To mark the moment of being in a flight, I take pictures like these for myself. It can help in situations like these, where you are not sure how to begin a blog post.

window seat
i continue
looking for God

I planned to play in three main tournaments: Budapest Round Robin, Aeroflot Open and the Reykjavik Open. The Aeroflot organizers were able to include the flights in their traditional package, with additional costs for the connecting flights to Budapest and Reykjavik.

I was given double entry to Moscow, but my itinerary involved three stops at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport. Fortunately, the airport has the transfer facility which made it easy to check-in until the final destination. So, I was checked-in from New Delhi until Budapest. You can find more information here:  https://www.aeroflot.ru/ru-en/information/airport/transit

After reaching Budapest, I was told at the Lost & Found counter that my luggage had not arrived and that they would send the bag on the next flight. I checked into the Berlin Hotel and went around to buy some clothes as I had no clothes in my hand baggage. What’s the bright side about this? I get to buy new clothes in Budapest 🙂

#Tip 1: Have at least one set of clothes in your hand baggage 

#Tip 2: Never keep all the money in one bag. Divide it.

#Tip 3: When things don’t go as per your plan, take a moment to look at the bright side

The official hotel – Berlin is located at Epitesz Utca.

View from my room: You can also see the tournament venue.

Mandige

What’s for lunch in Budapest? It is Mandige. A sweet that I love very much 🙂  During the middle of the tournament, the organizer – Nagy Laszlo took us to a lovely restaurant. I shared mandige with them and they all loved it!

https://allaboutbelgaum.com/specials/mande-mandige-sweet-tradition/ 

Restaurant – Highly recommended. It is close to the venue of the event. Clockwise: Martin from Germany is at the centre, Nagy next to him – Another Marin, but from Slovakia – Jon from Faroe Islands, Khan from Iran, Daniel Howard Fernandez from the UK and yours truly.

Restaurant

Laszlo munching on Mandige

And if you are in Budapest, don’t miss their famous dessert Somloi Galuska

Somloi Galuska

I also visited an Indian restaurant called Indian Curry Corner.

You can find an interesting story about this on my Instagram:

I found an Indian Restaurant at Budapest. Had paneer butter masala and naan. But, that’s not the main story. I saw a European woman helping her daughter with her homework in the restaurant. It is one thing I had never seen before. They were really enjoying filling the blanks with vowels and consonants. They high-fived every time the daughter found the answer.
After they were done with the homework, the daughter asked for a page to draw. They didn’t have any, so the daughter picked the tissue paper and started drawing.
Now, comes the best part. She drew an image and colored it. While I got up to wash my hands, I took a peek and was stunned.
She had drawn a board with light and dark squares.
There is something different about people with blue eyes!
While I was going back to my room, I realized what could have triggered that. The clue is in one of the pictures 🙂 #Budapest #IndiansInBudapest #stories#storiesofinstagram

My friend Shangmughanathan found the answer 🙂

Some more pictures that caught my attention:

I won’t bother you much with the must-visit places of Budapest. When you go to Budapest, you will find it exciting if you discover that part on your own.

Coming to chess, the tournament was very well organized. I had many interesting conversations with the organizer as we spent a lot of time together, especially after the games. We used to go out to the restaurant with other players. 

The advantage of a round-robin event is that you get to know the players in advance. Though there are last minute changes in the players list, but most of the players remain intact. This was my first experience in the round-robin format and I liked it very much. The results were not great as I struggled with my form. But, there were fighting games and as Laszlo put it ‘My tournament is not a norm factory. Fighting games are played here’

This is a position from the first round of my game against Dale Ari. White to play

My win in the tournament came out well against Havasi Gergo.

How did white wrap up the game instantly?

Annaberdiev Meilis of Turkmenistan and Daniel Fernandez tied for first with 6.5 points but Annaberdiev won the event on a better tiebreak.

Laszlo has been organizing the tournament for more than three decades now. He worked as a chemistry professor in the military prior to organizing events. He told me an interesting story about how important it is to be on time. He asked me to convey this to my friends as well.

“There is a war going on between two armies. One army decides to take a longer route, so a part of this team decides to keep firing until 7.30 to keep the enemy busy as part of deflection. Exactly at 7.30, their team is supposed to stop firing because – 7.30 is the estimated arrival of the team to the enemy territory and if they DON’T stop firing, they kill their own army.”

With this story, Laszlo remarks that keeping your word, and being on time is very important for humans.

