Remco Heite - Final Round

The winner in the Remco Heite Tournament, Wolvega, was decided just in the very last moment, in the critical final round. There were 3 players with the same number of points: Anish Giri, Erwin l'Ami and Luke McShane. Since Erwin and Anish drew in their last encounter, McShane would be clear first, in case of a win against Loek van Wely. Playing with Black, McShane got a slight edge in the middlegame, which resulted in a clear better endgame. Van Wely, however, continued to defend stubbornly, and in the diagrammed position, he has a clear way to defend (In Loek's defence, he hardly had any time on the clock and after 66.Kf3 Rxf2+ 67.Rxf2 exf2 68.gxf5+ Kxf5 69.Kxf2 Kf4, he resigned). How can White's play be improved? 

White to play and draw

Grandmasters in Commercials

Chess is so much a part of our culture that chess terms are frequently used metaphorically: stalemate, the "global chessboard," etc. Not surprisingly we can see these motifs in advertising as well. Among certain people, chess has the aura of intellectualism, the "smart" thing to do. (Chessplayers know better.) That image is reflected in the consumer-oriented ads. Advertisers are copy-cats, of course. So as soon as one agency began a campaign with a chess theme, other agencies no doubt quickly followed it. 
However, using a chess player's image is not that popular in advertising. Fortunately, there are a few examples to show to the whole world that asking a chess player to promote a product is not such a bad idea.
Enjoy!


Science and Technology: two AMD commercials  with Viswanathan Anand! (Advanced Micro Devices - founded in 1969 and based in Sunnyvale, California, AMD is an innovative technology company in computing and graphics solutions).






Commercial for Alta Vista - a web search engine, with Garry Kasparov!



Next: the famous Pepsi commercial with Garry Kasparov! I can't stop laughing everytime I watch it:)



The next two videos: Société Générale Expressbank with Veselin Topalov!






Viktor Korchnoi, the former challenger for the world championship, who is well known for his anger when he loses, did this funny advertisement for milk: 



And now, the most recent one: Magnus Carlsen and G-Star! The following video is not exactly a commercial, but an advertising for the match - Carlsen against the World, which took place on 10th September 2010 in Manhattan. Nevertheless, it is great to see more and more chess players being asked to become the image of a product.




Last but not least, a Woman chess player: Alexandra Kosteniuk, appeared in billboards in Moscow for LG computers!



These are the videos I found and wanted to share with you. If you know others than the ones presented above, feel free to contact us!
The Dutch version of this article can be found on Schaaksite.nl .

Remco Heite

Second Round for the GM's Group and First Round for the School tournament

The second round has started...tough day today: double round:)

Children enjoying chess! They seem to be very happy:)

174 kids in the School Tournament! Amazing!
I like to see the parents in the background...watching their children from close:)

Remco Heite - First round

GM's playing hall: 3 demonstration boards are present here as well,
besides the ones from the commentary room.

Calm and happy players at the beginning of the round...
How will they be after 4 hours?!

Zoom on Loek's rating...hope it will bring him luck!

Focused...

Remco Heite Chess Tournament

Opening ceremony:


As I expected, considering my experience from the previous edition, from 2008, the Remco Heite Tournament is a very well organized event, which you can immediately see right from the start.

What makes this tournament special, besides the people involved to make it a great event and their hard work for that, is the attention for making this event different from the others. It's unique not only for the unusual first prize in the Grandmasters group: a horse, or for the fact that it's not counted for elo: which will surely help making the games more interesting for the public. This tournament has it's special flavour because it succeeds in making you feel at home, but also it brings the chess players closer to the general public, thus transforming the game itself into an exciting competition. This is what happened yesterday evening.
After a nice dinner with the sponsors and the organizers, the drawing of lots followed. And...it was not a common one:) A band was performing live a song composed especially for this event, a big screen with movies, pictures was displayed to our delight, speeches, stories, interviews with the GM's, they all completed the picture. It was obvious they worked very hard for that, especially when I was invited as well to come next to Erwin, when he had to draw his number for the tournament. They checked my blog, they new the stories behind the scenes, pictures from our wedding were rolling on the big screen...we were suddenly actors in our own play:)
After I recovered from this surprise, I realized that for the first time the chess players were presented not only as chess players, but also as intellectuals, family persons, students and so on. For the first time an opening ceremony got my attention from the very beginning and kept it until the end.
A professional organized event and yet, a relaxed and enjoyable atmosphere. The games can be followed live on the official website. 
Unfortunately, the internet connection is very slow and I cannot upload the pictures:( I succeeded with 3 for now!

