Paul Hoffman, an author who writes on chess and many other things for
the NY Times and many mainstream magazines, has a short article on
Nakamura at the National Open. I believe it appeared in the print
version of Tuesday's Journal. It has some funny bits in which Nakamura
criticizes his step-father's play. (Sunil Weermantry, his former
coach.)

It concludes:

'His fellow competitors marvel at his confidence. "He certainly knows
current opening theory very well," said Alexander Baburin, the editor
of the Internet daily Chess Today. "His quick moves are very
unpleasant to face. He is sending a psychological message that he
knows your stuff and is ready for it."

"He's insane about winning," said Greg Shahade, an international
master in Brooklyn. "I've never faced anyone with a greater motivation
to win. You can imagine that's what the young Fischer was like."

Most of his friends, Mr. Nakamura explained, are from the chess world,
and he sees no need to suppress his killer instinct when he plays
them. "I just beat them," he said, "and laugh at them. They are
patzers [chess jargon for bumblers]."

Bobby Fischer apparently felt the same way. He famously dismissed his
fellow chess players as "weakies."'

********************

Saludos, Mig
http://www.chessninja.com

'His fellow competitors marvel at his confidence. "He certainly knows
current opening theory very well," said Alexander Baburin, the editor
of the Internet daily Chess Today. "His quick moves are very
unpleasant to face. He is sending a psychological message that he
knows your stuff and is ready for it."

I played Hikaru at a tournament earlier this year. We got into an
opening that he knew better than me. As I thought about my moves,
he wandered around looking at other games. Each time I moved, he
would drift over, immediately make his move without sitting down,
scribble it down, and drift away again.

Maybe he thought he was "sending a psychological message"; I just
thought he was rude.

Now that would make a really good thread - people's feelings about whether
or not it is rude to get up and walk around during a game.

For me it all depends on the character of the game. Sometimes you're in a
crazy position and you've been focusing on the same tactics over and over
and ignoring new threats in the position. After each move though sometimes
I will fall into an easy trap unless I occasionally get up, come back, and
get a fresh perspective on the game. It can also hope to see what the board
looks like from the other side - although at a reasonable distance from your
opponent.

I can't think of anytime when getting up has altered the result of my game
to be not in my favor. I did have one game in Memphis in the early 90's
playing a high A player (I was a B player) where in the last round I was
playing this high school kid who was doing that a lot at the end of our game
when he thought he had a won position. I ended up finding a perpetual check
a few moves later.

Sometimes you need to get up because you're nervous - sometimes you have to
get up because you had McDonalds for lunch. In general I think a player can
get up as much as they like as long as they try to do it relatively quietly.

"Dude" wrote in message
...
'His fellow competitors marvel at his confidence. "He certainly knows
current opening theory very well," said Alexander Baburin, the editor
of the Internet daily Chess Today. "His quick moves are very
unpleasant to face. He is sending a psychological message that he
knows your stuff and is ready for it."

I played Hikaru at a tournament earlier this year. We got into an
opening that he knew better than me. As I thought about my moves,
he wandered around looking at other games. Each time I moved, he
would drift over, immediately make his move without sitting down,
scribble it down, and drift away again.

Maybe he thought he was "sending a psychological message"; I just
thought he was rude.

Dude wrote in message ...
'His fellow competitors marvel at his confidence. "He certainly knows
current opening theory very well," said Alexander Baburin, the editor
of the Internet daily Chess Today. "His quick moves are very
unpleasant to face. He is sending a psychological message that he
knows your stuff and is ready for it."

I played Hikaru at a tournament earlier this year. We got into an
opening that he knew better than me. As I thought about my moves,
he wandered around looking at other games. Each time I moved, he
would drift over, immediately make his move without sitting down,
scribble it down, and drift away again.

Maybe he thought he was "sending a psychological message"; I just
thought he was rude.

Yeah, well if this quote is accurate . . .

Most of his friends, Mr. Nakamura explained, are from the chess world,
and he sees no need to suppress his killer instinct when he plays
them. "I just beat them," he said, "and laugh at them. They are
patzers."

then he sounds well on his way to being a big ass like Fischer or
Kasparov. Hopefully he leaves a nice legacy on the board, because if
this is how he refers to his *FRIENDS*, he doesn't sound like he's
going to leave much of one with his life.

I sure hope it's not rude to get up and walk around because I do it all the
time. Unless I'm in time trouble or in a deep think I rarely sit at the
board for half an hour at a time. When I smoked I would have a cigaret. Now
that I've quit I just roam around, looking at the other games.

Roaming is probably not good for my game, but I just can't stare at the
board for that long. I wonder what my opponents who don't get up for 4 hours
are thinking about. It's practically been proved that the longer most
players think about their moves the worse they play!

Angelo DePalma



I played Hikaru at a tournament earlier this year. We got into an
opening that he knew better than me. As I thought about my moves,
he wandered around looking at other games. Each time I moved, he
would drift over, immediately make his move without sitting down,
scribble it down, and drift away again.

Maybe he thought he was "sending a psychological message"; I just
thought he was rude.

Douglas L Stewart wrote:

Now that would make a really good thread - people's feelings about whether
or not it is rude to get up and walk around during a game.

No, I'm sorry -- you missed the point of my original post. It
isn't rude to walk around during a game when your opponent is
thinking; I do that myself, as do most chessplayers. What is
rude, though, is coming back, making a move and leaving again
without even giving your opponent the courtesy of sitting down
now and then.

