Where there’s a way there’s a will!

Russell Sherwood  Sunday, December 10, 2017

Where there’s a way there’s a will!

 

At first glance, you may think I have got this saying the wrong way round! In typical use, you would be correct but in the world of improvement, this is a more common saying. In Chess (as in other things) we all want to improve and there is a belief among many that simply wanting to improve (so-called positive thinking) is enough to get better on its own. However, the evidence tends to suggest otherwise and that having a clear path to improvement is more important.

 

So how do we get a clear path to improvement In CC?  Much of the advice that does float around is from high rated players who started out highly rated (i.e. their initial rating was very high and stayed there) and is so not necessarily relevant to a typical players journey.

 

Where do we want our advice to come from? Preferably from people who have undergone the journey we wish to undertake, i.e. who have seen their ratings improve over an extended period.  Downloading a few ICCF Rating lists and some manipulation in Excel leads to the list below.  

RUS		Kornev, Aleksey Nikolaevich	12	M	2468
USA		Risquet, Carmelo	12	M	2386
ENG		Stebbings, Anthony J.	12	M	2352
RUS		Agryskina, Nadezda Ivanovna	13	F	2538
RUS		Odrov, Viktor Anatolievich	13	M	2432
GER		Kuntze, Andreas	13	M	2397
ISL		Ásbjörnsson, Ásgeir Páll	13	M	2391
LAT		Kovalenko, Igor	14	M	2429
NED		Hooft, Diederic 't	17	M	2390
USA		Stein, Kurt W.	19	M	2533
IND		Sengupta, Deep	19	M	2515
GER		Lembeck, Karl-Heinz	19	M	2512
NED	CCE	Jong, Jan Willem de	21	M	2503
GER		Schmidt, Jörg (* 1954)	20	M	2376
POL		Gorzkiewicz, Łukasz	23	M	2473
DEN		Jensen, Tommy	23	M	2416
SRB	CCM	Petronijević, Zoran	23	M	2398
BEL		Van Assche, Jeroen	24	M	2393
AUT		Komaromi, Gabor	25	M	2401
ENG		Adair, James	26	M	2463
PAK		Idrees, Muhammad	25	M	2368
RUS	LGM	Churakova, Natalya Evgenyevna	28	F	2438
RUS		Bukarin, Mikhail Yurievich	29	M	2471
INA		Margana, Adhy	28	M	2359
ISL	CCM	Guðmundsson, Elvar	30	M	2504
NED		Werten, Tony	31	M	2392
ITA		Rombaldoni, Denis	33	M	2401
SUI		Schmid, Pablo	35	M	2525
IND		Dutta, Amit	34	M	2395
RUS		Kudryavtsev, Dmitry Aleksandrovich	34	M	2385
POR	CCE	Vasconcellos, Renato	35	M	2411
SLO		Coklin, Marko	37	M	2435
RUS	LGM	Matveeva, Maria Aleksandrovna	39	F	2498
IND		Das, Arghyadip	37	M	2363
CUB		Fernández Martínez, Juan Carlos	47	M	2393
ROU	LIM	Stanila, Elena	53	F	2389
USA		Kulick, Neil	59	M	2354
CRO	CCM	Feletar, Darko	79	M	2391
RUS		Matvienko, Vladimir Petrovich	18	M	2404
ENG		Rallabandi, Praveen Kumar	112	M	2398
ESP		Moreto Quintana, Alex	120	M	2437
UKR		Khanas, Valeriy	125	M	2357
SLO	CCM	Zajšek, Franc	147	M	2372
WLS	CCM	Yeo, Gareth	153	M	2378
UKR		Mashchenko, Vladimir	30	M	2481
SLO		Pokrivač, Izidor	32	M	2405
RUS		Rybin, Anton Sergeevich	24	M	2480
SWE		Qwarfort, Fredrik	26	M	2448
INA	CCE	Sitorus, Yosua	238	M	2403
CUB		Pérez Rodríguez, Rubén	38	M	2392
RUS		Mannanov, Rinat Rafikovich	56	M	2396
GER		Marwitz, Ullrich	78	M	2370
ITA	IM	Piccirilli, Fabrizio	74	M	2390
RUS		Enin, Anatoly Nikolaevich	107	M	2353
CAN	CCE	MacTilstra, Ian	160	M	2354
ENG	IM	Soh, Edmund	240	M	2403
WLS	IM	Claridge, John B.	255	M	2399
CAN		Czerniawski, Andrew	79	M	2436
GER		Ulbig, Stefan	107	M	2392
GER	CCM	Hartl, Hermann	124	M	2385
PER		Quiñones Borda, Jorge Victor	141	M	2406
USA	CCM	Koo, Oliver	150	M	2388
GER	CCE	Meißen, Frank	85	M	2401
CZE	CCM	Hrubčík, Martin	234	M	2412
GER	IM	Anderskewitz, Ralf	341	M	2401
UKR	IM	Koshmak, Iurii	109	M	2451
