Instruction / Tournament Preparation FedPrep
Hall-of-famer GM John Fedorowicz recounts his history preparing himself and others for big games and events to help show you how to get ready for your next tournament. By GM JOHN FEDOROWICZ
John Fedorowicz's induction plaque that hangs in the World Chess Hall of Fame in St. Louis, Missouri.
T
HIS IS GOING TO BE AN UNUSUAL CHESS ARTICLE. Originally it was going to be about preparation at the 2012 World Youth. I’ll show some examples from that tourna ment, but I thought it might a good idea to expand the article. I figured it would be interesting to show some of my best, weird and worst preparation stories. We have to break it up in two parts: Pre-computer and computer. The “pre” part was full of notebooks, the twice-yearly Chess Inform ants, the Encyclopedia of Chess
Openings (which included all openings in five books with no written explanations but lots of weird symbols!), various opening books (you had to choose wisely so the parents wouldn’t go broke) and discussing ideas with friends. It was good to have strong friends!
Let me start by going back in time to one of my first big tournaments. I was very lucky to get into the Hastings 1977/78 premier section for the simple reason that I was overrated. (I had just won a Bill Goichberg-run futurity with 71
⁄2 out of 9 and reached a
FIDE rating of 2440.) One of the players had visa problems so the organizers needed a highly-rated replace ment. Playing with the likes of GMs Tigran Petrosian, Vlastimil Hort, Gyula Sax, Evgeny Sveshnikov, James Tarjan, Roman Dzindzichashvili, and Leonid Shamkovich was frightening but fun.
One of my best experiences was against former World Champion Petrosian. I had the white pieces so my plan was all-out attack. My fellow Americans Jonathan Tisdall and Tarjan helped me prepare. GM Tarjan was familiar with Tigran’s openings. I remem - ber Jim saying something along the lines of, “He plays the French and Caro-Kann unless he thinks you’re an idiot, then he’ll play Sicilian.” Still, my idea was to attack at all costs. What chance would I have in a grinding game?
36 July 2013 | Chess Life
PHOTO PAIGE PEDERSEN
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