Right before the drawing of lots:) GM's enjoying a cup of tea.

The live band

GM's Group

You can see 6 bottles in the background: each player had to choose one,
to see the tournament's number. It's a local drink, 30% alcohol...
I am curious about the taste:)

The screen which made me blush:) But also the other players had a similar experience:)

Chess Simul

Preparing to go to Wolvega, for Remco Heite Tournament. I will play in the Open (rapid) and Erwin in the invitation group. First prize in the GM's Group is a horse! Until me next report, enjoy the following video:

Chess Studies!

While checking my husband's chess library, I discovered an amazing book. Studies lovers know it for sure: "Domination in 2545 endgame studies", written by Ghenrikh M.Kasparyan. I chose four studies for you, from this book.

The following beautiful endgame study, that left a noticeable trace in chess composition, was appreciated by Lenin and met with general approval among chess lovers. It was composed by M and V Platov, Rigaer Tageblatt, 1909 - 1st Prize.

White to move

The next study was composed by the same authors, awarded as well with the 1st prize in Shakhmatnoye obozreniye, 1911:

White to move

A beautiful endgame is coming next, by R.Reti, which took the 1st prize in Shakmaty, 1928.

White to move

The last study, for tonight, was composed by A.Gurvich, 1st prize in Alma - Atinskaya, 1960.

White to move

A critical mental skill: CONCENTRATION

Unfortunately, the field of "psychology" still carries a negative stigma because many people perceive sports psychology as dealing with abnormal individuals. thus, I am gonna use the term: "mental training"; I think that chess players can relate to this title better than "sports psychology".
Unlike a psychotherapist or psychologist, here you will not see couches, pills prescriptions or work with your daily life problems. This is about sports performance enhancement and not personal challenges (such as divorce, grief counseling) or different problematic fields from your life.
This have been said, I hope my future posts will be helpful to your chess career. For a  more personal approach, go and ask professional advices; don't worry about others labeling you as a "head case", they are not mature enough.
One more thing: start practicing today, don't use the strategies I'll present you only as the last resort, after you have tried several other methods.
My goal is to develop a mindset for success, so that you can get the most out of your abilities everytime you sit down on your board. 
Many of my examples are depicted from my own experiences, but if you have a personal mental barrier or any other question on how to improve your mental skills, don't hesitate to contact me. I want to bring you the most effective mental game strategies possible, so write me if you want a specific topic to be discussed.


Psychology is extremely pertinent in sports! This is made clear when seeing a footballer, for example, lose his concentration and lose or concede a match unnecessarily. How could he miss that shot?! He is an extremely good sportsman, how could this happen?!
Let's come back to chess: he is so much stronger than his opponent and he had such a winning position! He didn't make even a draw, incredible!!
Without mental toughness and the ability to concentrate on the task, you can become distracted in no time, which can lead to making serious errors in your game.


So, how well can you concentrate?

Kasparov in a tipical posture,
extremely focused.

Start by assesing your current ability to focus; think back over your most recent games and ask yourself:
1. Did you start the game in a focused state of mind or did it take you a while to get dialed in?
2. Were you thinking ahead to things that might go wrong and worrying about them?
3. Were you thinking about how important the game was to you, or wondering how well your opponent had prepared?
4. Did your mind wander to completely unrelated things, for example, remembering to buy some chocolate, on the way back to your hotel room?

You must be aware of your own distractions, otherwise you run the risk of letting them turn into repeated mental errors.


Handling external distractions during a game: 


Recall your last  competition and, specifically, how you dealt with distractions. This type of distractions can come from outside, from the environment - such as: the airco blows exactly in your head's direction, it's too cold/too hot in the playing hall and so on - , or from other people - your opponent or spectators: they speak too loud, they stare at you etc.


What distractions broke your concentration? Most likely, you have your own specific distractions, which differ from another person. Some chess players have a low tolerance for noise, others are highly sensitive to physical factors, such as the room temperature: I can successfully subscribe here, I hate to be cold:)


Advice: Make a list of the top external distractions that affect you most and rate them on a scale from 1 to 10, how distracting each of these interruptions are. Know your enemy!
Remember Botvinnik: he is known to have worked in chess with the radio on, so that he won't be distracted during a game by some unusual and annoying noise. - he was simulating the possible distractions that might appear during his game, so that his brain will learn an efficient way to respond.
Advice: simulate the situation by scheduling your practice to coincide with the starting time of your game. Do that especially if your game is being played at an odd hour: early morning or late at night.
During the game: Unplug for a while, go to toilet or take a walk around the other boards. Than calmly come back, sit down and calculate your lines with a refreshed mind.

