Matthew Sadler: “It’s a hobby!”

Matthew Sadler, Tata GM group C: “It’s a hobby!”

Today we start our series of three interviews, with players from the Tata Steel A, B and C groups, who all make some sort of comeback. In the first interview we have Matthew Sadler, two-times British Champion and Olympiad Gold Medal winner. (Tomorrow we’ll publish an interview with Jan Timman and on Friday we’ll finish the series with Veselin Topalov.)

We know the story: more than a decade ago Sadler decided to end his professional career, he moved to The Netherlands and got a regular job. He continued playing in the Bundesliga for a few years, and was the book reviewer for New in Chess Magazine for a number of years, but then he more or less cut all the ties with the chess scene.

Then, in 2010 he decided to enter a rapid tournament in Wageningen and he duly won it with 7/7, ahead of strong players such as Jan Timman, Friso Nijboer and Daniel Fridman. He finished first and shared first at the Haarlem weekender in July 2010 and 2011, and then also won two open tournaments, 9-round Swisses, in Barcelona and Oslo.

At the Tata Steel chess tournament, which starts next Saturday in Wijk aan Zee, Sadler will be the top seed in the C group. You can find more info here.

To start, I must say that I was surprised to see that you never actually played in Wijk aan Zee!

No, that’s true. I think when I was a professional I tended to play Hastings all the time. Back in the 90s it was quite a big tournament and I got invited to the Hastings Premier a number of times. That was a very nice tournament. It was one of the first really strong all-play-alls I’ve ever played, with I think Bareev, Polgar, Polugaevsky… a double round event. Somehow it just never came about.

Do you regret it that you never played it in those years?

Yeah. Actually I have a number of regrets from those times. I sort of think: I could have gone to a lot more nice places, really. I suppose when I was a professional I was always just focused on playing the tournament that was right at the time, and right for the plan I had for myself basically. I always thought that playing Hastings and Wijk aan Zee, one after the other, would be a bit too much. But it’s a real shame; it’s a great tournament so it’s always nice to say that you played that one.

Indeed, during your professional career, it seems that you haven’t played too many tournaments on other continents.

I always sort of wanted to play tournaments where I thought I’d play well, basically. Obviously the further afield you travel, the bigger the chances are of getting ill or something and playing badly. In those days I was really quite focused on making the most of my career basically. And especially in those days I was a really high energy player. I needed an awful lot of energy to play well, so I tried to play not too much and also in places where I thought I’d have maximum energy basically. Maybe if I’d have a much longer career I would have done a bit more sight seeing

Let’s first return to the 90s, the chess career you had before you switched to the IT business. How good were you? I mean, the successes are known, two British Championships, a gold medal at the Olympiad… Do you know your highest position in the world rankings, for example?

I think that was around 15th. I think I was maybe equal first in England or something. I think I got 2665 or something and that was my peak basically, and this sort of coincided with a dip of Mickey and Nigel. I think I was either equal first or equal second and five points behind Mickey or something. This was in 1997 I think. I think I was sort of a top 20, to 25 player basically. Probably as a team player I was extremely strong. I think I was another 30 or 40 points stronger when I was for England.

More here.