Profiles
Kevin Thurlow
UNATS / Redhill
1. What are your earliest chess memories?
When I was three years old, I noticed my father looking at a book, and moving strange shaped pieces of wood on a flat surface. I asked what he was doing, and on the reply, "playing chess", I said "Show me." He said it was nearly bedtime so said I should ask the next day. He forgot all about it, but I didn't, and he showed me the knight move and got me to replicate it. He then put the knight in the middle of the board and handed me some pawns and said, "Put those where the knight can move". Then he put the knight on the edge of the board and got me to do the same thing. He asked if I noticed anything. I said that the knight could go to more places if it was in the middle of the board. He seemed pleased, although I did not realise why for some time. That was the end of lesson 1. The next day we revised the knight move, and tried another piece, but the lessons were very short and it was a few months before I came to see the normal starting position for a game. By this time we had done KQ vs K, and KRR vs K and covered forks, skewers, pins etc. So by the time we encountered the starting position, I knew that the first moves had to help me get at the opposing king. I always had to ask my father to play chess, so it was never forced, and I kept the enjoyment of chess for a long time. He did start asking me to play when I was about 16, or when he wanted help with an adjournment. He was quite a useful player. The knight is still my favourite piece.
2. How long have you been playing chess?
I played at home and a bit at primary school. Reigate Grammar School had a chess club, run by the excellent Ken Farries, so I joined that, but I decided I would improve by playing club chess, so I joined Redhill at the age of 14, in October 1967. They had a match that night, so I played some games with a nice chap called Roger Barnett. The Captain asked how I had got on. "Not too well, I lost five–three." There was an audible gasp – I didn't realise that Roger had won the club championship a couple of years before. Of course, Roger had not taken it that seriously, and the first few times I played him properly, I really struggled. Stubbornly repeating openings that had lost did not help my cause. Roger is still a member and I still struggle at times… Going to a club did work, as after I had gone a few times, my school friends noticed the rapid improvement and five of them joined Redhill as well, as well as a couple of parents.
3. How active are you in the chess world? (e.g. number of games a year)
Currently, I play about 40 games a year, down from the usual 70+, but the most was 107 in the early 80s. However, apart from that, I act as arbiter in various tournaments, e.g. Spectrum events, Combined Services Championships, Thanet Congress etc, and I have done work for Redhill Chess Club and Civil Service Chess since the 70s, as well as writing about chess. I was on the Board of Surrey County Chess Association – although I have now left, I give them advice whether they like it or not (usually the latter).
Most of my spare time is being consumed by preparation of the History of CS Chess. I thought at one stage it would be difficult to find information, but now there is rather a lot of it, although there are still gaps. Interpolating the information on a line by line basis really takes time (I am writing this to have a break from doing the book!). I think the book will be a lot longer than I expected.
4. What was your best chess experience?
A difficult one. There are lots! The first time I won the Redhill Club Championship, having missed out narrowly before? The first time I won the CSCA Championship (in 1999) after several years of trying was special as the other players were so supportive. At Gausdal (Norway) in 2006 I was due to play in the third section, but GM Unzicker died, hence his son withdrew, and I was promoted to the second section, "Grandmaster B Group" as bottom seed. After a loss, I recovered with a win, and got two more wins against strong opposition. Chessbase helped. My preparation showed they played dubious lines with black and I took full advantage. This gave me black against the Russian GM M Ivanov on top board, which was being broadcast live to the world. This was the first time I had played on a "live" board, so it was nerve-wracking. If you play a bad move, you know someone is sitting at home (or maybe work!) calling you an idiot. I got into a difficult position but swindled him in his time trouble and managed a draw. A couple of rounds later the arbiter informed me I needed to win my two remaining games for an IM norm. Oh well, maybe next time. I had one really good Guernsey tournament (1996) where I qualified for the British Championship and then played well there. Having thought a bit more about the subject, I played a nice German guy called Christoph Pragua at Hastings in 1978. We drew and he was showing the game to a friend in his hotel, which was where the GMs were staying. Some of them noticed, and joined in the analysis. Apparently, they were divided about who was better, but Petrosian thought I was winning, which is good enough for me.
5. And what was your worst?
Again difficult! The same Gausdal tournament as mentioned above saw me play GM Felix Levin (the round after Ivanov). He played a surprising move which I thought lost to my cunning plan, then I talked myself out of doing it, and lost quickly. In the analysis, he asked why I didn't play the move I had been looking at… Admittedly, I needed to find a good move shortly afterwards, but I should have seen it. Maybe I lost the IM norm there. I did play a London Junior tournament in 1967, where I started with 2/2, then slumped to 2/7, playing ever increasing gibberish, which was bad. But talking in a general way, I hate it when people cheat or there is any sort of injustice.
6. Which historical (i.e. dead) chess player do you most admire and why?
Botwinnik was world champion when I was learning chess, so I admired him, but having now studied the games of a lot of historical players, I really like Lasker's attitude. He was willing to play the move which wasn't objectively best, but was the most difficult to analyse. I do that as well, but admittedly I usually do not realise it is not the best move. I think chess is a fight – there is too much concentration on "correct" chess, which is largely unachievable. Bronstein and Larsen were such enthusiasts for the game. I was lucky enough to meet both of them and talk to them (well, listen mainly!) about chess. Bent Larsen said, "Chess should be like ice cream, only chocolate and vanilla." This sounds rather poetic and I assume he means that the only thing you should worry about is the black and white pieces. Don't over-complicate. But I admire players for their attitude as well as their skill. People like Emil Semm, who would lose, laugh and turn the board round and start again. I spent years playing dull chess and mainly trying not to lose, so my father's aggressive approach impressed me. Bill Gibson turned up at Redhill for years, he was never graded over 60ish, and he frequently finished the season with no more than one or two wins from 30 games. He turned up week after week, year after year, and had few good results to celebrate. But he still turned up! When I was contemplating giving up the game a few years ago as I was playing so badly that my grade was approaching 160, I saw Bill lose again, and he said, "Night, see you next week." It occurred to me that I had nothing to complain about.
7. Who is your current chess hero / heroine, if any?
Garry Kasparov is (was) so good and demonstrated a great fighting spirit. Magnus Carlsen is very promising and could become a great world champion. Both of them play unusual moves and systems, and both stand up for themselves. But of course we should really admire the people who give up so much time to organise events or get players interested, without them where would we be?
8. Which part of the game do you enjoy the most?
No preference really. I used to aim for endings and try to grind out the odd extra half-point, but I got better at middle games. I no longer have time for opening preparation or studying games in general, so I just like interesting games now.
9. What piece of advice would you give to a young player who was just starting out?
Enjoy it. Don't worry about grades, just play chess. Learn basic endings – it is pretty stupid to enter an ending with a won position, and not know how to finish it off. And you might draw lost games as well! Know the Laws and rules of the competition and stick by them, and say something when others don't abide by the rules or Laws.
10. You are going to be marooned on a desert island with only a chess set for company. Which chess book would you take with you?
Bronstein's "Chess Struggle in Theory and Practice" (I hope I remembered the title correctly!) about the 1953 Candidates Tournament, or "Grandmaster Preparation" by Polugaevsky, as given enough time, I might begin to understand it. The first time I read it, I used half a dozen sets to try to follow all the variations, and it still got very confusing.