THE GRANDMASTER’S MIND

Author: Amatzia Avni

176 pages

$23.95

Gambit Publishing (2004)

www.gambitbooks.com

Reviewed by John Donaldson

FIDE Master Amatzia Avni is an Israeli psychologist and the author of three previous books that combine his interests in chess and psychology: PRACTICAL CHESS PSYCHOLOGY, CREATIVE CHESS, and DANGER IN CHESS. His latest effort, THE GRANDMASTER’S MIND, made me think of another recent book, INSIDE THE CHESS MIND by Jacob Aagaard and the two volumes on the Master Game series by Jeremy James and Leonard Barden and Jeremy James and William Hartston. All three allow the reader to get an idea of the thoughts running inside a strong player’s mind before they make a move.

The Master Game series, which ran from 1975 until 1981 in England, had the players explain their thoughts after the game for a taped television show. Though not as structured as the books by Aaagard and Avni, they still provided an excellent way to get inside the Grandmaster’s mind. Agaaard’s book offers a set of ten positions for selected group of players to solve. This group runs the gamut from former World Championship Candidate Artur Yusupov to amateurs below 2200.

Avni has taken a different approach. The vast majority of THE GRANDMASTER’S MIND is devoted to interviews with Grandmasters Lev Psakhis, Alon Greenfeld, Yona Kasashvili, Alik Greshon, Gadi Rechlis, Boris Gelfand, Zvulon Gofshtein, Dov Zifroni, and Ilia Smirin, ), plus IM Alexander Mikhalevsky (brother of GM Viktor Mikhalevski), Gady Costeff (a world class chess study composer), and Ofer Comay (a world class chess problem solver). In the interviews with the GMs and IM Avni takes a look at some of the key positions from their games and asks them why they played the way they did.

I found the interviews with Grandmasters Gelfand and Gofshtein to be of particular interest. Boris Gelfand, who has been among the world elite for over a decade, needs no introduction. Zvulon Gofshtein is one of many arrivals from the former Soviet Union who have become strong GMs since moving to Israel. The interview with Gelfand is filled with many perceptive observations. For example in reference to Kotov’s famous tree of analysis Gelfand remarks.

“Years ago I read Kotov’s model of choosing candidate moves and screening each one thoroughly. It doesn’t really work, because during the searching process you find new ideas that had escaped your first glance, and have to go back and search for new lines.

“In certain position, it is easy to find moves, because one’s choice is limited. In these types of positions, a club-player and a Grandmaster will pick the same moves. In other positions you have to choose between two or three approximately equal moves, and you have to reach a decision based on your style, your feeling your opponent. This is one of the hardest things in chess.”

Gofshtein has quite a different approach to chess than Gelfand. He states straight out that he is not the calculating type. That his analysis is frequently flawed and that his tactical ideas rest upon his strong intuition. He confesses that you cannot always play intuitively, that in some critical positions you must calculate, but that by and large playing by intuition is good. Gofshtein answers the questions of how far to calculate and when to stop as follows.

“When you feel that you position is good, that’s where calculation should end. You shouldn’t exert yourself unduly when effort is not required. This might cause harm.”

“If you continue to analyze beyond a certain point, you can miss something simple, and doubts begin to creep in. When you see too many things (some real, others imaginary) you may lose confidence.

“Moreover, by investing extra effort, you lose strength that may be needed later on in the game.”

THE GRANDMASTER’S MIND is filled with such advice. Players from 1800 on up who read this book cannot help but benefit from it.

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Click to buy INSIDE THE CHESS MIND

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