Cyrus Lakdawala - In the Zone

Contrary to many young colleagues I do believe that it makes sense to study the classics Magnus Carlsen. Cyrus Lakdawala In the Zone The Greatest Winning Streaks in Chess History New In Chess 2020 2020 New In Chess Published by New In Chess, Alkmaar, The Netherlands www.newinchess.com All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission from the publisher. Cover design: Buro Blikgoed Editing and typesetting, supervision: Peter Boel Proofreading: Dennis Keetman Production: Anton Schermer Have you found any errors in this book? Please send your remarks to and implement them in a possible next edition. ISBN: 978-90-5691-877-4 Explanation of symbols The chessboard with its coordinates:

	White to move
	Black to move
King
Queen
Rook
Bishop
Knight
	White stands slightly better
	Black stands slightly better
	White stands better
	Black stands better
+	White has a decisive advantage
+	Black has a decisive advantage
=	balanced position
!	good move
!!	excellent move
?	bad move
??	blunder
!?	interesting move
?!	dubious move

Foreword The expression in the zone is often used by athletes to describe their sport experience when everything seems to click: their skills meet the challenges, and they perform effortlessly. Its as though they achieve a rare state of consciousness in which they know precisely what to do and are so absorbed by the game, that all distractions fall away.

In brief, these athletes dwell in a special place where focus and attention lead to higher levels of performance; they are in the zone. This experience, of course, is not limited to athletes. Musicians, artists, rock climbers, dancers, yogis, surgeons, chefs, and chess players have all reported being in the zone. Regardless of where it takes place (work, leisure, home) or what skills are required (physical, intellectual, sensual, aesthetic or some combination thereof), people can enter that zone whose rewards are so pleasurable (M.Csikszentmihalyi, Flow: The psychology of optimal experience (NY: HarperCollins 1990). Here are some suggestions for finding the chess zone: You are more likely to experience the zone if the activity provides challenges and draws on your skills. For this reason, you should cultivate your opponents.

Seek out players whose skills match your own or, better yet, stretch just beyond the limits of your abilities. If you can avoid it, dont practice with players whose abilities are vastly inferior or vastly superior to your own. Use all the aids you can get: chess books, chess software. Most importantly, practice, practice, practice. Clear goals and feedback are crucial to being in the zone. You may decide to increase the length of your practice time to an X number of hours.

Or you may choose to play through a certain number of games per day or per week. You could add to the number of tournaments you typically enter. All these goals are clear and measurable. Dont set goals that are unrealistic, such as winning every tournament you enter. As you improve, set your goals a bit higher and keep upping the ante. You may wish to hire a coach or a second who can diagnose your weaknesses (feedback) and help you turn them into strengths (goals).

Develop your powers of concentration. One strategy is to practice meditation, which hones your ability to focus and block out distractions. This is especially important if you are assailed by doubts, self-consciousness, or negative self-talk that interrupts your single-mindedness. To the extent that you can, remove obstacles that are likely to interfere with your focus (laptop, phone, television, noisy environment), at least at the beginning. Any sort of mindfulness strategy will enable you to develop your awareness, and thats what you need to improve your game. For example, set your phone to go off every 15 minutes, and each time it beeps, focus on inhaling and exhaling for three breaths.

The point here is to develop mental discipline, and once again that requires practice. Most critical, your motivation must be mainly intrinsic, regardless of your level of play. In other words, you must enjoy paying attention to the present moment, focusing on the process rather than the outcomes. If you are playing only for the win or only to impress your peers, you probably will not enter the zone. Note the word only. Of course you hope to win, but that cannot be your primary motivation for playing chess.

Perhaps the best way to understand being in the zone is to consider this true story: At a chess tournament, a man experienced severe chest pain during the final rounds. He knew something was seriously wrong, but he couldnt stop playing because every game fell into place for him. No matter how highly-ranked his opponent was, the man could outwit him by using his formidable powers of concentration. His hand seemed to move almost without his conscious knowledge, placing the right piece on the right square. He experienced such pleasure in his uncanny ability to make the correct move that he couldnt bear the thought of forfeiting. So he ignored the building pain and went on to win the tournament.

As soon as he finished, he called his wife to pick him up and take him to the hospital, where the doctor told him he had suffered a heart attack. Lest you think this is an exaggeration, you may confirm the truth by contacting the author of this book, my friend IM Cyrus Lakdawala. Margaret Carlisle Duncan, Ph.D
San Diego, CA, USA
Editor-in-Chief of Play & Culture
Co-Editor of Diversions and Divergences in Fields of Play Introduction Living in the limelight
The universal dream
For those who wish to seem
Those who wish to be
Rush: Limelight When we, the ordinary, pass from this world, all we can hope for is a handful memorable games (or even one!) to our name. When the great players die, they unlike us remain in the world through the power of their sublime games. For the chess greats there is no old age, sickness or death. Chess is a place without an inherited aristocracy.

Just because Capablanca or Karpov is your father, doesnt automatically mean you play chess well. So these rare geniuses randomly pop up from era to era. The Ideas behind this Book This is not a book which speculates on how Capablanca would measure up against Tal, or how Blackburne would do in a match against Caruana, if they lived in the same era. Instead, its a trip through chess history, covering peak performances and monster winning streaks from some of the greatest players who ever lived. I believe a player is not well rounded without a deep study of the great players of the past. The games in this book are not merely to be viewed as museum pieces, for aesthetic reasons alone.

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