old school chess coaches (nostalgia and homage)

These internet kids with their ridiculous forum threads - like "Look at me! I beat a master!" and "Check out how stupid my opponent is!" and "I know how the horsey goes - will it take me 2 or 3 years to become a GM?" - got me nostalgic for the old days before the internet.

You know, when all chess was played on a physical board, across a human opponent siting across from you. Anyone still remember that time? And you would train with an actual human coach, who had a personality and interacted with you in person.

Growing up in Russia, I was lucky enough to train with Alexander Petrushin. I don't expect anyone on here to know who that is, but he was a legend in his time and place. He was a Soviet Master (~equivalent to a strong IM), and he played a bit, but he mostly coached. He was straight to the point, no-nonsense, and politically incorrect. One of his expressions that suck with me is "went swimming" - said when someone has lost the thread of the game and is gradually being outplayed. Sadly, he passed away a few years ago. RIP.

I was also invited to the chess training camp in Moscow with Alexander Nikitin, whom some may know as Kasparov's old coach. That camp was hardcore. All the kids were strong players, we had to present game analyses in front of everyone, and he'd give us problems that were next-level difficult. I remember he gave us "merely" a pawn endgame to analyze, put us in teams of two, and gave us 3 days. And we still couldn't make heads or tails of it by the end.

In America I had the honor of taking lessons from GM Gregory Kaidanov, one of the best coaches in this country IMHO. He would go over my tournament games with me and had an amazing knack for identifying my weakness that I need to work on. I still have the notebook with the analyses I did with him, and the homework problems he gave me. (A notebook! In which I wrote with a pen! Can you imagine?) He still coaches, and if anyone has a chance to take lessons from him, I can't recommend it enough.

OK, I wanted to write a humble homage to chess teachers and human interaction. Maybe some of you can relate or find these stories mildly interesting.

Thanks for reading.

P.S. To make it clear, people weren't nicer before the internet. They'd still be rude. This one kid who beat me kept coming to me afterwards and saying, "Remember how I checkmated you? Haha!" And when I was playing in the city under-18 championship, another coach (not Petrushin) for some reason came up to me and told me, "They'll beat up on you, but you'll learn something!" But you know what? When someone says it to your face, it's motivating. I went on to get better than that kid. And the city championship? I won it with 12/13 (round-robin, 14 players), 3 points ahead of second place. But when an anonymous stranger on the internet insults you, it's just annoying.

P.P.S. Yes, I know the internet is a good thing. And the global democratization it has brought it is a good thing. And the way it's taken chess out of the hands of a few countries and shared it with the whole world is a great thing. But it's not the same...

well sir its an honour to meet you here . i wish i could have met you in person ( and have a match) .thank you for sharing your story .

Interesting about "deep sea diving" - I haven't heard that one. "Went swimming" is an imperfect translation from Russian. Maybe "floated off" is better - it indicates a player has lost control and is just being carried by the flow of the game. I'm surprised you've heard of Petrushin, that's cool.

And thank you for the kind words web14.

I see this didn't get too many responses , which is a shame.  cause its a great post

as a great strong scholastic player, did you consider trying to become a chess professional.  and Also with All these "who long until I become a GM?..."

when you were younger did you wonder about this?  was there a different expectation growing up in chess and being trained by a chess legend?  i'd be interested in some of the differences- since Russia Was SO obsessed with fostering chess talent. but now, that chess has become casual and unserious- at the same Time; it seems that people can't stand even better a mere expert.

Yes indeed!  This is a great post!  I am so happy to have read this homage to old school Russian teachers.  (Of course, they don't have to be Russian, but just old school, lol).

Also, I think I "went swimming" in about at least 3 out of every 4 games I play, lol.  What a great expression!  And I'm so glad you got back up and chessically fought back after getting taunted, "Remember how I checkmated you? Haha!"  That's super hydrogen fuel for the motivation to improve.

Since I'm an old guy, and I "retired" from chess back in the 80's, I remember thinking and believing that the Soviet Union OWNED the chess world.  Of course, the maniacal genius Bobby Fischer overturned the Chess World for a while, but then things got back to normal with Karpov and Kasparov.  