NOR		Johansen, Anders Sten	467	M	2386
USA	CCM	Hernandez, Angel	177	M	2401
AUS	CCM	Roebuck, Derek	110	M	2378
ITA		Galliano, Giovanni	113	M	2428
SWE	CCM	Strömberg, Håkan	121	M	2392
ENG	CCM	Carr, Trevor	229	M	2391
RUS	SIM	Panitevsky, Ivan Anatolevich	180	M	2504
HKG	IM	Tsang, Hon-ki	168	M	2419
SLO	CCM	Pirš, Jernej	185	M	2411
ESP	IM	Sánchez Huerga, Aser	193	M	2445
CZE	CCM	Binas, Jindřich (*1954)	237	M	2421
GER	CCM	Bär, Lutz	150	M	2400
GER	CCM	Lukas, Norbert	280	M	2355
BUL	CCM	Petkov, Stamat	126	M	2407
GER	IM	Wenzel, Stefan	177	M	2461
GER		Hesse, Olaf	293	M	2447
ARG		Fernández, Javier Horacio	329	M	2416
AUT	CCM	Hengl, Christian	236	M	2420
GER		Keskowski, Thilo	201	M	2406
GER	LGM	Achatz, Kirstin	223	F	2377
USA	CCE	Biedermann, Kyle	312	M	2384
GER	CCM	Tiemann, Christoph	162	M	2412
GER	CCM	Homont, René de	276	M	2353
WLS	LGM	Sherwood, Helen	452	F	2386
RUS		Razumikhin, Andrey Mikhailovich	364	M	2391
RUS	CCM	Novikov, Sergey Vasilievich	249	M	2400
RUS	CCM	Prozorovsky, Vyacheslav Grigorievich	208	M	2404
USA	CCM	Landes, Eric	222	M	2397
GER	CCE	Boos, Markus	193	M	2400
CUB	CCE	Marrero Rodríguez, Alexis	167	M	2416
ITA	IM	Mauro, Lucio	735	M	2407
AUS	CCM	Mulligan, Barrie	276	M	2414
CUB	CCM	Pérez López, Alberto	536	M	2407
ENG	CCM	Weldon, David J.	227	M	2410
POL		Mostowik, Daniel	773	M	2366
ITA	CCE	Bellegotti, Giorgio	243	M	2453
LTU		Voveris, Saulius	271	M	2388
ENG	CCM	Brasier, John	352	M	2428
USA		Zaas, Peter S.	224	M	2369
DEN	CCE	Konstantinov, Maxim	207	M	2421
ROU	CCE	Taras, Iulian	546	M	2390
RUS	CCM	Kozlov, Aleksandr Anatolievich	237	M	2382
POL	IM	Broniek, Mariusz Maciej	523	M	2439
USA	IM	Schakel, Corky	782	M	2416
ROU	CCE	Stanescu, Teodor-Adrian	146	M	2406
GER	CCM	Scheiba, Manfred	218	M	2403
CZE	CCE	Dědina, Miroslav	578	M	2354
GER	LGM	Bolz, Barbara	293	F	2402
GER	CCM	Zielasko, Andreas	284	M	2390
LTU		Voveris, Gediminas	660	M	2352
ESP	IM	De Carlos Arregui, Inigo	804	M	2433
ENG	CCM	Thompson, Brian	953	M	2413
ESP	CCM	Conde Poderoso, Antonio	597	M	2373
GER	IM	Löffler, Werner	802	M	2394
GER	IM	Langer, Raimund	443	M	2406
SUI	IM	Janisch, Manfred	658	M	2441
CZE	SIM	Sýkora, Josef	1477	M	2416
POL	IM	Mirkowski, Piotr	457	M	2412
GER	SIM	Gromotka, Harry	1456	M	2389
CZE	CCM	Cvak, Rudolf	1585	M	2363
ENG	SIM	Rawlings, Alan J. C.	1775	M	2393

 

 

 

 

 

Close examination of the players on the list will bear dividends for the ambitious player. What do these players have in common? All have come through the system and raised their ratings up to 2350/2400+. This group is of more interest to us, than, for example, players rated 2450+ , who often only play against their rating peers and draw,draw,draw!

Practically these players make up around 1% of the total CC player pool. To put into context their performance - over the last 4 years they are scoring around 70% with White and beter than 50% with Black.

 

There are a number of different strategies in play.

 

Now I could give a summary of the learning examination of these players but that would take all the fun out of it for you!  Some pointers to help in your analysis…..

 

• How many games are they playing/completing?
• What level are they competing at?
• What Openings and they playing/not playing?
• What is their win –loss –draw ratios with black and white?
• Are there any commonalities in their playing style?
• Do they take draws? Short or Long?
• Do you know any of them?

 

Putting some effort in here will allow you to reap rich rewards as it will give you an idea of “the way”, and Where’s there’s a way, there’s a will!