I was very curious about the jacket that Laszlo was wearing. I asked him about it and he promised to take me to the shop so that I could buy it as well. It is very useful to have many pockets of different sizes. It is very famous in Budapest and it is called Meilin. We went around and asked at different places, including Decathlon. But, we found it at a hunter’s shop – all credit to Laszlo’s intuition.

You can see me with the Meilin Jacket on.

Laszlo with his wife

We also went for a walk on the hills. They have a group with a guide and Laszlo’s wife is one of the guides who is part of such trips.  At every stop, the members put some food for the birds.

The walk was in memory of a guide who passed away recently. It was a memorable one!

I would like to mention two other restaurants:

Uj-Hazi-Vendeglo (Eat all that you want)

A traditional buffet restaurant with yummy desserts too!
#Tip 4: When in Budapest, have the local food.

I had a gap of four days before my flight to Moscow. On one of those days, I met a Kannadiga on the streets. Interesting, isn’t it? We also went to an Indian restaurant.

If you meet someone from Hungary, make it a habit to say yo napot kivanok. It is a nice greeting which translates to “I wish you a good day/good time”

#Tip 5: Learn the basics of their language, it helps!

And a few more : #Tip 6: When you are about to book or check the ticket prices, always browse in incognito mode. The prices will remain same most of the time. for the second check. (Credit : Jan Gustaffson) 

#Tip 7: After your international travel, you will eventually book a domestic flight to go back home. In that case, Air India offers the maximum baggage when compared to other airlines. (Credit : GM Sundarajan Kidambi)

Of all the stories in the Budapest, Queen Sissy’s story fascinated me very much. https://dailynewshungary.com/sisi-queen-of-hungary-and-empress-of-austria/

Finally, I wish to share about a Hungarian film that I loved: It is called Teströl és lélekröl or On Body and Soul in English.

Watch the trailer here:

Budapest is Fabulous. I had this strange feeling that I may have been there before. I’m certainly going to visit Budapest again in the future. After this, I took a flight to Moscow for the Aeroflot Open.

More on that, some other time!

window seat
                       to another window seat
                                                              now preferring aisle seat.
                                                               

Don’t bother, this is not even a haiku!

See you again!

 Qualities to Imbibe from the Elite (i)

What separates a good player from a great player? What are some qualities that the Grandmasters possess? How do we develop specific qualities? I will try to answer these questions briefly with the help of some classical examples in this article.

1. Patience
If you want to win a game, you need to be ready to work hard for it. Sometimes, it could mean a long game and you will have to maintain your composure and be patient. Slow drilling requires constant alertness and one slip could be enough for your opponent to get back into the game. Let’s have a look at how World Champion Capablanca demonstrated great technique and patience:

How to develop?
Study the games of masters –  Karpov, Petrosian, Magnus Carlsen.  After studying a few games consciously, you will start noticing the change in your own games.

2. Creativity
Chess is also a game of creative pursuit. A creative player usually senses the moment and uses his imagination to come up with interesting ideas. In my personal list of creative chess champions, Tony Miles comes very close to the top.

In this position, he plays :

36.Qe4! offering the exchange of queens. After 36…Qa1:

He plays 37.Nh1!

There is another example of Tony miles shown to me in a group camp by Lanka Ravi in 2008 that made a deep impact on me:

Here, he played Rac8!?

It is obvious to assume that black is intending to play c7-c5. But, that’s not the case. Here, Miles is playing the player, provoking him to play b4.

And after 19.b4

He played 19…Rxf3

20.gxf3 Rf8 21.Kg2 Qf7 22.Qd3 and here is the point:

Black plays 22…Nc4! The defect of b3-b4 is felt here.

How to develop?
Study the games of Morozevich, Steinitz, Mamyedarov, Miles.  Creative Chess by Amatzia Avni is a good book that introduces unique concepts.

3. Accuracy

A few months back, I came across a dialogue by Dr.Cal Lightman in the ‘Lie to Me’ TV series:

Martin Walker: Good chess players think five moves ahead
Dr. Cal Lightman: Great chess players think one move ahead. But, it’s the right move.

Indeed! It is not about how far you can think, it is about calculating right

Here is an example that illustrates the importance of the seventh rank through accurate moves by Capablanca:

How to develop?
Solving studies could help you in developing accuracy. Practice will make you perfect!

4. Resourcefulness

Lasker is one name that comes to my mind when I think of resourcefulness. He has a record of saving many worse positions. His resourcefulness has earned him a lot of points and titles.

Here, Lasker went wrong with 26.g3? missing black’s Qh3!

