This was originally published in my June 2006 www.chesscafe.com column
Win with Grace, Lose with Dignity
Every year I travel to countless places across the United States to promote chess, especially for young people. In each lecture, I always discuss the issue of sportsmanship. “Win with grace, lose with dignity” is my motto, as well as the motto of the Susan Polgar Foundation. Our children need to be taught proper etiquette.
One of the common complaints from many parents and coaches is that kids are being taught “dirty tricks.” The following is just one example:
One player is losing badly, so he reaches out and offers his hand. The opponent is under the impression that the player is resigning. Therefore, he also reaches out his hand. All of a sudden, the losing player yells out: “Draw.” When the other player disputes it, the losing player says that it is too late. They already shook hands.
I am even more horrified to learn that there are parents and coaches who actually teach things like this. They believe in winning at any cost. Other tricks include constant pretend coughing, offering a draw on each move, kicking opponents under the table, etc.
These are not good examples to learn from. I hope that all parents and coaches will steer their kids in the right direction by teaching good sportsmanship. Winning is great, but I believe that teaching our kids right from wrong is far more important. Champions
Over the years, thousands of people have asked me what it takes to be a champion. Just as in any other sport, the margin between winning and losing, between champion and runner-up, can be so miniscule. Sometimes it can come down to one indecisive move in a moment of haste.
Different people play chess for different reasons, and everyone approaches chess in their own way. Some just play for fun and the results do not matter. Some are professionals and a difference of a ½-point can result in a $15,000 pay cut. To be a champion one must put in the hard work and sacrifice, and have the fire, dedication, desire, determination, confidence, passion, and nerves of steel.
Sometimes a little luck does not hurt either. There are also intangible factors that can come into play. We have countless top-notch grandmasters in chess. One just has to want it more than the next player. Just look at Topalov in San Luis. In positions where many would agree to a draw, he ground out win after win. He wanted the title more than the others. He got a little lucky in the first game against Leko, and as a result his confidence and energy got an incredible boost and the rest was history. But he was also smart enough to play solid chess to hold onto his big lead during the second half. The same thing happened with Gata Kamsky at the M-Tel Masters. After drawing a difficult game against Ponomariov in the first round, his confidence got a big boost and he was on a roll.
The recent Olympiad is no different. There are so many good teams and players, and the winners are often the team that prepared the most beforehand and wanted it the most during the event. Some players play to win and some play not to lose. Often times it will come down to the last round. In this case, the U.S. men’s team scored 3½-½ against Norway in the last round to vault into 3rd place.
I can share with you one of my many memorable moments from the last Olympiad. After 13 rounds, Russia and USA had 25½ points, Georgia had 25, France had 24½, Hungary and Slovakia had 24 and India had 23½. That meant that 7 teams were within striking distance for the Silver and Bronze going into the final round. I remember seeing many captains with pens and papers trying to figure out the tie-breaks and how many points their team would need, especially the Russian and Georgian captains.
I vividly remember my last round opponent offering me a draw in a somewhat better position. I informed our captain about the offer and asked him what to do. He looked at me, smiled without saying a word, and then softly asked me to please go back to my board. A few seconds later, he came and gave a firm answer. Both teams heard this loud and clear. The answer was no draw on any board. We will fight on all boards.
That personally gave me such a big boost of confidence, knowing that the captain believed in us and that there would be no chickening out. He never once bothered with the tie-breaks or even looked at the tie-breaks of any other team. He wanted our team to control our own destiny and not rely on the luck of the tie-breaks.
We ended up winning 2½-½ and the rest was history. That was one difference between winning and losing. Because of that win, I also won 3 individual medals and a team Silver. A draw would have brought me zero individual medals and the team may not have gotten any medal at all. But if we had lost, we would have come home with nothing. You have to be willing to take risks if you want the glory. Ukraine, Russia, Georgia and some other countries were just as good, if not better than us in 2004. But we wanted it more than they did.
In team competitions, there are times when draws are necessary and there are times when one has to be willing to put everything on the line. This is what you call teamwork. This is part of the strategy. But the bottom line is one must be ready, willing and able to fight when needed. It takes a lot to be a champion, not just a team with high profile individual players.
