The Chess Mind

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.)