Handling the distractions that come from inside you:


You can also be distracted by your own thoughts that flow freely into your mind, unbidden, when you least need them! Be present here and now, any self-judgements you make like: My elo is much higher than this patzer, or much lower than the genius I am facing... or: Damn it! I should have checked this line more! - are certainly not helpful during the game!


Advice: Make a list of the internal distractions that you think have interrupted your focus over the past few months. Again rate them from 1 to 10. Combat the negative thoughts with positive responses to each of them! When a negative thought will appear next time, you'll have a weapon against it.


Very important: your ability to re-focus!


Finally, assess how well you are able to regain control of your concentration when it breaks down. If something disturbs you, does this continue to affect you for the rest of the game? Or only for a few minutes? Top Grandmasters are able to re-focus within seconds! You too can learn how to do this!


People are different, so of course we have different strategies to achieve a focus zone:
1. Some players find that music is a great way to get into the right frame of mind, so they are humming their favourite song. Others find this extremely annoying and they prefer:
2. Pre-game and during the game routines: go over the lines you have prepared; if they don't appear on the board don't panick, many times it happens that you will find the right moves because your brain subcounsciounsly remembers them! Take your time and drink a coffee or a cup of tea: it will help your mind relax and slowly get ready for the game.
3. Mental images: some players might recall from memory a particular game they won, thus creating the premises of this situation to appear again in today's game.
4. Sit back and relax...remember a game when you were completely and totally focused. Try to remember the images, thoughts, sensations that you had back then. Work with them at home, so that your body and brain will know how to respond when distraction's stimuli will appear.


OK, you learned how to deal with your internal distractions...but what can you do with the external ones, the ones which you cannot control? Yes, true, you cannot control the external distractions, but what you CAN do is your reaction to them! Recognize the distraction and regain your focus quickly and efficiently!


How to do this? It is an interactive process of "observing" your own mind. Simply being aware of your own internal desire to be focused, rather than taking it for granted, will help you to develop the habit of recognizing when your mind has gone off track.


Once you are able to recognize you have lost focus, you can learn how to regain it.


The three "R"-s for Refocusing:


1. Recognize: the first and vital step!
2. Regroup: you now need to break free from the distraction
3. Refocus: the ability to make a mental adjustment and get back to your game.


How do you react when you get distracted and how fast you are back on track?  Example: you were completely winning before, but now the position has changed, but still....you are playing for a win! - Wrong! Stay objective!


A simple strategy is to have a verbal trigger that you can use to tell yourself to let go of the distraction:
1. "STOP - Get your mind in the present!"
2. "Let it GO!"
3. "Delete that thought!" - you can visualize a delete button on a keyboard as you say it. 


As you have probably realized, your mind works better when you attach some images to your words. Your all senses will cooperate in your goal of staying focused and play a good game. SUCCESS!


Keep in mind that changing your mental game skills takes time and does not happen overnight. Stay patient with the process of change, you will be rewarded later on!

Reference:

A. Schmid & E. Peper: "Training Strategies for Concentration." From J.M. Williams (Ed.), Applied Sport Psychology: Personal Growth to Peak Performance. Mountain View, CA: Mayview. 1993, Dr.Cohn, from peaksports.com.

Chess Poem

A Little Old Chess Poem

By Tomas Forsman

Once upon a time there was a King and a Queen --

In fact, there were two of each.

One couple had the most beautiful country ever seen,

The others had a house by a rocky beach.

Both countries had people who loved them dearly,

But did the royalty love them back?

The poor King called them pawns; which so clearly

Showed the compassion he lacked.

Talking about Knights, both Kings had two,

And the poor white Queen had an affair with one.

And the King had a plan on what to do,

To find out who was the father of his son.

He declared war upon his rich dark neighbor,

Asked his pawns prepare for a fight.

So they dropped their labour,

And they left that night.

His son was one of the first to attack --

At least so it seemed but the King showed his power.

He held his son back,

And he hid him in a tower.

The King watched his Queen, how would she react

When she saw her son fall in a fight.

Then suddenly, the pawn was attacked,

And the Queen fell in the arms of a Knight.