When I teach my children chess, I do not allow them to offer draws. I want them to learn to fight in any position, good, bad or in between. I am content and proud if they fight hard and lose. A champion cannot be afraid to play out positions. A champion cannot be afraid of fighting. Once a player learns how to win, he or she can decide when to play safe and when to go all out for the win. I am sure different people have different opinions. This is mine. Play to win; do not play not to lose! But do it wisely!
http://www.chesscafe.com/text/polgar48.pdf
I agree with everything posted in
this thread. Speaking of the thin
line between winning and losing,
I would like to make a comment.
I believe the Swiss system has
significant flaws. Let’s say you
have a 5 round Swiss event. Let’s
say you have 40 players entered. The champion earns 5 points. Nobody will question the legitimacy of his/her title. The next four players all earn 4 points. The next four earn 3.5 points. In a swiss system, the odds are strong that a couple of the 3.5 pt. players have actually outperformed the 4 pt. players. This is why I call this system the Swiss Cheese System – it has too many holes.
Can anyone with a superior math
brain come up with a formula to
eliminate this problem? Your
score in a tournament doesn’t
necessarily indicate how well you
performed. Strength of opponents
played will always drag down a
few players to a point level which is, in my opinion, unfair. Am I the only one who notices this problem with our Swiss Cheese tournaments? I’m sure others have
noticed, but what can we do to fix
this problem?
Great article…
very enlightening..
I especially like the part abt kicking your opponents leg under the table.
must add that to my repertoire of “Of the board tactics”
thank you susan
Good column! Interesting that you chose Topalov as an example of fighting chess. Next time, perhaps, you could use him as an example of someone resorting to the kind of dirty tricks you mentioned in the beginning.
There was an article about cheating at chesscafe recently. I think it was deleted when people threatened to sue. The accuser seemed to have shot himself in the foot.
Where there is serious money involved maybe the temptation will always be there. But for parents and coaches to teach these tactics is discraceful.
lsur
Great Susan,
I’ve always loved your way of explaining things; simple, honest, warm, friendly, bold, openhearted..
Explain something else please..
How to learn chess from the beginning; what to study in order; please explain again with your simple way.. Start with this, study this, do this do that, in order, please advise, please help..
Was ir Lasker who said that “give me 100 hours I’ll make a master from an average player”. What would he teach in 100 hours, any idea?
Thanks Susan, you’re doing a great job !
Melody
>>I am even more horrified to learn that there are parents and coaches who actually teach things like this. They believe in winning at any cost.>>
Well, drawing at any cost, anyway. But the handshake without any words is actually a resignation. Saying “draw” after shaking hands is what’s too late. That’s how any TD should be ruling it. If there’s any dispute, the game would continue, especially if the scoresheets haven’t been signed.
“Interesting that you chose Topalov as an example of fighting chess. Next time, perhaps, you could use him as an example of someone resorting to the kind of dirty tricks you mentioned in the beginning.”
Yeah, this must be an old article. Topalov lost his reputation as a fighter the day he refused to continue a championship match without a free point won in an illegal protest. As Susan says, some people believe in winning at any cost.
Re: >
The best way to correct these problems is to have a round-robin tournament, or better yet a double round-robin tournament. As opposed to a knockout style tournament, a Swiss system does not eliminate those who lose from playing further in the tournament. And opposed to a round-robin tournament, a Swiss is played with much fewer rounds. Normally, a Swiss is only designed to determine first place, assuming that the number of players is no greater than two raised to the power of the number of rounds. It is easy to criticize the Swiss style tournament for its weaknesses, but in truth its strengths greatly outweigh its weaknesses.
Of course, as a chess coach I have often been confronted with the problem of whether it was worth explaining the intricacies of the Swiss system to one of my student’s parents. If you want to do away with the problem that some people with lower scores actually played better than some with higher scores, then you need to have more rounds, perhaps a round-robin. But I’m afraid that most parents would object to sending their children to a tournament which lasted a week or two.
the swiss system may not be perfect, but there are no viable alternatives. Can’t play a round robin with 100 people.
>
If the tournament was G/60, and four rounds per day, if one tossed in a couple of rest days, a 100 player round robin would only take about a month.
I wonder what round robin has had the the most players? There was a tournament in London which had 26 players (4/26/1883 to 6/23/1883). Almost two months. Anyone know of a round robin tournament with more chess players?
Well, I have seen trainers and parents who actually teach kids tricks like that.
But dont you think that NOT OFFERING DRAWS is also a wrong way? If you have an endgame where you cant advance, draw offer is “keeping fighting” is a waste of time for you and your opponent. Simply unpolite. Also, realising when it’s time to slow down and go for draw is an impostant skill in chess and life, and kids have to learn it too.