TRW- 

As a fellow ICCF player with a less ambitious goal of getting some IM norms. I repeatedly find that anything less than massive time, attention and resources fail to accomplish a better than 2300-2350 type performance.  When I get through an IM norm tournament with 50% score and someone else grabs a norm I spend quite a bit of time looking at their wins (time forfeit aside) to try to see if there is anything I can learn from:
1) the opening choice (including the historical repertoire of both players)
2) any favored engine (see if they repeatedly use stockfish etc.)
3) style (are they anticomputer types, first choice engine etc.)
4) how quickly they played 

etc. 

I think there was a nice window between 2013-2015 where a motivated person could really make some headway. Now, I am a bit in awe of how powerful engines are - I can spend 3 days of analysis in Aquarium and have little to add to what a Xeon running H6 might come up with in an hour.

Still, I think a little gumption goes a long way in activity. 

Best Regards,

Nimzo5

ErictheRed wrote on 10/11/17 at 19:43:10:

We are living in a society which is becoming more and more individualistic. We see this in the post-mortems but also here on the forum. Players share less information than before.

However I still believe sharing is much more productive than just hiding things. I share a lot but I am also getting back a lot of useful information by grateful people. In the end we become both better and stronger from such voluntary cooperation.

If my opponent would've just shared what he prepared then I would've gladly shared all my investigations in that particular opening. He knows very well that even if we ever meet each other again (maybe never) that I will never permit him to let me hit with that preparation.

Focus, people!   

brabo wrote on 10/11/17 at 06:35:16:

I wouldn't consider that a 'technical question about chess'. What you asked your opponent to do was to reveal part of his opening repertoire, or at the very least to share with you an idea that he'd worked on before your game that he might wish to use in the future, be it against you or against someone else. Why should he tell you that? I most certainly wouldn't share that information with an opponent and, to be honest, I'd consider it a bit cheeky if someone asked me to.

brabo wrote on 10/11/17 at 06:35:16:

That seems entirely reasonable to me.

Shall we use Facebook to form a private group?

brabo wrote on 10/10/17 at 06:27:59:



I don't know if the video interview is still stored anywhere but yes they did directly ask him. If I have time later, I will try to find it.

trw wrote on 10/10/17 at 04:07:06:

I doubt very much that anybody asked directly Kramnik where the novelty came from. Besides you can't expect that these top-players will reveal their sources. There is always secrecy around which players, computer-networks, databases... they have access to. You can't blame them to behave like that as at that level it is all about collecting information and surprising the opponent.