In anger the King sent the Knight

Away from the Queen and into the fight.

Deep in his heart he thought he was right.

He couldn't think clearly, try as he might.

The King lost his people, his wife and his son,

And he looked for someone to blame.

But when the other army came he realized what he'd done --

He never even knew a single pawn's name.

Sports Psychology

"Chess is played with the mind and not with the hands!" - Renaud and Kahn

"Could we look into the head of a chess player, we should see there a whole world of feelings, images, ideas, emotion and passion." - Alfred Binet

"A strong memory, concentration, imagination and a strong will is required to become a great chess player." - Bobby Fischer

"Chess is war over the board. The object is to crush the opponents mind." - Bobby Fischer

As we can conclude from the above quotes, psychology plays an important role in chess: "It is not enough to be a good player...you must also play well!" - Tarrasch. In order to do that, like any other muscle, your mind needs training. It is not enough to presume the way you should think, practical exercises are needed to help you in difficult moments. Otherwise you will do nothing but feel sorry for yourself, incapable to cope with stress. Instead of sticking with inefficient resources, you should know that everything can be learned! And you won't say anymore: easy to say, difficult to do, you will just do it!

But for that, of course we need some guidance. This is what I don't understand! I don't see in the chess federations a sports psychologist. This happens, most probably, because the importance of such a service is highly underestimated. And finally, the chief of the delegation plays the following roles: captain, friend, father, mother, trainer, psychologist, maybe even a player too! Which turns out to be a bit too much...

Many sportsmen and coaches are confused about the role of sports psychology in improving performances. The goal of sports psychology is to help us performing our best, by improving the necessary mental skills to excel in a sporting endeavour. Sports Psychology is not about working with problems or abnormal behavior!

In this section, as I already did with my previous post: The Chess Wheel, I will bring you different techniques to help you with your mental training, in the overall goal of performance improvement and enhancing consistency in performance.

How do you know when you need or could benefit from sports psychology? You can start by asking yourself a few questions.

1. Do you perform as well in competition as you do in practice?

2. Are you performing up to the ability you have shown?

3. Do you worry about what other people think about your performance?

4. Are you motivated by a fear of failure?

5. Do you become easily frustrated when things do not go according to plan?

6. Do you get distracted easily by things that go on around you in your environment?

7. Do you have any doubts about your chess before or during the competition?

8. Do you lose your concentration during the game?

How to break the mental barriers which are holding you back from peak performance...coming up soon!

Inspiration from Dr.Cohn, www.peaksports.com

Chess Humour

The Chess Wheel

Many times we lose...it happens. Many times we win, of course, we are extremely smart:) What about trying to win more than we lose?! What about becoming psychologically stronger, because this is usually the main reason of our defeats? I would like to see some practical exercises for that, instead of words, words and again words. Because words...are said and than they are gone. And what remains behind?! Some vague idea that we know what we should do, but somehow we simply don't do it! Yes, I know I should be more calm, more patient, I should train more here and there...but yeah, easy to say, difficult to do it. But if we find some real practical way of improving our play, of training the problematic areas, than nobody can stop us in reaching the top! At least in theory:)

Here I made an adaptation from the Life Wheel, a classical exercise taken from Stress Management and Balancing your Life resources. And voila: we can apply it for our purpose: CHESS!

A brief presentation of the Wheel of Life you can find below:

The Wheel of Life:

When life is busy, or all your energy is focused on a special project, it's all too easy to find yourself "off balance", not paying enough attention to important areas of your life. While you need to have drive and focus if you're going to get things done, taking this too far can lead to frustration and intense stress.

That's when it's time to take a "helicopter view" of your life, so that you can bring things back into balance.

This is where the Wheel of Life (or Life Wheel) can help. Commonly used by professional life coaches, it helps you consider each area of your life in turn and assess what's off balance. And so, it helps you identify areas that need more attention.

Figure 1 below shows an example wheel of life with example "dimensions" (we'll explain how to choose the right areas of life or dimensions for yourself below).

Figure 1

Each segment of the wheel represents one area of your life. Consider each section - how satisfied are you with all these areas of your life? Are you putting as much time, energy and attention into these areas as you would like? The centre of the wheel is 0 and means you are totally dissatisfied; the outer edge is 10 and represents full satisfaction and achievement. Decide your degree of satisfaction from 0 to 10 and mark it on the relevant spoke. Now draw a line to join your degree marks together. How balanced is your life? Which areas make you happy, satisfied and fulfilled? Which areas need improvement?


