Lessons From Prague VII

IN round seven I won with black against a Kazakh international master - only the third time I have beaten an IM.

Impressed? Perhaps not when you consider by the time of our game his rating had fallen to 1997.

Admittedly that is 101 Elo higher than my rating, but is a long way down from a 'standard' IM's rating of 2400.

Aitkazy Baimurzin was born in 1956, so a decline is to be expected.

But what exactly happens to such a player's strength?

I believe that, generally speaking, players do not lose positional knowledge. Indeed such know-how may keep increasing as time goes by.

So such a huge decline in strength, assuming it has not been directly caused by illness, is almost certainly the result of a loss in tactical ability.

This is in mark contrast to juniors, who tend to be much stronger tactically than their ratings would suggest, but lack sound positional judgement.

That is why two bits of oft-given advice for playing against juniors are: 1) get the queens off, 2) if all else fails, swop down into an ending.

My game against Baimurzin bears out my seniors' theory, as the following snapshots illustrate.

After five moves White (Baimurzin) was slightly better, according to Stockfish17 and Dragon1

After 10 moves the engines reckon White had the upper hand

At the 20-move mark White was still better, although the engines now fluctuate between awarding White the upper hand or 'just' a slight edge

But the very next move saw the tactics start after 21.Nc2?! e4!, and six moves later White resigned.

LESSON: you can tell a lot about a player's strengths by noting how ratings have progressed (or regressed), and in particular by taking into account the opponent's age.