The Chess Mind

We continue our weekly series of profiles, this week introducing New England IM Dave Vigorito. Vigorito is a successful chess player (obviously), the author of a brand new book on the 4.Qc2 Nimzo-Indian, an online chess lecturer, and a player with a fine reputation as an informal trainer.

On with the interview!



1. Name:
David Vigorito

2. Age:
36

3. Title:
IM

4. Where you live, where you’re from:
I live in Andover MA. I grew up in Massachusetts and lived in Nevada from 1996-2006. I moved back east last July. Apparently I grew tired of the great weather, fine Mexican food, and clearly marked streets.

5. Family:
I have parents, a sister, and two cats.

6. Other interests:
I have only five interests: chess, food, sports, music, and women, although not necessarily in that order.

7. Favorite book/author (not chess):
Unfortunately I no longer read very much. I did however read the DaVinci Code due to societal pressure.

8. When (and how/from whom) you learned to play:
I think I learned to play when I was around 8, but I did not play tournaments until I was 16.

9. Favorite/most influential chess book (if any):
When I started playing, I liked Soltis' Art of Defense and Pawn Structure Chess. My first book was Chernev's Combinations: The Heart of Chess.

10. Favorite player (other than yourself):
Kramnik. I like to play in the center and make draws.

11. A game (not your own) that made a big impact on you:
Shabalov - Kraai, Foxwoods 2007.

12. Your best game:
I have not really played any good games. I could say Petran - Vigorito, Budapest 2003, because it was an unusual openng and a very difficult game.
It also secured my second IM norm. Kudrin - Vigorito, Cambridge 2000 was also satisfying because he went into my preparation and the game gave me a small measure of revenge (see below).

13. Your greatest moment in chess so far:
In the World Open in 1997 I beat three GM's in a row and then drew Smirin with Black before losing to Kudrin (Black again - no fair). It was my first IM norm and I was half a point shy of a GM norm. It caused a stir because I was rated only 2359 and was on board 2 in the last round.

14. The most valuable thing you did to become the player you are:
I have a very good trainer - myself. Unfortunately I also have a very lazy student - also myself.

15. What you value most about the game:
Chess is like music to me. I find beauty in harmony.

16. Your chess credo:
Make every move count.

17. Three tips for amateurs:
1) Play as much as you can against players that are better than you, but not so overwhelmingly better that you cannot compete.
2) Do not play too much blitz. It will make your play cheap and superficial because you will learn to depend on cheapos and the clock.
3) Do not switch back and forth between a bunch of crappy openings. This will only impede your development. Play something normal even if it takes longer to learn.

18. A tip for ambitious players:
Absorb as much information as you can. Play, learn openings and endings, and go over your own games and the games of players whose names start with K.

19. A game you’d like to present:
I will show Vigorito - de Firmian, Philadelphia 1997 because it has a sacrifice and people like sacrifices. Nick is a nice guy and he was kind enough to remind me of this game after he crushed me last year when I played the ridiculous Berlin Defence against him.

20. Any of your work/services you’d like to plug:
Well my first book Challenging the Nimzo - Indian recently came out. It is a big book on the 4.Qc2 Nimzo. My publisher is Quality Chess Books (Learn From the Legends, Experts vs the Sicilian) and it is available on Amazon.com:
http://tinyurl.com/yxhceo . I am also available for lessons, lectures, and writing. message fluffy on ICC or reach me at dvigorito [at symbol] msn.com . But please do not send me any Nigerian banking spam!

Click here to see three of his games (vs. deFirmian, Petran and Kudrin), with his (Informant-style) notes.

It's Monday, and that means it's time for another player profile. This week, we present Alexander Baburin, the Irish GM (by way of Russia) best known in the chess world as the prime mover behind the daily e-publication Chess Today. He's also the author of the excellent (but misleadingly named) Winning Pawn Structures, and I hope it won't be too long before we see another book by him. That's enough intro, so let move on to the interview!



(GM Baburin is on the right, a restored version of the Turk is in the center, and the man who restored it, John Gaughan, is on the left.)

1. Name:
Alexander Baburin

2. Age:
40. I was born on the 19th of February 1967.

3. Title:
GM

4. Where you live, where you’re from:
Dublin Ireland. I was born in Nizhniy Novgorod (then Gorky), Russia. I lived there till 1993 when I moved to Ireland.

