7 June 2016
Ernesto Inarkiev: The Entire Ingushetia Was Cheering For Me
The European Champion answered the questions of Eteri Kublashvili.
The grandmaster shared about the way the tournament was unfolding for him, about his work towards development of chess in Ingushetia, about his study of chess, and about professional growth, just to name a few.
- Ernesto, I congratulate you on winning the European Championship! I am very happy for you. Please tell us how it all went for you. What is the secret of your success?
- Thank you! Now is a good time to share all my secrets in one go (laughing).
A great deal of people rooted for me and wished me success and victory. First of all, I would like to thank them, my family, and my relatives, who, of course, rooted for me more than anybody else. I also want to say 'thank you' to all the people who worked with me throughout my chess career, not just those who have been assisting me recently.
I would also like to thank my friends from Ingushetia for giving me a lot of calls with words of support at this period of my life. My friends, who are not chess players, from Ingushetia, Kalmykia and Kyrgyzstan supported me, and it meant a lot for me. It goes without saying that it helped me towards shaping my frame of mind better. (On arrival at the Moscow airport Ernesto was welcomed by employees of the Permanent Representation of the Republic of Ingushetia at the President of the Russian Federation, by members of the Ingush Union of youth associations, by members of the Youth Association of Dagestan, by members of the Union of Buryat youth, as well as by representatives of the Vice-President of the Russian Wrestling Federation Alikhan Kharsiev - Eteri Kublashvili).
Welcome at the Airport
Prior to giving this interview I started thinking about the interesting things I could share and decided to start straight from a rather unusual venue of the championship, let me put it like that. Frankly speaking, the decision to send our delegation to Kosovo was taken rather late.
In general, I would like to note that all local residents treated us very friendly and were very hospitable. Also important was the fact that I was not staying at the main hotel, but rather at a small hotel on the outskirts (it happened inadvertently). The first thing that a guy behind the "reception desk" told me upon my arrival at the hotel was that he "would be very happy if some of you became the European Champion." Since the hotel is small, about 20 rooms or so, the staff knew every guest by sight and was aware of each person's habits, such as times of drinking coffee and things like that. Everything was organized seamlessly. After my tournament victory they gave a celebration at the hotel and made a cake specifically for that occasion. It goes without saying that hotel celebrations in honor of my victory came as a complete surprise for me.
That very cake
I believe that suitable atmosphere is essential to help your focus on chess.
- What are your impressions of the town? Did you make it into the town on a rest day?
- To be honest, I did not use my rest day to go for walks and it is not much that I achieved in the way of town sightseeing. There was a little bit of walking around the hotel whereabouts, and we traveled by car every day, often passing through the old town.
OK, let me share my impressions after all. Gjakova is a small town with all consequences that come with it. Here and there you come across half-finished buildings, while all peculiarities of a small town life are plain to see: routine daily life is not teeming with firework events. However, as far as I understand it, the place is popular with tourists. I tried to find out the reason of such popularity. If I got it right, it has mainly to do with outdoor recreation. By the way, my room windows opened to a view of mountains. It may also have to do with some sort of religious sites, but there is nothing definite that I am prepared to tell you now.
- Did you notice anything that would remind of the recent war, or has life at last entered a peaceful mainstream?
- I saw no bombed houses. Although I saw a contingent of foreign troops, I am not sure that it would be legitimate to qualify it as something having to do with vestige of war. My telling people about my coming from Russia was never followed by their taking any sort of unfriendly attitude towards me. On having conversed a little with local people, I started realizing it differs from one locality to another and that elsewhere the atmosphere might be less comfortable.
- Who helped you grow up as a chess player?
- I think it would be unfair to single out anyone in particular. I should rather say that all of them helped me grow up to a certain degree. Winning a tournament is not a matter of one day, nor has it taken just one month to raise up to the occasion. Therefore, I would prefer answering this question without having to give out any names.
- Did you realize in advance that winning the championship was a real thing, or was it rather that it continued remaining vague until the very last move?
- You know, it is not even the victories themselves that I'm so happy about, but rather the quality of my play that I managed to come up with. I rather liked what I managed to achieve over the board. I took pleasure from my performance. Therefore, I wanted to remain in this state for as long as possible and I was playing the last game with a sense of pleasure, let me put it like this. Even when my opponent offered me a draw towards the end of the game, I did not accept it immediately since I felt enthusiastic about pushing further. However, in the end I decided that I had no objective reason to press on, because the position was very close to equal, whereas the tournament situation did not favor taking any risky actions.
The ultimate round
Also important is that it turned out to be my second tournament in a row as I had managed to demonstrate successful performance at the Russian league prior to that, even though it was less conspicuous since I was playing for the team. Here and there I had interesting games and I wanted it to go on like that, to make it a point for myself because rather than just scoring game points chess is also about giving you a lot of pleasure when you manage to implement some ideas in the over the board encounter. It made difference for me.
