Interview with GM Oleg Korneev - Former Top 20 & very active OTB player

Interview questions by David Moreno Rivilla

1) Dear Oleg,
Thank you for agreeing to do the interview. It has been almost 30 years since you became a GM. Do you remember what it felt like when you achieved this goal?
In reality, my Elo peak was in January 2006 - after starting 5 of 5 in an Open in Spain, my Elo was 2698 (about number 20 in the World). I did not feel anything special. I tried to find good tournaments (economically), but 2671 Elo being 36 years old did not open me doors to elite tournaments. I continued to play Opens, trying to get some extra pocket money.

2) At age 55, you are as active as ever, playing many tournaments every year. Our German readers may have seen you winning many tournaments in Germany, for example the Magdeburg Open 2023. How do you manage to play so many games? Do you never run out of steam?
I have a solid base for such chess activity - a family, a good health and a desire to play chess. Of course sometimes I am out of "steam", but my high chess level permitted me to win sometimes Opens even being out of "steam".

3) Do you have any practical advice for club players who also play many games every week?
I recommend them to have clarity about their life priorities - chess professionalism in these times is suitable for very few people.

The 55 year old GM Oleg Korneev is one of the most active chess players (or even the most active?) of all time - check out his rating chart counting more than 150+ rated classical OTB games this year alone already! (Photo: IM Georgios Souleidis, Deizisauer Neckar Open)

4) What’s the most unusual thing you have ever experienced during a chess event?
I had a lot of unusual situations in tournaments. From the unpleasant I remember the game in Uzbekistan some years ago at the beginning of a big International Open - in an easily won endgame after pressing the clock, my time continued to go, but I did not see this, concentrating on the position. The arbiters and participants of the tournament stood around, most of them saw what was happening, but nobody said anything - I played with local talent. As a result, time ended, I was credited with defeat, rejecting my protest. If anyone thinks that the "higher forces" immediately intervened, and I ended up playing well, and my opponent "failed" the tournament, then nothing like that. In upset feelings, I "failed" the tournament, and my opponent sensationally took 2nd place.

5) In recent times, cheating in chess has become a recurrent problem in all kinds of tournaments. Do you have a suggestion on how to tackle cheating?
My recommendation is very simple - the actions of the arbiters and organizers to capture the cheaters should be encouraged and rewarded, and inaction should be punished. Nowadays, many arbiters and organizers are making titanic efforts to... ignore complaints about cheaters and alarm signals, because arbiters and organizers can be in trouble with an active fight against cheaters (some of the cheaters can also sue - why not, if there is money for a good lawyer?), and inaction does not threaten them with anything - cheaters rob players for money and rating, not arbiters-organizers. Here the decision should be made by FIDE.

6) What are your next goals?
My immediate plans in chess are to return to + 2500 Elo. Given the hyper-deflation of Elo in Opens, now this task is extremely difficult for all grandmasters who regularly play Opens. Many grandmasters who had about 2600 Elo a few years ago Elo now dream of not dropping below 2400.

Oleg (on the right) won many tournaments in Germany this year, including the Württemberg Championship Masters 2024

7) When did you start playing chess, what do you remember about that time?
My father taught me to play chess at age 4. I played emotionally. I don't remember, but my parents assure that after the defeats I could throw chess out the window.

8) What is your biggest strength and weakness in chess?
My big strength is a good sense of chess dynamics. My serious weakness is a relatively narrow opening repertoire.

9) How do you mentally cope with defeats?
I used to remind myself that there is no victory without defeat, and besides, defeats allow us to see, understand and correct our weaknesses. In recent years, I often think that perhaps higher forces determine the result of the game (World Champion Vasily Smyslov spoke about this openly and repeatedly), and therefore negative emotions are no more appropriate here than in the case of hurricanes or floods.

10) Since 2012 you represent Spain, why did you make this decision?
I have lived in Spain since 1996, and therefore the decision to change the chess federation from Russian to Spanish in 2012 was natural - I have already lived there for 16 years.

Another tournament victory for Oleg at the Ortenburg Chess Open 2024

11) Is it easy for you to translate your chess-related skills into daily life? For example, are you a patient person, are you good at making strong decisions in life, how is your time management?
Yes, chess skills help in life, in general, and, in particular, help to be patient, make the right decisions and correctly plan time. Benjamin Franklin (a man of 100-US-dollar banknote) wrote well about the enormous benefits of chess for an individual back in 1779 in “The Morals of Chess”.

12) Which chess players, past or present, do you admire the most?
Robert ("Bobby") Fischer is a lone genius who crushed an invincible cohort of Soviet chess champions.

13) What are your interests outside the chess world?
In addition to the usual hobbies like tennis and badminton, I am interested in the structure of the world and its development. I try to regularly listen to smart people on this topic. Chess does not exist in a vacuum, but in a society of people. The state of chess also depends on the state of society.

Unstoppable: 175+ rated classical OTB games this year and counting!

14) Which kind of advice would you give our readers if they want to make serious improvements in following areas?

Opening: Here we touch on very difficult and highly professional topics. The methods of work on all the mentioned stages of the chess game depend on the goals set by the chess player, on the properties of his memory and the features of the chess style. For example, a wide debut repertoire makes it difficult for opponents to use computer analyzes in the debut, but how long will it take daily to save even the most basic lines from a wide debut repertoire in active memory? If a chess player has no goal of becoming a world champion, then it is more logical to "narrow" the debut repertoire so as not to analyze and crunch the debut options 365 days in a year.

Middlegame: To strengthen in the middlegame, one should analyze positions from "their own" (say, the middlegame from the King's Indian Defense and the Sicilian Defense are very different) middlegame, adding, if possible, the study of books on the "general" middlegame.

Endgame: To strengthen the endgame, it is good to analyze endgames from your own games and carefully study at least one good endgame book, with memorizing about half a hundred of the most important endgame positions - "lighthouses" (this is my term). As well as lighthouses indicate the way for ships, knowledge of the above-mentioned most important endgame positions allows the player to clearly understand where to strive and what to avoid.

Note that this article was first published originally in German in the December 2024 issue of the German chess magazine Rochade Europa).