5. Family:
I am married to Elena, we have two children – Ivan (17) and Anastasia (12).

6. Other interests:
Between the age of 6 and 10 I was seriously into swimming. Later I played basketball a lot. I still like to swim and play basketball, though I do it not as often as I should. As for other interests, I am not original – I like travelling, walking, reading and cinema. I like museums, I find them entertaining and relaxing at the same time.

7. Favorite book/author (not chess):
Montaigne's Essays. I learnt about that book thanks to Kasparov, who mentioned it in one of his interviews as his favourite book. I was curious and read it. I still read it from time to time, this is my clear favourite.

8. When (and how/from whom) you learned to play:
I was 7 or 8 when my father taught me chess.

9. Favorite/most influential chess book (if any):
For me it’s the book on the Candidates’ tournament in Zurich in 1953. There serious chess stuff is presented in a highly entertaining way – not an easy feat. Curiously, Bronstein and I share the same birthday.

10. Favorite player (other than yourself):
I won’t be my favourite player, even if I had 2800+ elo – vanity is not one of my vices. People often admire what they can’t do themselves, so let’s name Kasparov!

11. A game (not your own) that made a big impact on you:
Can’t think of any.

12. Your best game:
I’ll pass on this. I am rather critical of my chess abilities. I played some decent games, but nothing close to really great chess.

13. Your greatest moment in chess so far:
Winning the Isle of Man Open in 1997. I scored +7=2 and showed 2800+ performance against pretty decent opposition.

14. The most valuable thing you did to become the player you are:
Analysing my own weaknesses. But then again, all strong players do that.

15. What you value most about the game:
The intellectual challenge and the richness of chess.

16. Your chess credo:
Chess is a contest between two people, not a mathematical puzzle.

17. Three tips for amateurs:
1) Make a plan of what you want from chess and how you will go about it. Bad plan is better than no plan! (Lasker)
2) Study endgames first (Capablanca), then openings and everything else.
3) Look at your own games – the player you want to study most is you!

18. A tip for ambitious players:
In chess some talent and a lot of hard work can get you very far!

19. A game you’d like to present:
This game [DM: vs. Sharma] from the Commonwealth Championship in India might be typical for my playing style, which is active, but yet solid.

20. Any of your work/services you’d like to plug:
Since 2000 I’ve been involved with Chess Today, a daily newsletter. It’s my pet project and working on it has been very interesting and put me in touch with many people in chess. One can see some samples of that work at www.chesstoday.net.

(You can replay his game with Sharma here, or you can see it in .pdf form, modified from its original publication in "Coffee Break Chess" - Chess Today's precursor.)

It's Monday once more, and thus time for another player profile. This week, our interviewee is IM (and Ph.D.) Kenneth Regan. In the late 1970s, he was considered an extremely talented youngster, but he gave up the game to pursue his studies in computer science and math; a gain for those fields (and for his family's income), but a loss for chess.



1. Name:
Kenneth W. Regan (Dr.)

2. Age:
47

3. Title:
IM

4. Where you live, where you're from:
Amherst (Buffalo) NY, originally from Paramus, NJ where my parents still live.

5. Family:
Wife Deborah, children Alexander, 12, and Rebecca, 9.

6. Other interests:
Professional: Computer Science---computational complexity theory, Mathematics. Avocations: Music, foreign languages, singing, fantasy sports (with family).

7. Favorite book/author (not chess):
1. The Bible
2. Martin Gardner's books on Mathematical Recreations (from his column in Scientific American), a definite inspiration.
3. S.I. Hayakawa, Language in [Thought and] Action.

8. When (and how/from whom) you learned to play:
5 years old, watched father play with uncle. My father was the perfect strength for which learning to win was a difficult but attainable challenge---in 6 months. The mountain I pose does seem to have discouraged my kids---though they are champions of their grades at school.

9. Favorite/most influential chess book (if any):
I. Chernev and K. Harkness, An Invitation to Chess---which I still recommend as best spanning the progression from beginner to advanced thinking, and which shows some of the beauty of the game, too. Then Nimzowitsch's My System and Kmoch's Pawn Power In Chess.

