PART ONE: 300 By Hand

By Grandmaster Rashid Ziatdinov, edited by Brad Ashlock

“A chess master should be a combination of a beast of prey and a monk.” -- Alexander Alekhine.

To become a chess master you need to memorize 300 essential positions (found in my book, GM-RAM). 300 is an approximate number. A master can play these positions “by hand”, a term from Kasparov which means “without thinking” -- it is instinctual, immediate and pure.

Recently, researchers used a new magnetic imaging technique to compare the brains of chess masters with the brains of amateurs. Their results were stunning. It demonstrated that amateurs grope and struggle to solve new chess problems, while Grandmasters rely on “expert memory,” recalling similar patterns from previously played games.

Instead of spending time and energy with new problems, masters fall back on their memories to cut directly to the heart of the puzzle to find a solution. According to Grandmaster Jonathan Speelman, “It’s like learning a language. It isn’t something you do consciously. You have a large number of patterns so you can see viable moves quickly, although you don’t know they are good moves until you check.” According to researchers, chess Grandmasters know approximately 100,000 patterns!

To play chess by hand like Kasparov and Speelman, you need to know patterns, or what scientists call “memory chunks.” To know by hand the 300 positions given in GM-RAM actually requires you to know several thousand key patterns which will serve as a solid foundation for the building of all your future chess knowledge.  However, even if you memorize a dictionary it doesn’t mean you can speak the language. How these patterns are linked in the brain may be an inborn thing that cannot be improved through training.  Perhaps the networking of the patterns in the brain makes the difference between the few Kasparovs of the world, and all the pretenders. Still, until you memorize essential patterns, you will never approach your full chess potential.

Suppose we have one master who knows 400 positions and another who knows 500. Their chances in a game will not be 4:5 because we must deduct the 300 basic positions they both share, leaving 100:200 (or 1:2). This is a big advantage, especially if the 100 positions of the less knowledgeable player are included in the 200 of the more knowledgeable player. The weaker player has no chance to win in this case, and this is demonstrated when World Champions play mere mortals. Fischer’s 6-0 scores in his matches against Larsen and Taimanov, and, more recently, many of Kasparov’s results, show the great advantage in knowing more positions “by hand” than your opponent. Fischer had been a coach for Larsen in the 60’s, so he knew all of Larsen’s key positions. To increase his chances against a strong master, a weaker master must be certain his 100 positions are not included in the 200 of his opponent. If he is really smart, the weaker master, through home preparation, can try to force the stronger player into unfamiliar territory. Emanuel Lasker often did this.

You need to know how many positions you can play perfectly by hand. By perfectly, I mean as far as a human can approach perfection. You may play a R + K v. K ending and achieve the correct theoretical result, but a computer would probably find a shorter way to checkmate (or draw). You should respect the computer’s more efficient path, but it is not mandatory as long as you get the proper result.

Memorize the positions in GM-RAM. By memorize, I mean memorization at a level akin to knowing words in one’s first language. If you were raised speaking English, you will never forget the word hi. Have no doubts about the moves in the positions and games you memorize.

For training, you need to set up on a board the simple positions from GM-RAM and, without moving the pieces, “fly” around all the main lines and sideline variations everyday. There will come a time when you will feel “how fast your brain is.” You must fix this feeling in your head. This state of mind in which calculations seem to fly is real chess concentration. You should understand what it means to think fast, so fast that you do not follow your own thoughts, so fast your calculations are virtually subconscious. All strong players achieved this level of concentration when they were only 5-7 years old. As adults, they cannot comprehend how untrained players do not see lines and combinations immediately. For them, chess calculation is so fast they are not even aware of the process.

How our brains calculate is similar to how computers function. For example, in DOS operating systems, there exists a first “gold” megabyte of memory; processors can address and work only with this first megabyte. They “look” at all extended memory (from 4-728 MB) through a small (64KB) “window” -- like reading a newspaper with a magnify glass.

This process is hundreds of times slower than the process of accessing the first megabyte of memory. Our goal is to setup your chess knowledge in the first “gold megabyte.” The same problem exists in the creating of all operation systems in computer business. The first megabyte is so small and algorithms are so big! Sorry for so many “scientific” explanations (but keep in mind -- every complex problem has an easy to understand wrong solution!).

An important point is not to create the exact positions from this book in your games, but to use the general ideas from sample positions in a concrete way. For example, one idea in K+P v. K endgames is that if a pawn gives check on the seventh rank, the game is a draw; if it doesn’t check, the strong side wins. There are thousands of specific positions in which this situation could occur, but only a couple key describing positions need to be memorized to deal with all similar positions. You must know these describing positions “in the middle of night,” tired or sick! Only the top 100 players in the world know these ABCs cold; most masters do not know them thoroughly. Every move of every game I have ever won is based on these 300 positions!

You can feed an apple tree eight times a day, but an apple will only come in August (if something comes in March, it will not be an apple). Mastering chess takes a lot of time. If you started studying the positions in this book at two years of age, you will be a master after 15 years of training. There is no short “King’s Road” in chess.  You must study the positions GM-RAM every day to build your chess “BIOS” -- this was how Russian chess masters grew up. Be patient. Play (and enjoy) chess, and “wait for August.”

I do not believe Fischer or Kasparov spent less time studying than normal mortals; they simply studied their art twenty-four hours a day, even in their sleep, so it seems that it took less time for them to achieve mastery. The secret is that normal people lack real desire and are not able to concentrate on their goal. For developing players, the most difficult task is to know “by hand” the key 300 positions of chess.

It is hard to train. Only children can do it quickly; adults can only train slowly . . . and painfully. A student must find his or her own way to study the 300 positions. When you are able to play any one pawn ending without any doubts, you have made a big step forward in chess mastery.

There is a test to prove when a hunter is ready to hunt a lion: if the hunter can stand in front of a speeding train until it is only two meters distance before jumping off the tracks, he is ready to hunt lions. Likewise, when lines with K + p v. K are flying with the speed of light in your mind, and you do not have any doubts about the position, you truly know it by hand – you are ready to hunt chess lions!

Take your time, do your homework on the basic 300 positions, play chess at a club and try to write down your thoughts about your games immediately after they finish, otherwise you will forget them.  This is how you teach yourself chess.

[NEXT MONTH we present Part Two of this series: STATE OF MIND, The Art of Concentration]

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