The Wheel of Life is powerful because it gives you a vivid visual representation of the way your life is currently, compared with the way you'd ideally like it to be. It is called the "Wheel of Life" because each area of your life is mapped on a circle, like the spoke of a wheel.

Using the Tool

There are two ways you can use this tool. One is to use this interactive Wheel of Life tool below (click on the diagram to activate it.)

Alternatively, create your own Wheel of Life and assess your balance. (This allows you to define your own dimensions.

How can we use this in our chess career? I am thinking about two ways:

A. Chess is most probably a very important part of our life...and this wheel will help us visualize if chess is a bit more than just a part:) And if we should pay attention to different things as well. Strangely or not, using your time with something else than chess, will help you improve too! Your brain needs a break sometimes and it will be more helpful after a refreshing walk with your friends for example. And who knows with what kind of novelty you will come back after your walk?! 

B. You can also use this wheel just for chess dimensions:

1. Openings

2. Endgames

3. Tactics

4. Strategy

5. Playing online

6. Physical training and so on...

Once you have identified the areas that need attention, it's time to plan the actions needed to work on regaining balance. Starting with the neglected areas, what things do you need to start doing to regain balance? In the areas that currently sap your energy and time, what can you STOP doing or reprioritize or delegate to someone else? Make a commitment to these actions by writing them on your worksheet.

Things I will START doing to regain balance:

1.________________

2.________________

3.________________

Things I will STOP doing, reprioritize or delegate:

1.________________

2.________________

3.________________ 

The Wheel of Life is a great tool to help you improve your life balance. It helps you quickly and graphically identify the areas in your life to which you want to devote more energy, and helps you understand where you might want to cut back.

The challenge now is to transform this knowledge and desire for a more balanced life into a positive program of action.

Sources: www.mindtools.com, www.transitionslifecoaching.co.uk

The Chess Problem Cake!

This is an adaptation of a story which appeared in Les Cahiers de l'Echiquier Français (november-december 1936). Story, problem and drawing are by V. Barthe.

A chess player and gourmet once invited a friend to his home. The friend, Onésime XADREZ, besides being a good chess player also appreciated fine food.


In honour of his guest he ordered a cake decorated with a chess problem of his own composition. The problem was symbolic as it was in the form of a letter O, the first letter of his friends name.

White to move. Mate in two

Before serving the cake his cook cut it into four pieces. Unfortunately just as he was going to serve it he stumbled and dropped the cake. Picking up the pieces he quickly reassembled them on the plate inadvertently mixing them up. The cake that arrived at the table looked like this :

White to move. Mate in two

The cook's master, noticing that his problem had been destroyed and the suprise spoilt started to insult the poor cook. Onésime Xadrez was however staring attentively at the cake and the problem. Suddenly he cried "Calme down my friend! Nothing is lost. The pieces now make an X, the first letter of my surname, and it's still mate in two!"

Source: www.chessgraphics.net

If chess is played by so many celebrities, why is it still considered to be a game reserved for weirdos?!

It's so interesting how the human mind works...how we complete the puzzle even when we are missing some pieces. If something doesn't fit the picture, if we have some weird elements, we always find a good and reasonable explanation for that. Otherwise our brain will be confused and we don't like to have chaos in our heads:) A great book which reflects this concept very well is: "The Master and Margarita" by Mikhail Bulgakov. (Highly recommended!:)


How is this applying to chess?! Let's take a look at celebrities and their shared passion for our beautiful game.

Big names, from USA-based business leaders (Bill Gates), artists and musicians (Salvador Dali, Ludwig van Beethoven, Bono, Madonna), movie and TV stars (Will Smith, Julia Roberts, Al Pacino), writers (William Shakespeare, Fyodor Dostoievski) to supermodels (Carmen Kass, Heidi Klum), sport stars (Kobe Bryant-NBA, Gary Sheffield-baseball), royalty and politicians (almost all US Presidents, Jacques Chirac), just to mention a few, they all declare their fascination for chess!
Here it comes my question: As mentioned above, many celebrities enjoy and play chess. Than why chess is still considered to be a game for geeks and weirdos??! On the contrary, it should be seen as a very cool game, if all these famous people declare their passion for it!


