Top chess players body language and habits

[Peter Sharpe]

In another thread I had mentioned that Peter Wells and Stuart Conquest are the two players, I had noticed at Brighton in 1984 and in this year's BCC, that often fall into time trouble also that Mark Hebden plays quickly. Gawain Jones is a "new" player for me to see and I have noticed that he is another player that plays fast. I have read somewhere that Anand plays very quickly with a lot of success. My vote for a British player (from what I have seen in 1984,1985 and 1989) that regularly falls into serious time trouble but often wins games with brilliant play is Will Watson (does he get himself into time trouble on purpose so that his opponent would get too confident of his chances of winning against Watson?). Who gets your vote for World or British players that play quickly or often fall into serious time trouble but with regular success at the end?

Watching the Short v Adams game today, I couldnt help noticing how different the body language and habits of both players during their matches last week and today. Mickey Adams is always sat very calmly and concentrates hard on his game throughout , leaving his table only when he needs refreshments or goes to the toilet. He doesnt show much emotion and it was hard to tell whether he is confident of his position or not (Fischer said Spassky was like that). While Nigel Short looks quite restless at times when waiting for a long time for his opponent to make a move and often moves away from from his table to analyse his position on the TV screen, look at other matches nearby or have a quick chat with someone who is taking a break from sitting at his table. He often looks at the audience and his body language does seem to show whether he is confident about his position of not (he gave a reassuring wink at someone when he seemed to be in a good position not long before Adams' knight suddenly became very active). Gawain Jones and Jovanna Housaka are two other players who seem to get restless, leaving their table, when their opponents take a long time in thinking over the next move!

[Paul Dargan]

In one of Rowson's books (7 deadly sins I think) - he mentions Adams claiming a significant increase in strength when he stopped getting-up and walking around ... of course it's different for each person, but the assertion was that people take many more 'breaks' than they really need and that more work at the board improves your results.

Paul

[Alex Holowczak]

I feel that my play is better in league chess, where the games are 3 hours and not 7. There's less time to get up and wander in a match finishing on the night. I find it very difficult to concentrate for a period of 7 hours, so I get up and walk around a lot more. Sometimes I can see a good move for my opponent, and then wander off to have a look at something else, because I don't want him to see it.

I guess seeing something important and not acting upon it is a bit like this, unfortunately...

(Note for anoraks: The "Moe's" sign is back to front, so they must have flipped the shot.)

[Jonathan Bryant]

I have read somewhere that Anand plays very quickly with a lot of success.

Not so much these days as he's got older, but the younger Vishy had a reputation for taking hardly taking any time at all. In one famous example he refuted a line in ECO and won a game using about ten minutes in total.

Karpov used to be very quick in the early mid 70s too apparently. I remember reading an account by Ray Keene about a game they'd played around 1976 when he'd got into bad time trouble twice in a single session because Karpov was playing so fast they'd managed to get 50 or 60 moves in rather than the standard 40.

Talking about habits, without fail Ivan Sokolov would turn up 20 minutes late at the most recent Staunton Memorial. Not only that, when he arrived he would always wander over to the refreshments table to get himself a cup of coffee and a biscuit and only then would he actually sit down and play. I don't ever remember him getting short of time though - so I guess he must have played quite fast too (40 moves in 100 minutes instead of the 120 everybody else had).

[Peter Sharpe]

In club matches and at tournaments I usually play fast (my captain keeps telling me to take more time to think over the moves) and have a wander around looking at other matches. Sometimes, when I am at the toilet, thinking about my position , I start to realise that I missed a better move allowing my opponent to recover or gain the upper hand. On my return from the toilet I would return to my game (even if my opponent is still thinking over his/her next move) to work out a recovery plan! Sometimes you see better when picturing your position in your head than when looking at your game on the table

I notice some players avoid eye contact with anyone during his/her game. Viktor Korchnoi was like that when I saw him at Phillips and Drew in 1984 but Anatoly Karpov (he was in the same tournament and I also saw him in the K v K match at London) would often give a menacing stare at his opponent

[Nick Burrows]

Our very own IM Jack Rudd is an extremely fast player. It would be interesting to hear his thoughts on the advantages of playing quickly. Surely, some deeper thought at the critical moments could only improve results?!

[IM Jack Rudd]

Our very own IM Jack Rudd is an extremely fast player. It would be interesting to hear his thoughts on the advantages of playing quickly. Surely, some deeper thought at the critical moments could only improve results?!

It's possible. Actually testing this hypothesis is the tricky part.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Surely, some deeper thought at the critical moments could only improve results?!

Sometimes the reverse can be true. I sometimes end up rejecting a move I would have instinctively played, because a long period of thought has convinced me that another move is better. Sometimes the extra thinking just ends up confusing the player, and the original intended move turns out to have been the better option.

[Peter Sharpe]

Surely, some deeper thought at the critical moments could only improve results?!

Sometimes the reverse can be true. I sometimes end up rejecting a move I would have instinctively played, because a long period of thought has convinced me that another move is better. Sometimes the extra thinking just ends up confusing the player, and the original intended move turns out to have been the better option.

I often think of a move, then reject it and then think of other options before going back to the move I had rejected but had forgotten why I rejected it in the first place. It is irritating!. Sometimes when thinking over a move, my mind wanders into something else that has nothing to do with chess!

I noticed over the years that some players get distracted easily when thinking over a move if a spectator or a player from another game walks over to watch his/her game with interest and sometimes the player, who is thinking of his/her move would turn round to see who was watching (Peter Wells, Jon Hawkins and especially Jon Arnott- I remember him since he was young as I played him in the Sheffield league- were like this yesterday). I remember Will Watson was like that when I was watching his games in the past, he would turn round to look at me as if I wasnt supposed to be watching! It did make me feel uncomfortable so I would move on to watch a different game. A friend of mine said Will Watson did the same to him too so he looked back at him before Will then turned his attention on the chessboard. It is unlikely Will was trying to put off spectators from watching his games, just that he gets distracted easily and doesnt mean to "give a hard look" at anyone!

[Christopher Kreuzer]

A friend of mine said Will Watson did the same to him too so he looked back at him before Will then turned his attention on the chessboard. It is unlikely Will was trying to put off spectators from watching his games, just that he gets distracted easily and doesnt mean to "give a hard look" at anyone!

Maybe he was trying to see from the expressions of spectators what they thought of his position! Of course, anyone trying to be a strong player would soon learn not to do that!

[Alex Holowczak]

(Note for anoraks: The "Moe's" sign is back to front, so they must have flipped the shot.)

Alex you play golf?

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moe_Norman

Erm... No, I mean if you look at the "Moe's", it's back-to-front. So when it was originally drawn up, Homer walked on from the right of the screen at the point when Guy Incognito was thrown out.

No, I don't play golf. There's a golf course fairly locally that's within a wildly-sliced-drive distance of a quite busy road and people's houses. So my golf-playing abstinence is probably good for the residents and car-drivers of Oldbury.

[Michael Jones]

As far as body language is concerned, I don't think any player exhibits more than Gelfand - although I'm never quite sure what to read into it, since the slump forward with glasses pushed up forehead appears to occur regardless of the state of the game.