A Coach's Adventure At The Sinquefield Cup

As a young chess player, I looked up to the top players in the world to guide me on my way to success.  I now have the opportunity as a coach and writer to watch, interact, and interview 10 of the top 15 players in the world, representing eight different countries.

This series will cover my adventure before and during the Sinquefield Cup 2015 and offer suggestions to coaches on how you can use such an event to help your students improve even if you can’t travel all the way to the event.

 

(The playing hall at the Sinquefield Cup.)

The 2015 Sinquefield Cup ran from August 22 to September 3 in St. Louis, with prizes totaling over $300,000. As a chess teacher with an integrated chess curriculum, I had the luxury of following along with the Cup during my workday. As the games occurred each day my students and I had the privilege to analyze live along with the likes of GM Yasser Seirawan, WGM Jennifer Shahade, and GM Maurice Ashley.   

The live event and feel of Sinquefield got my students entranced with the tournament and its players.  Just as a football coach might invite his players to watch the Super Bowl and learn from the greats, in chess we have that same ability with “Super-GM” events. Each year there are many such events; however the Sinquefield with an average rating of 2798 was among the strongest of all-time. 

As a coach, player or simply a fan there is so much you can learn from these high level tournaments. Each day during these events I followed Chess.com and many other sites to see what was occurring in the games. I generally try to analyze along and play some “solitaire” chess (made popular by the famous coach Bruce Pandolfini) to emulate the top players, which is incredibly useful for any chess enthusiast. 

Chess engines are great, but they won’t give you the time to think and figure out what is actually going on; they simply tell you the answer. When showing these games in class, I push my students to create candidate moves and analyze each move deeply before offering their opinions.

(Live coverage of the games online.)

Students love it when their coaches have a connection to the best players in the world. Most students think their coach is the best player in the world, and teaching them about the top players and the history of chess help those students better understand the game. 

As a student, I remember reading about the 1972 Fischer-Spassky match and being in awe of Bobby Fischer’s talent and celebrity. Now as a coach I try to instill in my students that same feeling for Carlsen, Nakamura, Caruana, and others.

(I took a turn sitting in the world champion's chair during the rest day.)

Look forward to part two, featuring the top players’ thoughts on how you can use a tournament like Sinquefield to improve yourself as a player and your students as a coach.