Yes, besides health, sleep problems, not enough time to play, old age etc. etc. a small rating pool might be a valid "excuse" too. But there's a well-known solution to that: Play in other parts of your country, or in other countries. That's what I've done and that' what ambitious players everywhere do.

If you push them, almost everybody (certainly including me) can give such reasons that have prevented them from showing their "real" strength. I'm not saying they're wrong, I'm saying they should prove it before claiming it. I think it was Nigel Short who once said, with heavy irony, that he had never beaten a player who wasn't ill in some way. 

Action speaks louder than words.

LostTactic wrote on 04/07/11 at 00:47:27:


This is like a textbook non sequitur, but it seems that somebody repeats it every time this issue comes up.    

I understand the skepticism shown here, but Ametanoitos has consistently provided interesting and strong analysis on the forum. So we judge him on that (and probably on his good training work). Based on that everybody can look forward to the best ever book on the Tarrasch!

But I think you can drop the arguments about ratings and "real" playing strength, they are just silly. I have been FIDE-rated between 2100 and 2200 for the past 8 years straight, except for a brief tenure above 2200. I would never argue (even considering my best period) that I'm somehow "really" a 2200+ or or 2300+ player. Not until my results actually show it. Yes, health issues may interfere, playing opportunities may vary, life may interfere - but all those actually play a part in practical playing strength, and however unfair they may seem we can't just subtract them at will.

If you are stronger you will show it if you eventually put more energy into playing. Can't we just leave it at that.

Hahaha, thanks for your support. But really, the Tarrasch book is not ONLY my book. Jacob has done a lot of work and if i did it on my own it would be far far worse, really. I know that this kind of works, when there is a co-author known and another one not so well known, in most cases the little-known guy does all the work and the other one just puts his name in the book. You can be sure that this is not the case for the Tarrasch book. I went in Glasgow last week and i saw their secret of success. A lot of work! They learn all the time from their past mistakes, they take seriously the feedback of their readers and they try hard to earn their respect. I saw how they work to make their books (i actually glanced at some of Avrukh's Grunfeld chapters!  ), and they want to be proud for them. Especially for their GM series!

Yes, but i can list many players with a Greek Elo on 1800 and a fide elo of 2100. Especially in my home town (where i have played almost all my fide-rated games) the fide rating are way too low because we are a closed society with a few fide-rated tournaments (fortunately this have changed the last year or so). A special example this year was a young player from my town called Spiliadis. He was rated about 1700 (FIDE) and performed 2300 in the Open Greek Championship earning the priviledge to play in the closed Greek Championship where he faced 4 or 5 GMs. He was clearly understimated by his opponents when they played against him, and this what made him successful. His Elo was too low because he played almost all of his games in my hometown.

Take for example the player Spyropoulos (former student of mine. Or at least i coached him a bit when he finished two times 3rd in the Greek U20 championships) who is mentioned in the above tournaments. His FIDE rating has reached 2200 but his Greek Elo is about 2040-2050. Many players from Athens have a Greek Elo of about 1900 but their FIDE rating is about 2200. The Greek Elo is about 100-150 points lower than the German Elo if you want another comparison. Many Greek players play in Germany and they have a German Elo, a Greek Elo and a FIDE Elo. Germans say that their national Elo corresponds to a slightly higher FIDE Elo. So again...

Anyway, i have overperformed in the 90% of the tournaments i have ever played, so i can believe that i play at least a bit better than my FIDE-Elo says. But i never had ambitions as a player. Maybe someday this will change, who knows?  A big Elo loss in my fide rating was in a period i had a serious health problem and i couldn't concentrate on chess.

Again, i prefer to be judged by my work and my students' work.

Weird attacks without any particular reason. Envy perphaps? Or did you want to write a book and i stole your job? Anyway...

The tournament you digged up was played at 2008 when i didn't have an international rating. This was my national rating and as you see i was ranked 10nth and finished 2nd. My next rating was 1760, after only 1-2 tournaments, which corresponds to a fide rating of about 2050 say. Unfortunately i cannot play chess these days.  The last tournament i played i won it (http://www.sopatron.gr/10th%20Patraikos.htm) but i really don't have time to play and improve my rating. Probably i will do it at some time in the future. On the other hand i am a chess coach with many students rated way higher than me. I am also a second of some GMs and other ambitious players and youngsters. I prefer to be judged by my work. By that i mean particular games of mine and my students, pieces of analysis i have published in several places and in this foroum particularly and of course my future book or books.

You can search for my games at the chessbase megabase and i have some corr games at the iecc base. Also some games of mine i found on the internet (and not in the mentioned databases) are

http://www.patrachess.gr/patrachess/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=197 (i am Black) and
http://www.patrachess.gr/patrachess/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=180( i am White) and
http://www.chessvideos.tv/replayer-insert.php?id=6066 ; (i am Black)

Not the best games i have ever played but you can judge foryourself. Unfortunately i haven't found online a game that i lost! There are many that i have lost of course but i really don't remember any of my defeats to be online somewhere....Anyway, i hope that i answered some of your questions.

Oh, and you should really take back that about me being a slave that Jacob takes advantage of me. I don't care, i know who i am, but that will really piss off Jacob. It is really insulting, you know...

fortify wrote on 04/06/11 at 20:26:15:

Why do you care about GM Aagaard's decision? He must have some reasons...

All i know is what Jacob has also wrote in the QC blog (probably i know a bit more than that but it is not fair to say more than Jacob has already anounced). 

Yes, there will be a GM Rep on the Nimzo and on the QGD and they have found authors for that. As for the French book they really want to do it (and i know that they had an agreement with an author at some point) but at present they haven't found someone that really wants to write the book.