How To Play Against The 'Chessable Generation'

How To Play Against The 'Chessable Generation'⁣

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When I set my sights on a potential comeback to tournament play around March 2023, one of the first questions that came to my mind was...⁣
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'How can we get the edge over the droves of players drilling their opening repertoires on Chessable?' ⁣

Memorization vs. Understanding

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You see, while I have an eidetic memory from birth, the approach of memorizing long theoretical variations never particularly appealed to me. ⁣
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Instead, I would spend a lot of time on openings more from the perspective of understanding the positions better, to improve myself as a player. (and also because I enjoyed that most)⁣
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Of course, at the super-GM level, it's essential to remember the finer points of your prepared repertoire, because everyone else is. ⁣
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However, I've found that one gets much better returns from playing through numerous 'model games' in a variation, as opposed to trying to memorize how to get that +0.2 as White or that 0.00 as Black.⁣

Improving On What Everyone Else Is Doing

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When everyone is doing the same thing, it often makes sense to move in a different direction to get an advantage. ⁣
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Indeed, I've noticed that the modern trend at the top level is not to play the absolute main lines, but to find shortcuts where one gets an interesting position with some fresh practical problems for the opponent to solve. (Or, a type of position the opponent doesn't feel comfortable in)⁣

Model Players For The 'Optimal' Approach

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Of the most experienced Grandmasters, I think of Nigel Short and Sergei Tiviakov as two players who have a healthy disregard for the engine evaluations, and rely on a very strong understanding of the position types arising in their repertoires for success. ⁣
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Even further back, Alekhine and Korchnoi were happy to play almost any type of position with either colour, relying on their practical skills and fighting spirit more so than deep opening preparation. ⁣

Summary

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The summary of my philosophy is this:⁣
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Know and understand enough model games in the variation, and you'll outplay your opponent as soon as they're out of their preparation. ⁣

How This Relates To Your Rating

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For players below 2200, you likely only need to know 5 model games to understand the position better than your opponent. ⁣
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On a more general level, GM Chuchelov once said in an interview that the key to mastering an opening was to deeply analyze 20 important games in that variation. At that time he was working with a nearly 2800-rated Caruana. ⁣
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I also recall a case where Karpov was able to recite, off the top of his head, 50 game references of important games to understand in the Hedgehog structure. ⁣

The Power Of Studying Model Games

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Now, with chess databases, it's very easy to go through a lot of games quickly and deeply understand a position.⁣
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That's been my own focus in the last days - to play through many hundreds of chess games each day (sorted by opening variation), and rely on volume to master the different types of positions that arise.⁣
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This also leads to some powerful inspiration that I didn't originally expect.⁣
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For instance, when I was playing through hundreds of top-level games in the Marshall, I was really impressed by the way Levon Aronian (pictured) handles the positions. When you see him routinely outplaying 2750+ GMs with the Black pieces, it changes your perspective. ⁣

My Favourite Opening For Understanding Chess Like A Grandmaster

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I recently completed three 2-hour sessions with the students of my group coaching program, where I synthesized about 1000 model games I played through in the Ruy Lopez in the last week into the most important ideas, principles and games for understanding the key structures deeply. ⁣
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That's because, only when you understand the Ruy Lopez, can you claim to understand chess.⁣

The Next Step (For Serious Students)

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Are you ready to start thinking about chess like a Grandmaster?

If so, book your Application Call for my group coaching program here.