“Rest of the World” Syndrome

I’ve just watched a rather interesting video by the indomitable Kingscrusher on the ‘tube:

Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JSRRniBlDFc

Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQ_a42w_jWQ&feature=channel

The video is an analysis of a game between WGM Natalia Pogonina vs. The Rest of the World in a correspondence game. Pogonina bases her strategy around the dominance of a ‘Boleslavsky Hole’, and KC has posted this game as an instructional example of a strategic win.

What caught my attention was the idea of the judgment of individual moves by the voting team. Pogonina had a better strategic grasp of the game, whereas the Rest of the World voted on the most popular move, with the best looking move in the position by vote being made. My ears pricked up, as I think this is a transferrable lesson to correspondence chess.

The Rest of the World lost the game, because voters would choose a move that bore no relation to a strategic plan, like “I’ll develop this bishop here” or “I’ll dominate this diagonal” etc. It instantly reminded me of my own correspondence games. If, on any given day, I open my current games, I realized that I only play a move that looks reasonable in the position. I almost never make a strategic plan, which I consistently carry out, mostly because I forget where I was. The position I am looking at is almost arbitrary, with what has gone before meaningless. I have “Rest of the World” Syndrome. The separation of time between moves causes the same problem as the amount of voters. This, I think, along with my tactical naivety, explains why I struggle to stay in the 1700’s on chess.com.

‘Course, that could be rubbish, and I might just not be very good at chess. But I might start telling myself, when playing a CC game: “Forget the Rest of the World – Play like Pogonina”.

ED.

I agree with you on the strategic planing, but it is the weakness of the vote chess. When did you see an army run by democratic voting? :)

I agree, but my point was that the weakness of vote chess is analgous to the weakness I allow in my own game due to the delay between moves in Correspondance Chess.

try to take notes, to play less games or to have them be too long time controls: with 10 3 days per move I remember each game plan and ideas of me and my opponents.

The ancient Roman armies elected their generals. Didn't work out.

Great videos, btw. I like the way kingscrusher annotates games by presenting the main ideas only instead of dwelling on the variations. That makes his videos interesting for everyone, even beginners who can't follow long unforced lines (which are of interest to pros).

@ManoWar : At least they were electing a general. Imagine voting every decision over the field (or board) :)

@ErrantDeeds: I understand what you are saying. I would even take it further by saying most people do not have a strategic plan in live chess either. So first we should realize we need a plan to begin with, and then of course it's better to keep that plan in mind 

 #oh my god Natalia Pogonina posted in my thread# I mean, ahem, yes, KC's vids are great. He's been doing them for years now, I've learnt so much from them. I find his style of identifying themes inspirational.