MARK RUBERY CHESS
The English GM, Nigel Davies is a popular and prolific chess author of numerous books and DVDs as well as being an experienced coach. The Pirc: move by move, 1… b6 for practical players, The Accelerated London with 2 Bf4 are just some of his more recent releases where the emphasis is on developing a useful and not too labour -intensive opening repertoire. The 60-year-old grandmaster, who had a peak Elo rating of 2530, fielded the following questions on the site Chess.com Q: Could you tell us a little about your background and what first drew you to chess?
ND: I come from a very musical family, but didn’t take to a particular instrument. With chess it was different, I liked it from the start. Q: What do you consider to be your greatest chess achievements?
ND: The GM title is probably my best overall achievement, though my best tournament was in Wrexham 1994. I went half a point over the GM norm whilst helping to organise the thing. Q: What do you consider to be your best game? ND: If correspondence games count it’s a game I played as White against Tadeus Wilczek played in 2004. Q: Which do you enjoy more: playing or coaching? ND: That depends quite a lot on the student and the tournament! But I wouldn’t teach chess for fun. Q: Can any amateur player, with correct tuition, achieve the master title?
ND: I think the question needs to be rephrased. Any improvement in chess will be a function of the time someone has available and their overall ability. Good coaching can save people a lot of time by keeping them to what’s important. Q: You have experience working as a trader on the financial markets. Are there any transferable skills between the markets and chess?
ND: I think if you master any difficult art there’s a degree of ‘self-mastery’ involved. This in turn is transferable. Chess and markets also contain common elements such as logic, fear, greed and deception! So some of the things markets do will be quite familiar to chess players once they master the new vocabulary. Q: Do you think that chess has broader educational benefits? Should it be taught in schools?
ND: Yes, very much so, and it does seem that this realisation is catching on. The next step will be to phase out much of the useless academia! Q: Do you feel that chess computers have been a good or bad influence on chess?
ND: Some good, others that are not so good. The main problem is that chess may not be ‘big’ enough to withstand their number crunching investigation without becoming somehow obsolete. But it has some time left. Q: Do you have any advice for chess parents? ND: They should make sure the kids are enjoying their chess and actually like to play. Unfortunately the junior scene seems highly geared to results rather than enjoyment or the beauty of the game. Q: Do you have any unfulfilled ambitions, chess related or otherwise?
ND: It would be nice to become the oldest ever British Champion! I think Fazekas has the record at age 59! Q: If you could give one piece of advice to keen amateur chess players, what would it be?
ND: Not to focus too much on openings. Players tend to play the openings better as their overall understanding improves. WHITE TO PLAY AND WIN