preferred position, some kind of bad start from the opening and, you know, you shouldn't really lose instantly. And people should concentrate on not making blunders, not doing mistakes. And what's more important is that, you should always try to defend very well. Because imagine you're playing a game and you have a good position; let's say you have a big advantage. But imagine you're playing against a computer, an engine, can you win with your big advantage against an engine? Probably it will be very hard. So you should always try to defend like an engine. Because even if your position is maybe bad, if you defend the best way, if you try to find the most challenging moves, it's still going to be really hard for the attacker to finish you. And I find that to be the case most of the time. Even if your position is bad, you can find the best moves, it will not be so bad.
MoreMao
Do you have any any tips for be better in defense?
Cha_ChaRealSmooth
defense?
MoreMao
Like, how, people maybe are wondering, okay, that's fine. That makes sense. But how should I go?
Cha_ChaRealSmooth
It's very situational. And come to talk about the exact thing that depends on what game you're playing and the position. Something that's really good for improvement in general, and that I don't really know, I'm not sure that everyone does this: People should go back and review their games. So you play a game, you finish, you lose, or if you win, you should go back and go over your game. Start from the beginning and then finish it, you should analyze your games. And everyone should do this. You should I mean, me. Even now I play a game, I'm gonna analyze it. Three, four times, maybe,
MoreMao
oh, really,
Cha_ChaRealSmooth
very staredly. That's how you get better because 4pc, it's such a deep hard game that you can't really, you know, you can't really not make mistakes. You play a game, it lasts 50, 100 moves, there is no way you don't make a mistake. Because what is your goal, if you're playing a game, on each move, on every move, you should try to make the best move of the position. Even if you don't blame the review, if you don't make a mistake, even if you win the game. The goal is always to make the best move, every move. So if you're playing a game that lasts, let's say 50 moves, which is a small number I'm giving you there is no way you made for 50 moves, the best move in that position. Even if you win, so you should go back, try to find the best moves. And that's like a good scenario I'm giving you especially if you lose, you should go back and go over your mistakes. Everyone should do this. And you should try to find the defense maybe should try to find the better move. So that next time it doesn't happen. People don't do this. They don't analyze their games. That's how you get better. That's the most important thing.
MoreMao
No, I must confess, I do that with some games.
Cha_ChaRealSmooth
Not every game?
MoreMao
Not every game
Cha_ChaRealSmooth
You should do it every game. Even if you win
MoreMao
When you started to play 4pc, who were the players? Like? Do you remember who at that moment?
Cha_ChaRealSmooth
Good question. Of course I remember,
MoreMao
like, friendly or in chat. And then who were in the...who were the top players, or who were the players that you liked to see, to follow...
Cha_ChaRealSmooth
Yea, I remember, the top players... I remember Hest, of course. When I started to play almost two years ago, Hest was the number one in a big way, so of course, he was the best in the world and the second place was, like 200 points behind him. And that was great... So at that time, I was new to 4pc, right? And I wanted to get better. How do I do this? I look at the leaderboard, I see who is the best player that the time it was Hest. So you're going to Hest archive, you watch his games. That's how you learn. Try to learn from the best. And I remember doing this a lot when I started playing, I went just to look at Hest games, try to see his ideas. Because at that time, he was just miles ahead of everyone else. It was really good... I remember when Hest was the, you know, the big one. And Hest is probably the player that I learned the most from but I remember Besher, I remember Neo, you I remember I think; there were a lot of good players... I think lagpress, I remember he was one of the first good players I saw, he doesn't play anymore. That's how I got good too, just watching the good players play. Carlos was there, at the top when I started playing.
MoreMao
How often are you playing at this moment?
Cha_ChaRealSmooth
Well, you can check my games. I don't have that many games played. I think if you look at the leaderboard, and you check the players games for... I mean, if you're looking at FFA leaderboard, if you go FFA rapid games, standard, I think I have the least games, in the leaderboard, out of the 20 players, I'm pretty sure. So I don't have that many.
MoreMao
But you played... you used to play more before, no?