From the tournament standings point of view it was obvious that when you are a whole point ahead of the field the probability of your ending up clinching first place is enormous. However, I did not want the remaining games to be smeared by the mark of some sort of cowardice and weakness, and that the type of performance which gave start towards this result in the beginning would persist until the very end.
- I wonder if during the ultimate round of you had time to watch the games of you closest rivals Wojtaszek and Kovalenko.
- As a matter of fact, I was watching them all the time because we were sitting next to each other. When you take your eyes off your game, where else could you cast your glance at? (smiling) However, to say that I was busy closely watching all ups and downs of their battles would be wrong, I rather tried to single out interesting positions. Nevertheless, I never hooked up my game to what was happening on the neighboring boards.
- Which of your games are you especially happy about?
- It's hard to immediately single out any encounter off the top of my head since I had various types of games at this European Championship. I would note that I had a range of attacking, sharp, and even combinational games (for example, versus Svetushkin with Navara), and very interesting endgames (versus Andriasian and Kovalenko). In principle, it would be correct to say that the European Championship is a traditionally very strong tournament and that my rivals there were active grandmasters, all of them very interesting chess players. For that reason there is not a single game that I could tag as a boring one.
In general, it should be noted that in such big tournaments with so many participants there are no easy games. This is probably a hallmark of any more or less strong Swiss tournament that you are entitled to no errors whatsoever. This is why singling out any specific game is unlikely to be fair.
- Do you mean that even round one game is not an easy one?
- Round one is known to have its own specifics in that you are not infrequently paired against an underrated player. It might be, for example, a young 2400 chess player who improves to 2550 within just a couple of years. It is not infrequent to meet a strong player in round one as well.
- You have just mentioned the Russian Championship in which the Moscow club ShSM Legacy Square Capital, which you performed for, took second place ahead of "Siberia". But then, what is the secret of your victory over the Titans?
- I see that you are determined to pry into all my secrets today (laughing). Well, on defeating "Siberia" it seemed as if we had attained the most important goal of the championship, but it turned out otherwise. I would like to mention that the Moscow team is very young and ambitious and that we have a very good team. Although I have not played a lot for the Moscow team yet and it was only my second year and third tournament for the ShSM, I feel that during all this time the team has been gaining momentum along the way.
Despite the current debates as to what degree, if any, chess is similar to team sports, I am convinced that team specifics is present and I also clearly see that our team has been gaining from one tournament to another. If in the first (for me) Russian league we had a rocky start and qualified into the European Cup only by some miracle despite our starting to win towards the end of the event, already the European Cup itself saw us playing on a more or less acceptable level, but we still lacked something, something of a lucky break perhaps. However, we had many things going our way in the Russian championship, save for the match against "Zhiguli", which we drew and ended up losing points because of that. Otherwise, we had a lot that clicked for us there. Therefore, if we get down to talking about some inherent secrets, the team is really on a good way towards achieving a good ensemble and all associated processes tend to improve, which I evaluate as positive developments. Another thing is that there might arise certain nuances when it comes to lot of ambitious players getting together, but in general the team is maturing, is becoming full-fledged.
- Has the Sochi tournament contributed to you success at the European Championship in any way?
- I think it has, of course, because it is always easier to step down from a higher level to a somewhat lower one. If we start comparing these two tournaments, it is still the European Championship that is weaker in terms of lineup of strong players, while in Sochi I used to play on boards two and three and I had to be faced off with very strong opponents. Indeed, the Sochi's lineup was objectively stronger. On the other hand, the European Championship is a much fiercer tournament, with everyone putting up tough fighting for qualification, acting to the utmost strength of his or her powers with as much self-possession as possible.
In my opinion, performing in a tournament with less powerful field is always easier when it comes second in a row. Should it have been the other way around, I believe the taks would have been a lot more challenging one. It panned out well for me in this respect.
- You have qualified into the World Cup. What were your previous achievements there?
I have never set the Thames on fire so far, frankly speaking. My best result was making it into 1/32, but it happened very long time ago. I have demonstrated no super results in the recent years. I defeat those whom I am supposed to outplay, but it fails me when it comes to high-rated players.
- You have recently became actively engaged in promoting chess via social networks. Do you think we cannot do without chess in this day and age?
- It came as a handy opportunity. There are certain things and personal impressions which fall outside of official reviews, or which circulate in private. Therefore, sharing these things with other people should only be done from the first-person point of view. Social networks come handy towards this aim. Moreover, many people nowadays are accustomed to communicating via social networks.
