Chess teaches you more than text and principles: Vishy

“Unstructured learning is the best way to learn chess,” says Viswanathan Anand, Indian Chess Grandmaster.

In conversation with Venkat Saravanan, International Chess Master, at an event organised by the Chennai International Centre here today, he said you learn to play better if you read and play more often.

Talking about his journey to becoming the Grandmaster and World Chess Champion, Anand said having fun while playing the game and being spontaneous “teaches you more than following text and principles”. He recounted his time at the chess club he joined as a boy, where they had a queue system for playing chess. So one had to be fast, practical and make reasonably good moves in order to play more.

“It was fun. I would not have gotten so good if I was not having fun,” Anand said.

Anand had to train to control the urge to be spontaneous and think deeper before making moves.

“Sometimes I would be asked to spend a week before making a next move. This exercise is to open your eyes. It is so that you will be able to remember the moves you have read and seen before. Make yourself aware of existence of such moves so that you can apply them in a game,” Anand said.

In current times, computers are a great tool that aid in playing a better game. “Before computers, I used to memorise couple of hundred games. But computers have over 2,000 games stored. You can find what you are looking for faster,” Anand said.

“When you are practising in a computer, it tells you for certain if you are going right or wrong. So you can play with confidence,” he added.

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