10. Favorite player (other than yourself):
Emanuel Lasker---though I do not exemplify his psychological approach, and Nimzowitsch/Larsen/etc. are more my style. I said this long before I found myself applying some of his mathematics in my research! (Indeed, I flagged Wikipedia's statement of the Lasker-Noether Theorem as incompletely worded---nobody has taken my fix suggestion on the discussion page further yet.)

11. A game (not your own) that made a big impact on you:
Nimzowitsch-Hakansson, in the Chernev-Harkness book.

12. Your best game:
My win over Walter Browne as Black in 1975: Hypermodern + Kmoch to the max.

13. Your greatest moment in chess so far:
Beating GMs Shamkovich and Bisguier in the last 2 rounds of the Jan 1977 New York City International to pull out my first IM norm.

(Co-winning the 1977 US Junior Championship and my board prize at the 1976 Student Olympiad---only non-Russian to win a gold medal---are close to it.)

14. The most valuable thing you did to become the player you are:
I always played in open sections, did not mind losing to much higher-rated players, and learned from them in post-game analysis.

What held me back was never studying openings, but that was part of the bargain of going full-bore into mathematics and science and other academic subjects instead, having decided at age 13(!) not to make chess a career.

For life experience, early cameraderie in adult company was most valuable---this helped me be mature enough to give lectures as a teenager, and research colloquia even as a first-year graduate student.

15. What you value most about the game:
Creative challenge. Unlike with Math/CS research, you have an active opponent! Also an innate beauty that everyone can visualize and understand.

16. Your chess credo:
When reading Chessbase's item on recent chess writings by the Spanish surrealist Fernando Arrabal, I realized that the opening and closing lines of his chess poem---curiously, given only in the Spanish original---have long been my unvoiced credo:

"A mis partidas voy/ de mis partidas vengo..."

I translate as: "I go to my games/ I come (away!) from my games." The Spanish "vengo" means come-away here, not just "come", and to me that makes all the difference. While a teenager I thought this in the form, "Enjoy it---without feeling as if your livelihood depends on it, unless it does." But Arrabal's version is more fundamental and IMHO works even for those who seek a living from chess. It also leads into the Susan Polgar credo "Win with grace, lose with dignity," which is a given. As a Christian I see much of life that way, to sacrifice if called for---and then there are parts of life that are not games...

17. Three tips for amateurs:
1. Learn the endgame! and play the opening with that in view;
2. Find books on the middlegame and annotations that help you visualize sequences of 3-4 moves, which chess programs may not be so good for;
3. What struck me most about the crossword-puzzle solving tournaments in the recent movie "Wordplay" was how they were valued for friendship.

18. A tip for ambitious players:
My point 14 is vital.

I still agree with advice I read as a teenager to play over many master games, even without looking at annotations, "learning by osmosis". I believe this should be done at a physical board, not a computer screen---and without being distracted by chess engine evaluations.

19. A game you'd like to present:
Annotated PGN of my win over Browne is attached.

20. Any of your work/services you'd like to plug:
My anti-cheating efforts: research and experimental data-gathering both, largely pro-bono. In http://www.cse.buffalo.edu/~regan/chess/fidelity/, "fidelity" is a 6-way reference to (1) agreement to an agent in general, (2) a particular measure of agreement called "fidelity" which figures into the mathematics, (3) FIDE, (4) faith, (5) playing in good faith, and (6) my personal "keeping faith with the chess world" in general after so long an absence.

Hopefully their application to chess will be unnecessary!---but research papers on this topic may find application in other areas.

For more, see this local 1996 interview.

(His games with Browne, Shamkovich, and Bisguier, together with Nimzowitsch-Hakansson, are here.)

It's Monday, at that means it's time for another player profile. Last week we introduced British IM Andrew Martin; this week we return to my side of the pond to present American IM John Watson.

Watson's accomplishments and contributions to the chess world are many. As an author, he has written many acclaimed books on opening and general chess theory - to say nothing of his famous Chessman comics! His book reviews for TWIC are excellent, and he has worked successfully as a trainer, too, most notably helping Tal Shaked become World Junior champion in 1997 - ahead of players like Morozevich, Kasimdzhanov and Movsesian! And in his free time, he plays chess, too.

Name:
John Watson

Age:
55

Title:
International Master

Other interests:
Literature, Socio-political Issues/Economics, sports, Electrical Engineering (I was in the field).

