Nova Daily - 2 July: What do you want?
Hi!
Whenever I receive a friend request on here from someone that I don't know, I tend to check for a very brief bit of time what kind of person it is that I'm dealing with. Usually I wind up accepting friend requests because it normally doesn't mean all that much to me, but it should be understood that I'm here for the chess.
That doesn't mean that I hate people. Quite the contrary: people are fun and interesting. Everyone has their own peculiarities, and it's always very interesting to get to know a different person. See what their story is. What their deal is. And whoever you are, you have a unique story and unique experiences, and you know that.
At times, I receive something in my DMs that's quite nice and thought-provoking. Or something could set in motion a train of thoughts that leads to an unexpected realm of thoughts and interesting bits. Take today, for example: someone asked me a question that made me arrive at a point that I'd happily share here.
What do you want?
The question that I received in DM today was about someone's approach to chess, and they wanted my opinion on it. That's fine, of course, but you have to understand a few things.
First of all, I don't coach, and I don't want to coach. As such I find it very hard to give people my opinions on their play. Morally, at least: the site offers coaches the opportunity to get their coaching careers going, and I'd be meddling in their affairs. Some quick pointers here and there is the most that I feel I should do. And as for the rest:
What has worth is worth paying for.
- Robert Greene, The 48 Laws of Power, Law 40: "Despise the Free Lunch"
The second point is that I likely don't really know you that well. I don't know what your ambitions are (if you have any), I don't know what your approach to chess is, and I don't know what you value in the game of chess. Unless you tell me explicitly, I don't know what you want or what you think. And because of that, I can't tell you whether what you do works. Only you can tell.
The answer starts with that one question that you must answer honestly: What do you want?
Only if you know what you want are you able to judge your actions. You can now determine whether your actions have the desired effect of pushing you towards that goal.
In approximately 50 London System tournament games, I have produced exactly zero unwanted draws.
- FM James Schuyler, Your Opponent is Overrated, Chapter 1: "The Opening"
My answer to the DM:
You can get by pretty well by asking yourself honestly whether what you're doing works for you, and then act accordingly.
Yesterday's game
As you know, it wasn't the best game yesterday, though I did manage to keep the draw a pawn down. I'll highlight the two most important moments in the gameviewer below.
Although I messed up the game twice, I also fought back twice, and I do believe that I deserved the draw in the end.
What can I take away from this game:
- Playing tired isn't always the best thing to do. It can cost you a lot of points (or, in the case of this game, 1).
- Stop being such a coward and just toss your kingside pawns forward sometimes. Especially if you're a pawn down, you might have nothing to lose.
- The presence of opposite-coloured bishops meant that I had some escape ropes. This was especially true in the liquidation to the endgame: my pieces were active enough to bring the game into equilibrium.