Even when I know what move I'm going to play, I at least sit
down, write down my opponent's move, make my move, write my move
down, pause for a few moments (in case he has a quick reply
ready), then go on my way again.

Repeatedly making moves while standing up shows disdain and
contempt for your opponent.

"Dude" wrote in message
...

Repeatedly making moves while standing up shows disdain and
contempt for your opponent.

As a kid I once played bottom board for our school team. After a handful of
moves I lost a knight. My opponent, perhaps reasonably, thought playing this
patzer was going to be easy, so he started wandering round looking at other
games occasionally dropping by to see if I'd left anything else en prise,
making a move and wandering off. I'm sitting there thinking we're going to
lose this match because I can't even keep my pieces intact for five moves
and he's not even giving me the courtesy of paying any attention to my
moves. Anyway, we exchange moves, me thinking for ten, fifteen, twenty
minutes, him strolling up to the board, moving and walking off. By move 18
or 19 in this action packed slugfest I'd got my piece back. Yes! But now I'm
faced with the Patzer's Planning Problem - what do I do? As I was sitting
there thinking results coming in were such that if I could draw my game and
top board could avoid a loss (he was City Champion - he later went on to
play board 3 or 4 in the Varsity match - so I figured he'd be OK) then we
would win the match. The pressure's really on. As far as I could see there
was nothing going on in the position but I was terrified that if I moved I'd
start leaving holes in the position and throw away the match. Then I had an
idea.We weren't playing with clocks. If I just sat there and didn't make a
move the teachers would have to adjudicate and unless there was something
pretty deep on an empty board they'd have to agree a draw. So for the last
45 minutes or so I sat and stared at the board. My opponent. Well you could
see the steam coming out of his ears. But I sat there and I sat there till
all the other results were in and we were 3-2 up. There was nothing in our
position and a draw was adjudicated. We'd won 3 1/2 - 2 1/2.

I'd've liked to be able to blast him off the board with a Romantic
combination but I just wasn't up to it and if he'd been more respectful
I'd've played on giving him a fair chance but as it is there's a devil on my
shoulder saying: 'That was pretty good revenge'.

cheers

dd

Dude wrote:

Repeatedly making moves while standing up shows disdain and
contempt for your opponent.

I disagree. But even if you feel this way, so what? You will
undoubtedly run in to opponents who will display disdain and
contempt for you in various subtle ways, even though they never
leave their seats. Just ignore them and play your best. Chess
is full of weirdos, don't let them bother you. ;-)

"Angelo DePalma" wrote in message ...

I sure hope it's not rude to get up and walk around [...]

Roaming is fine. But not sitting down on the chair to make
your move is a different story. Capablanca used to annoy
his fellow grandmasters and masters with this kind of "superior"
behavior during the tournasments. Lasker had more class than Capa.
I don't think much about Nakamura's "psychological messages".
I like chessplayers who play on the board only, not
outside the board. In this respect, as long as I know, Fischer
was fine. There were a couple of incidences but I don't think that
he ever tried to affect his opponent concentration and such.
Yes, in one game he's written a move down before making it
and looked at Tal to see his reaction. The play backfired,
Fischer lost the game perhaps due to his "trick". On another
occasion, in a superior position he was not able to squeez
a win against Najdorf. He "accepted" draw by knocking all the
pieces. najdorf didn't like Fischer's behavior but didn't
keep his grudge against Fischer for long.

Roaming is probably not good for my game, but I just
can't stare at the board for that long. I wonder what
my opponents who don't get up for 4 hours
are thinking about. It's practically been proved that
the longer most players think about their moves the worse
they play!

Angelo DePalma

I wonder. During the only USCF tournament which I won
I was hardly sitting at the chessboard at all, I played
twice as fast or faster than my opponents. My play
was FAR, very far from perfect. I lost my queen for
two pieces in my first game (not because I played fast but
because I was psyched out by my opponent who was making
stupid faces and I didn't concentrate). I tok it in
stride and kept roaming and playing fast. I won this game
and the next two (there were only three rounds). In the
second game, after I was a whole rook up I played so
listlessly that finally I thought that I am losing the game,
his pawns were about to chock me and to queen--how
embarrassing! On my time, on my move, I got up away from
my table and walked to calm myself. when I got back to the
table I immediately made the winning move. And I was late
for my third game more than ten minutes, as my clock
was telling me. But soon it was my opponent who was short
of time. He had cracked in a perhaps winning for him ending.
He managed to queen his pawn but I checkmated him withing
a couple of moves. He tried to loose the mating net for
several moves with a partial success but he still didn't
have the luxury of that one move for queening. Old times.

Wlod

"Angelo DePalma" wrote in message
news

How's this for rudeness?

About a month ago I was playing an under-rated young player at our local
club. I was two pawns up in a K+P ending. No resignation. A few moves
later
my passed e-pawn was on the fifth rank, my K was protecting it, and his K
was attacking it. I also had another passer waiting to be produced on the
Q-side. No resignation. It was a position, as I like to say, from which
blindfolded I could have beaten Kasparov. But my opponent didn't resign.

So I picked up my chair, walked over to where we stack them at the end of
the session, and gingerly placed it on top of the other chairs.

IMHO, conspicuous displays of impatience at a player who does not
resign when you think he should is worse than dragging out a lost game.
Just let the misguided soul use up his time on the clock and be grateful
for your easy win.