I wish to share an extract from my game where I managed to save a crucial half point that paved way for Tamilnadu Open State Championship Title in 2013. Lasker’s games did influence my decisions:

How to develop?
In the recent times, Karjakin is known to have defended quite well. His games against Carlsen are worth studying. Read books on defence and counterattack.

I hope you enjoyed learning about the various qualities that are essential for you to become better at chess!

Beautiful Rook Endgame Studies

It is a great idea to solve studies while you are travelling. A friend of mine who is a Grandmaster uses studies to reach a meditative state in the early morning.  Personally, I love solving positions that are cute and reveal aesthetic side of chess.

Benefits of solving studies:

• Improves your calculation skills
• Improves your imagination
• You get to experience the aesthetic side of chess
• Deepens your knowledge of endgame theory
• Refreshes you

You could work on a specific type of endgame or browse through random examples. Compositions by Troitzky, Wotawa, Kubbel and Platov are beautiful. They usually involve fewer pieces and could be used for training purposes.

Books to refer:
*Endgame Magic by Beasley and Whitworth
*Test your endgame ability by August Livishitzz and Jon Speelman (if you want topic oriented studies)
*Zee Boom Bah by Muralimohan (available with 8cross8)
*Endless Endings  by Muralimohan (available with 8cross8)
*Studies for practical players by Dvoretsky (if you want to play out positions with a friend)

In this article, I am sharing a few positions that I enjoyed solving:

White to play in all the positions. You can also check hints at the end if you want to!

Composer : Ivanov
Position 1:

Composer: Selezniev
Position 2:

Composer:  Didrikhson
Position 3:

Composer: Selezniev
Position 4:

Composer: Prokes
Position 5:

Hints:

1. King is an active piece in the endgame, Use it well
2. X-ray attack in the end!
3. Get your knight
4. Wait, and you will win!
5. Offer him an Enpasse that he won’t refuse

Here is a bonus position:

Composer: Pogosyants
Position 6:

Solutions to the Positions:

We all have lost games, isn’t it? Have you paid attention to your approach after the loss? Does it bring you down? Do you tend to carry the baggage on to the next game? Do you have a specific plan on how to deal with losses?

These are important questions you need to ask yourself if a result of a game is affecting your overall mood and performance. In this article, I share ten approaches based on my observations. You could combine them or pick the one that works best for you!

1. Distract
This is a commonly used approach by most players. It involves doing something completely different – like reading a book, watching a tv soap or a film or listening to favorite tracks. It takes your mind to a different place and can also help in forgetting the loss.

2. Q & A
Some players establish a feedback loop where they answer self-prepared questions and this helps them to proceed to the next game. For example: What was the critical moment in the game? Did I use my time well? Which area needed more attention?

3. Trash
In this method, the player writes his thoughts on a paper and trashes it out – a symbolic way of getting the loss out of the system. A chess player once confessed to me that she borrowed this idea from a Bollywood film “Jab we met”.

4. Routine mechanism
Here, the player just follows the routine. On day one, the player setups a routine and follows it till the end of the tournament irrespective of the day to day result. A sample routine could be – wake up – tea – bath – breakfast – preparation – walk to the game – postportem analysis – walk back to the room – enter the game and thoughts – break – dinner – prepare for the next game – sleep

5. Conversation with coach/friend
A friend or a coach could offer you the platform to share your thoughts and also look at the situation objectively. It has worked for players to get back on track.

6. Seeking inspiration
Connect to the source of your inspiration. It could be reading a book about an athlete or even studying games of your favorite players. It could inspire you whenever you are feeling low. Playing out the moves on the chess board instead of just seeing on the screen could give you long term benefits.

7. Browsing your own games
“Why are you studying your own games?” I asked him which he said “This tells me that I am capable of playing good chess”. I learnt this from an Indian GM; He had a database full of his best games and he would browse through the games just before his game.

8. Long walks
This is a simple way of taking a break. Solving a study in the mind while walking is also a good idea, but make sure that you don’t walk on a busy road. Choose garden space or a park!

9. Exploring new places
This could easily fall into the first category (Distract) but, we are talking specifically about exploring new places which involves activity. In the first category, all the activities could be done in the room. Exploring new places in and around the city involves more efforts. You could consider going to a park, temple or any place worth visiting in that city.

10. Blitzing
It seems unusual, but there are a lot of GMs who play blitz games online. When asked how this approach helps, a GM said “It is my chance for revenge here”

What is your approach? 🙂 Do let us know if this helped!