Cha_ChaRealSmooth
Not really, No, I have a lot of Blitz games. I have almost 1000 FFA Blitz. But you have to understand when we talk about the amount of games. What does it mean? So you have to break things down, you have to look at the actual thought. So what does it mean to play a lot of games? Why does this matter? Probably means experience. You play a lot of games, you have 1000s of games played. You have a lot of experience and that should be good, right? But experience you can get in other ways. I think if you again, look at the games that I've played, it's not a lot. I haven't played that many games, especially if you compare it to the other players in the leaderboards. But the amount of games that I have watched, that I've seen, is a lot. So when it comes to experience, I think I have a lot of experience
MoreMao
At this point, for instance, we are stucked with the with the issue of blue and green: most of the... a lot of people are aborting. But if we were having like more and more high rated games, and if we could see how the leader guys deal with those colors, maybe we weren't in this situation.
Cha_ChaRealSmooth
I think you can still do that. I think you can still do this: I can suggest looking at the eye of the Tiger's archive, for blue-green. He plays very well, and with those colors. He deals with it just fine. I agree that it's not cool that a lot of players they just played twice in a week, or in two weeks. Just to stay on the leaderboard. But I don't think that's a bad thing. Exactly. I don't think you can force them to play because in order to make such a... it's a really big change in the rules, it's really going to impact the game in a big way and maybe it's a good idea. Maybe you are right, I don't think there's necessarily a true or wrong here. I think it's an idea to be thought about. But I doubt that the admins do it because if you're going to make a such a big change it needs to impact the game in a really big way. It needs to make sure the game improves and at the moment 4pc is improving rapidly. You look at the numbers you look at the live games you look at the players that are online, it's going up all the time. So I don't think it is attractive for the admins to make such a big change because things are going very well right now. Why would they make an update like this?
MoreMao
Leaderboard should reward the present, you know, like who are the players that are been active? If you want, we can have, like the leaderboard from the year and a monthly leaderboard that reflects the present.
Cha_ChaRealSmooth
I desagree, I mean, Would you like a player plays two games but really good games or 20 games but not so good?
MoreMao
No, if he finds... you know, if all people of the leaderboard like if you're sharing board with Tigray with the Tigre, with Hest, with Coppola, for instance, is highly probable that we are going to see a very good game. So, if we invite them... if we arrive to make work to invite them to play... It's not going to be... I don't know how can it be bad for the community.
Cha_ChaRealSmooth
It will be good for the community. Sure, that will be a good thing. But if we don't do that, if we keep it where it's at, I think it's good too.
MoreMao
okay.
Cha_ChaRealSmooth
I don't think it's bad. The thing is, it is really difficult to get to 3000 especially today. And I think some people don't realize that. I think people don't know how hard it really is to get there and stay there. So, a lot of people I think, and I'm not talking about you, Mao, you're a really good player, you've been what, 2800... you're always in the top. But if players have not been in the top, if they don't know what it's like to get there, I don't really think that opinion matters too much. I think they should first try to themselves get high in the leaderboard and really stay there, then maybe they can come up with really big ideas. Because especially today, I'm looking at the leaderboard now. Number 20 is 2700. That's a lot of rating. Getting there is very difficult. And sure, if you want to, if you're a lower rated player, and you want to be integrated in the leaderboard, you have to work very hard. To make it here, you have to play a lot of games, in the two weeks, yeah, sure, play 10 games, 20 games, try to get the wins try to get some rating, but when people have already made it, they can do whatever they want, really. Because they're already here, and they have the right to play twice in two weeks if they wants to. It's okay. It's within the rules, and I think it's fine. But personally, me, I think it's not cool. I think if you're playing twice in two weeks, that's kind of lame. And you talk about the community being involved, it's very important, and I don't think high rated players should only play against high rated players. I myself play in a lot of the lower rated games, I play 2200+, 2300+ games, and I think it's a good thing for the community. Me, I don't care about my rating too much. I play because I like it, that's why... if you look at my games, in two weeks, I play many games. When I'm in the number one, I can play 10, 15 games in two weeks. If I lose it, I lose it. It's okay. I'll get it back.