In my youth the Olympic Games were used as Showcases for the superiority of a country's culture.  There was Russia and East Germany who were killing it in the Gold Medal count and the Overall Medal count.  There were huge complaints by the Americans (my country) that the Russians were using professionals (and sometimes on steroids) against our poor amateurs.  Eg., hockey.  Russian pros, compensated by the State, versus our college boys on hockey scholarships.  Same thing in Basketball.  So then it was lobbied to get *our* professionals involved because, you know, national pride and honor was at stake.

Kinda like watching the movie "Hidden Figures" about the space race between Russian and the United States.  The Russians are getting ahead!!

So to me, Russia dominating chess was a foregone conclusion.  Afterall, it's their way of establishing their national identity as being the smartest country!!?  "We got the best chess players!!  Every other country is playing for second place, ha! ha!"

So then this old patzer awakens from his deep slumber earlier this year, thinking that chess was way past its "sell-by-date" and learned how much Chess has evolved in the past 30 years!!  Oh my gosh, India and China are on the ascent!!!  India had a World Champion, Vishy Anand!!  And China has got Hou Yifan (who gets a draw against Magnus and beats Fabio), and this 17-year old wunderkind, Wei Yi, who's touted as being the next world champion.  Not only that, but Wesley So is the Chinese-Filipino American U.S. Chess Champion.  And Jeffrey Xiong is the World Junior Chess Champion.  Not to mention these Chinese-American prodigies Carissa Yip and Awonder Liang.  

It's like in current geo-politics.  It was always U.S. and Russia.  Now China is making all this noise, and saying, "Hey!  Make room at the table for a 3rd chair.  We eating with the Big Boys now, too!"

It's hilarious.  At least to my humorous take on things.  Trump and Putin have to pay attention to what China is doing.  And now the same thing is happening in the Chess World.  Interesting parallel, yes?

Oddly, not only did get few responses, but one of the responses has been removed. And my reply to it now makes no sense.

Thanks for the compliment. I did consider going pro, esp. in Russia. Nikitin told my parents that if we chose to stay, he could make me into a Soviet master (again, ~IM level) in 2-3 years, and that I had potential to be top-20 in the world. But, you know, no pressure. The other side of it is, being a pro chess player would have probably been the best choice back there. I always wanted to be a scientist, but being Jewish in Russia in a science career, I would have been held back at every step. It's what happened to both of my parents. Being a chess player would have probably been the best way to actually have a decent life and travel abroad.

I'm glad my parents immigrated and took me to America. It's the greatest thing they did. But in terms of chess... in Ohio... in the early 1990s... fuggetaboudit. It ranked in popularity somewhere between curling and Mongolian throat singing. So being a pro chess player in the States was just a ridiculous idea. Besides, I could now actually become a scientist, and I did.

I think chess has become much more popular, esp. in the States, and there are a lot more opportunities for kids here these days. The casual and unserious aspect is just online, and people with actual aspirations to study and improve also don't have these silly ideas of how long it takes to get a title.

Very interesting. I had a similarly tense and productive schooling in Russia but in the sphere of classical music. We immigrated around the same time as you guys. I had always felt a kinship for chess, but never had the time or resources. In America, we found a society almost completely devoid of interest and respect for the arts in the public consciousness. I have fun following chess nowadays, but have read somewhere that the actual physical aspect of playing against a live person and touching the chess pieces are central to some type of synaptic advancement of one's skills

FWIW, I just read this 4-year old article about the Magnus-Anand match which was lamenting the lack of enthusiasm in the General Public about chess, and this one excerpt was pretty funny in retrospect:

"During the cold war, chess was politics carried on by other means. When Fischer was threatening to pull out of the 1972 match, it took a call from national security adviser Henry Kissinger to persuade him to carry on. It was that important to the US to get one over on the Soviet Union, which had dominated the game since the second world war."

This thread reminds me of Alex Yermolinksy's series of videos (on another chess site) entitled "What every Russian schoolboy knows."

Years ago I took in-person lessons from an IM who had been a trainer in Ukraine.  Damn good, and damn helpful.  And I know that internet/skype lessons are all the rage, but there is something to be said for sitting across from your coach.  As much as the chess lessons learned, just as helpful were his suggestions (demands!) that I do basic things in the "proper" fashion.  For instance -- when he would set up a position and ask me to evaluate, I would first check the material balance by looking at the captured pieces lined up off the chess board.  He would brusquely move his forearm to cover the captured pieces and shout, "NO!  Look at the board!  The board!!"  A great tip that I still follow.