The missing piece from our puzzle and the only explanation I found, to satisfy my brain for consistency is:
- these people are not defined by chess, they are known as: writers, business men, actors and so on. Chess becomes just a "cool" accessory, just another eccentric deviation which makes them even more interesting and more popular.
- the image of a chess player, in people's minds, remains the same: glasses, weird look and we know the rest:)


But slowly and surely, I think that this image will be changed. We can already see more and more exceptions to the rule: Carlsen's recent G-Star events and Susan Polgar's and Alexandra Kosteniuk's approach in promoting chess. Note how they all make good use of new media such as twitter and facebook.
To change the way we are seen by the people from outside the chess world will take a lot of time...hopefully chess will not be solved by then:)

Beautiful studies:)

I think that a good definition of a beautiful study might be: if it leaves a smile behind, after you found the solution. I had a great evening yesterday, here's why:

White to move

White to move

White to move

White to move

Chess Player's prototype - Research!

Wise and Smart?!

Geek and Nerd?!

              OR

As I promised yesterday, I followed my new idea. It all started when i posted on 16th November: Chess Player's prototype: nerd or smart?! How are we, chess players, seen by the other people from outside of the chess world? If on my previous post I included videos with commercials, supporting both opinions, this time i went in the city and asked people on the street:) Because I don't have my statistics program on this laptop, SPSS, I won't make you bored with charts and histograms, I will just briefly present you the results. 

A few remarks before presenting the final conclusions:

1. From now on, I will change my attitude towards the people that are making a survey on the street...it's really unpleasant to get some grumpy looks, some impossible to understand mumblings (which are not the nicest words ever:) or a total ignorance. I had just one question...I can imagine how the poor investigators feel when they have to present a long questionnaire:)

2. Besides the above remark, I had to face a lot of perplexed looks, something like...what kind of puzzle is this?! An "I don't know" answer quickly followed and that was it. Lucky me that I am so stubborn:)

3. Finally, exactly like the baby who doesn't cry, doesn't receive food, I persisted and here you have my discoveries!

Research:

I shouldn't maybe use such a pretentious word:"research"...I didn't have the resources of a scientific study, but I am sure that the conclusions drawn from this small sample and the idea itself, could be successfully used for a larger investigation.

Information about the sample: 50 people kindly answered to my question, man (52%) and women (48%), with an average age of 29. I asked both men and women, young and old, in order to have representatives of all groups.

So, here I am, in Woerden, Holland, asking people on the street to describe in 3 words a chess player. Yes I know, differences might appear because of the two languages: English and Dutch; they might use the English words they know, instead of the ones they would normally use in Dutch. That's why I asked them to say the Dutch words and than, back home, my husband had to help me with the translation:) He enjoyed it very much:))

After saying these three words in their attempt to describe a chess player, I also asked them to range their words, from the most important to the least important, on a scale from 1 to 3. In this way, 1 is the most accurate word to describe a chess player and 3 the least. I did this in order to separate just some random words from the most meaningful ones. Than I put the similar words together in different categories:

Chess Player's Profile??

1. Boring

2. Antisocial

3. Intelligent/Smart

4. Focused

5. Patient

6. Old person

7. Loser (in daily life)

After combining the mentioned words and the level of importance, I can bring you now the final conclusions:

As we already consciounsly or subconsciounsly assumed, a chess player is not the most popular person on this planet. The chess player prototype looks like as follows: an intelligent person (but only for his game or also, in a few cases, in sciences), who is living in his own world, failing when it comes to daily social life. Nerd, glasses, boring, focused and desperate to win, completes the picture.

What should we do with this information?! We, chessplayers, know that it's not completely true! Yes, we are desperately trying to win sometimes...and we get annoyed, frustrated, spending a lot of hours on this game. But for sure we are not boring! I have met the most interesting and difficult to understand people through and thanks to chess! 

And...let's be serious: we can see glasses or lenses everywhere in this world, not only on chess players noses:)

We know that...but how to let the entire world know it too?! How to break the myths and misconceptions when it comes to our image?! Because this is our image and a character like Kasparov is considered to be the exception which confirmes the rule...

My idea is: Let's open the closed doors and reveal the wonderful, intriguing personality that lives in each of us! Chess is already considered to be a boring game, but what really counts is how we present ourselves! When we go to apply for a job, we pay some attention on which clothes we choose. Of course this doesn't mean we have to wear a suit everytime we play a game, but to make a small effort in looking presentable. We can make this game look entertaining and exciting, but we have to start the change with our own person. Otherwise, chess will be "like a dead language, very interesting, but for a very small group".(Sytze Faber)