In fact, it has taken me long to reach this point because I have always been on the side of live communication with people and I keep on believing that no technology is capable of replacing it. Nevertheless, at some point it dawned on me that I am not bound to replace one with another, making use of positive sides of social networks to serve as a supplement.
- You must have received a barrage of congratulatory posts in Facebook and Twitter. Kirsan Nikolayevich sent you very heartfelt congratulations.
- Indeed, the amount of congratulations that I have received from all over the world is beyond imagination. To be honest, l have not had enough time to answer everybody, but I will do my best to do it to express my thanks. I am very pleased that people have taken notice of my personal success and keep sending their congratulations. Especially pleasing was to be congratulated by Kirsan Ilyumzhinov and Yunus-Bek Yevkurov.
- Could you please let us know about your work and projects in Ingushetia.
- It would not be fair to tag this project as my own. It would be more appropriate to put it like this: there is a philanthropist, a businessman Alikhan Kharsiev, who has built a chess club in the village of Troitskaya, not far away from Nazran, at his own expense. I got to know Alikhan Kharsiev via Kirsan Ilyumzhinov. I would like to add here that Kirsan Nikolayevich keeps rendering his support and that he came to Troitskaya to take part in the club opening ceremony. Alikhan invited me to the opening ceremony, but I was unable to make it. However, this is no longer important since we got to know each other after all.
Even back then it was evident that Alikhan is eagerly anxious to develop chess in Ingushetia: not only did he build the club, but he also keeps financings chess events, solving many organizational issues, taking all matters close to his heart and finding time to keep track of all what is going on. It also gave me an opportunity to apply my experience in my native republic -- I have participated in multiple tournaments and have seen a thing or two, after all.
Honestly speaking, it was not an instant decision to get down to it because it is of more use for an athlete not to distract his focus from the game. However, if I'm not going to help develop chess in Ingushetia, who else will?
We have large-scale plans I am very happy about the current developments and grateful to the people in my republic who keep investing their time in it. We have the support of Ingushetia's head Yunus-Bek Yevkurov, the coaches are seen working with enthusiasm, local chess players give me their cordial welcome, and the number of children involved in chess has been on the increase.
No less important is that Pavel Vladimirovich Lobach came here as many as five times within the recent two years. He works with children on a regular basis, and this work is not without results. People always tend to be skeptical about new points on the chess map, but kudos to Pavel Vladimirovich for having taken on hard work and continuing to shuttle back and forth on a regular basis. Big thanks to him for doing that.
Let me give you a more detailed picture of what is going on in Ingushetia. Firstly, the chess club holds large enough competitions for children and adults, including the regional ones, attended even by players from the neighboring regions.
Our second project is introducing chess into schools. The republic head's decree on development of chess has been enacted, but only first steps are being made in this direction so far. Alexander Kostyev also supported our initiative: he carried out the seminar "Chess in School" for teachers. I would also like to express him my deep gratitude.
A very large-scale event is scheduled to take place in summer, in July: the Russian Junior Cup Stage (the tournament regulations have already been published) and my match against Boris Gelfand. I have not posted the detailed information yet since I was busy playing in the competition, but I am going to do that in a short while. That is, we are in for a big chess festival, because in addition to the children's tournament and the match, we will run associate events such as seminars for coaches and referees, maybe some short tournament for adult players as well. Our chess festival will be held in two towns -- Nazran and Magas.
I reserve special thanks for the RCF, which has included Ingushetia into the "Chess in Schools" program. This said, chess inventory is expected to arrive from Moscow shortly. It goes without saying that this a milestone event since our schools have never seen well-equipped classrooms before.
Both inside and outside of the Republic I am not infrequently asked about the degree of chess popularity, especially since in peoples' minds the Caucasus is traditionally associated for commitment to wrestling and respect for strength of body. Nevertheless, I want to emphasize that the Ingush are very fond of chess and there is not a few who know how to play it, but it has just so happened that only a few decided to take it up professionally. The probable explanation is that life circumstances have never provided much in the way of chess opportunities.
In addition, Ingushetia regularly broadcasts chess programs, which offer viewers both chess lessons and news from the world of chess. Thus, the ultimate round of the European Championship was being demonstrated in a live mode, while my good friend Timur Gadaborshev accompanied it by his comments as to what was going on over the board. Thus, even more congratulations have started coming my way once many people got to know about this championship this way.
- Will any team from Ingushetia participate in Belaya Ladya?
- Well, it is the team of Troitskaya that will take part in Belaya Ladya. Timur Gadaborshev - the man who organizes all chess tournaments - will be the team captain. He is a many time champion of the republic and a coach. He is the chief organizer of chess events in Troitskaya.
