Serve and Volley

One of the biggest complaints of adult improvers is that they can spend countless hours studying the intricacies of this ancient game, but when they show up to a tournament, they often end up losing to kids. Kids often make up for a lack of knowledge with more energy and skill. Adults in turn often try to adjust by slowing the game down to make it more manageable, but this isn’t necessarily the best strategy. Aging chess players should take a page out of Roger Federer’s book when it comes to competing with younger opponents.

Federer - considered by many to be the greatest tennis player of all time - had an age problem. Like Garry Kasparov with Anatoly Karpov, Federer happened to play in the same era with another of the greatest players of all time, Rafael Nadal. But Nadal is five years younger than Federer, so beating him didn’t get any easier as time went on. On top of that, Nadal has a style that is especially unpleasant for an old guy. He uses his athleticism to track down every ball and virtually never misses, making the game into a grueling test of endurance. For a long part of their rivalry, Nadal had the upper hand.

But then Federer went back to the drawing board and made a brilliant adjustment. Rather than throttling down or backing off, he did the opposite. He maxed out his aggression, going for more winners early in the point. This strategy was exemplified by the serve-and-volley, charging to the net on the first shot. Whether he made the shot or missed, it would end the point and he would avoid getting dragged into a long rally. This adjustment didn’t let him beat Nadal every time - five years is a lot to overcome in tennis, and Nadal is an all-time great in his own right - but it seemed to turn the tables.

Aging chess players could learn something from Federer. The usual advice for older players is to slow the game out, avoid sharp tactical struggles, and play more positionally. But this drags you into the chess equivalent of a long rally. You tend to play long, close, and exhausting games. This takes its toll, especially over the course of a long tournament.

I’ve never entirely understood why older players are supposed to be better positionally. This makes sense if you happen to be, let’s say, GM Boris Gelfand, and you have decades of deep positional understanding behind you. But if you’re just a normal tournament chess player who’s getting a little older, or especially if you started playing chess as an adult, there’s no reason why being older would make you a better positional player. Take a look at your games dispassionately: Do you consistently find better plans than your opponents? Do you actually find it easy to positionally outplay younger opponents in long struggles?

For most players I suspect the answer is no. Fortunately, you don’t have to be a positional genius to succeed as an older player. You can take a page out of Federer’s book and go in the opposite direction by turning up the aggression. Like Federer, whether you win or lose you’ll do it more quickly, conserving energy. This pays off over the course of a tournament.

Another advantage of the aggressive approach is it puts more emphasis on the parts of the game where you have an advantage. As you probably know if you read this newsletter, chess is more about what you can do than what you know. Adult improvers are often dismayed to find that knowing more stuff doesn’t help them win more often against younger opponents who know less but are more energetic and have stronger analytical ability. But the opening is one area where knowledge plays a larger role. In particular, it rewards a systematic approach to studying. To map out and master a complete repertoire requires significant discipline and planning, things many kids struggle with. Contrary to what is often said, in my experience kids are often weak in the opening. Apart from the challenge of structuring their study routine, they simply haven’t had as much time to learn all the ins and outs. Therefore a viable strategy against kids is to use your opening preparation to get the upper hand and then finish the game with a single burst of accurate calculation. GM Jonathan Rowson has even called the strategy of deep opening preparation backed up by accurate calculation “serve-and-volley.”

One player who used the Federer strategy in chess is world champion Vladimir Kramnik. After being known for a time as an ultra solid player, in the tail end of his career he reinvented himself as an attacking maniac. This was exemplified by his play in the 2018 candidates tournament. If a few key moments had broken his way, Kramnik could even have gotten another shot at the world championship. I don’t know if Kramnik made this change because he thought it maximized his chances or it was just the kind of chess he wanted to play - probably a bit of both. It certainly made his games more fun to watch. And for most adult players, enjoying the game is at least as important as maximizing winning chances.

In chess getting older comes with a lot of disadvantages: less energy, more life commitments. But it comes with advantages as well. One of the biggest ones is that you get to know yourself better, including your strengths and weaknesses. Sometimes it’s less about working on your weaknesses and more about learning how to leverage the strengths you already have. If you’ve played any amount of tennis you’ve probably encountered someone who doesn’t have great strokes, but is nonetheless incredibly hard to beat. Whether you embrace aggression or some other approach, figure out a way to win with the strengths you have.