Favorite authors (not chess):
Off the top of my head: Flann O'Brian, Heinrich Boll, Dostoevsky, Pynchon, Faulkner... Shakespeare [almost forgot!], and many others. Numerous non-fiction writers, especially political and historical.

When (and how/from whom) you learned to play:
My father, age 11(?), briefly; began to play regularly at age 14.

Favorite/most influential chess book (if any):
?? There are so many, for example, while growing up: My System, Tal-Botvinnik, Alekhine: Best Games + NY 1924. Too many modern ones to mention.

Favorite player (other than yourself):
Older players: Steinitz, Petrosian, Tal; Modern players: Karpov, Kasparov, Shirov

A game (not your own) that made a big impact on you:
Not very original, but Johner-Nimzowitsch, and later, Kasparov-Topalov.

Your best game:
Can't pick one offhand.

Your greatest moment in chess so far:
Winning a New York International. Winning Opens is more random and less satisfying.

The most valuable thing you did to become the player you are:
Playing through high-level games, playing and studying a very wide variety of opening systems/structures (see below).

What you value most about the game:
The fact that after all these years we know so little about it and that it continues to confound us.

Three tips for amateurs:
Study your own games critically (yawn - such original advice); and top-level games, sometimes covering up the moves (ditto). Experiment with new kinds of positions, even if you think your results will suffer (they normally won't, and they will steadily improve). Always be sure that you're having fun, whether playing or studying, but you have to practice basic endings and tactics once in a while.

A tip for ambitious players:
Same as above, and be sure to play most every opening, not just a few, as both White and Black. This is both in order to learn how to handle middlegames and to learn how to think.

Any of your work/services you’d like to plug:
My recent two-volume 'Mastering the Openings' is suitable for quite inexperienced players, moving from the ground up and only then on to more advanced material. It emphasizes 'ideas behind the openings'. My priority is instruction, unlike my earlier and rather advanced books on strategy. I think everyone can learn a lot from it, but then, I'm the author!

Click here to see Johner-Nimzowitsch, Kasparov-Topalov, and, in lieu of a best game suggestion, a 1995 win over Eduard Gufeld.

As advertised a couple of weeks ago, I'm starting a (hopefully weekly) series of profiles on titled players (GMs and IMs). These questionnaire mini-interviews will give readers the chance to know a little more about these players, both personally and as players.

First up is English International Master Andrew Martin, well-known author, video presenter, and the host of his own ChessBase Radio Show.



1. Name:
Andrew Martin

2. Age:
49

3. Title:
IM

4. Where you live, where you're from:
Sandhurst UK, originally from East London.

5. Family:
Wife, 4 kids (2 boys 17,14, 2 girls 12,8).

6. Other interests:
Too many to list! Sport includes Cricket, Badminton, Swimming.

7. Favorite book/author (not chess):
Seven Pillars of Wisdom by TE Lawrence.

8. When (and how/from whom) you learned to play:
Learned from father at the age of 6.

9. Favorite/most influential chess book (if any):
[Bobby Fischer's My] Sixty Memorable Games.

10. Favorite player (other than yourself):
Fischer.

11. A game (not your own) that made a big impact on you:
Kasparov-Karpov Game 24 Seville 1987. [See the link below.]

12. Your best game:
Win over Michael Adams London 1992. [See the link below.]

13. Your greatest moment in chess so far:
Breaking a world simultaneous record Feb 2004.

14. The most valuable thing you did to become the player you are:
Not be egotistical; value the game more than my own achievements.

15. What you value most about the game:
Chess can help people to think more clearly.

16. Your chess credo:
Do not be selfish.

17. Three tips for amateurs:
1) Enjoyment is key. 2) Do not worry too much about losing or you cannot hope to win! 3) Appreciate the beauty of the game above all and value your chess friends.

18. A tip for ambitious players:
Become a selfish thinker.

19. A game you'd like to present:
Levitt-Martin, British Championship 1992. [See link below.]

20. Any of your work/services you'd like to plug:
Sign up to my website: www.andrewmartinchessacademy.com

Games here. (Notes to Levitt-Martin and Martin-Adams are based on Martin's notes from ChessBase Magazine and the Informant, respectively. The notes to Kasparov-Karpov are an abbreviated version of the Bulletin commentary as given in ChessBase's Mega Database.)