If we take a broader look at this issue, I sincerely believe that chess has a lot to offer to people. My son grows up, and I have no doubt that I will teach him to play because I believe chess to be a very accessible form of mind training and that this training can be entertaining at that. If we start talking about competitions, apart from your mind your inner qualities are subjected to tempering as well. Therefore, I do it wholeheartedly since I believe it the right thing to do and to be beneficial not only for the development of chess, but also for those areas in which it develops.
At the closing ceremony with Adrian Mikhalchishin, Zurab Azmaiparashvili and his wife Marina
- How old is your son?
- He is two years old now.
- How much does he know about chess?
- He is already aware of the name of each piece, but it is, of course, early to say anything definite about his level of play.
- How much time do you devote to chess yourself?
- This is not an easy question to answer. I treat time spent studying chess as part of my working day, but there are different situations, especially since I have a certain amount of public work now. In general, I see the whole process as follows: playing in a tournament is my work, followed by going home to do my training work, which is interrupted by some events from time to time. This is my recent take on studying chess and I believe that a professional athlete should treat it this way.
Many people work 8 hours a day, while in Moscow this time should be added with the amount of time it takes to shuttle to work and back home, while still other are bound to work irregular working hours. Therefore, chess players are lucky in this respect: not only are they capable of keeping late hours, but it is also not infrequent that many of them can afford not to be employed at all.
There is one point to keep in mind, however. Although regular chess study hours are very important for growth, as it is clear to all, still there must take place a certain mental transformation in a player's mind at some point, and it is this part that does not readily lend itself to happening. It often happens so that you work your head off, whereas the result arrives, let's say, one year afterwards. It is not always the case that your discovery of some worthy opening ideas is followed by their immediate implementation within nearest days. In this regard, I believe a coach's work to be a challenge. I do not know how it happens with others, but it might happen to me that someone shares his idea with me, maybe even repeating it several times along the way, and when I happen to arrive at it myself after some six months I would say, "Listen, I have a really beautiful idea to share with you." And then the idea originators would respond, "Is it really so?" (laughing).
What I love in chess, among other things, is that in addition to results, over the board struggle, and exciting tournaments there is no faking it as it becomes obvious immediately. It is simply impossible to sit through your game from three till eight o'clock and then calmly go home. It is immediately obvious whether you have been sitting through or trying to perform your best.
Besides, a chess player's job is an unceasing task of working on yourself to become a better player. And it does appeal to me.
- What other interests do you have apart from chess? What are your hobbies?
- It's no secret that I have recently passed my black belt test in Aikido. I am really fascinated with this sport and I'm very happy about having chosen Aikido because it is also a very interesting way in life. Otherwise, my time is essentially divided between my family, chess, Ingushetia and Aikido.
- What are your preferences among movies, TV shows, and books?
- To be honest, there are so many good movies now that it's hard to single out any one in particular, in my opinion. Oddly enough, I have recently really taken to live chess broadcasts. It is something that is really interesting to me. Thus, I did enjoy the ultimate round and press conference broadcast from the Candidates Tournament.
Since we have touched upon the theme of secrets today, we also need to add that secrets are inherent to all competitions to a certain degree. When we narrate about a certain event a week afterwards, we do not share about the event itself, but rather about the way we tend to see it. Unless your have this picture in your mind, it is often quite a different story that your might be presented with. Therefore, being part of a live stream enables you to see what each player is up to. Dynamic live broadcasting is a big leap forward for chess.
- Where you are going to play in the near future, save for your match with Boris Gelfand?
- My immediate plans include going to Chelyabinsk to take part in the first Igor Kurnosov Memorial. I go to honor my friend's memory. Igor was an outstanding person and chess player, standing out among other players for his distinctive style. It needs no saying that his death is a shocking event.
Now Shamkir gives start to a tournament in memory of Vugar Gashimov, a friend of mine. Perhaps I will be able to make it there as well. Vugar was a great chess player, and more than one book could be easily written about his contribution to chess.
This year the timing of these tournaments coincided, but it would be wrong to tie these events together. The deaths of Vugar and Igor are personal blows for me and I recall my friends often.
So far I have no definite plans for June, I am considering participating in the Premier League, but this is not decided yet.
- I understand. Wrapping up this interview, I would like to know your prediction for the upcoming Carlsen - Karjakin match.
- I say our folks is going to win. I believe in Sergey and I will be rooting for him. He has long since voiced his ambition to become champion, and here is the opportune moment for him to do translate ambitions into reality.
It will undoubtedly be a great match because both are young players and both are in excellent shape. They are seen progressing and becoming stronger players. This is going to be a milestone event and a true feast of chess.
Pictures are taken from the official website of the European Championship, from the website of the Permanent Representation of the Republic of Ingushetia in Moscow, from Ernesto Inarkiev's account in Facebook and from ECU's account in Twitter
