Lyudmil Tsvetkov wrote:
Hi Carl.
Thanks for your conceptions.
My case is a bit different story: for some unknown reason I have always played much much better when enjoying quiet surroundings. My performance when you have a lot of quiet/concentration, and when the level of quiet/concentration drops, is very much different. I would play very well, when able to concentrate deep, and very bad, when unable to. For this reason I am not well suited for competitive tournament chess, when conditions between tournaments in terms of noise differ significantly.
I remember that when I was still a relatively weak player (2000 elo), I would play blitz games for fun against some master level players. As I usually was younger in this case, I would draw a match under normal noise conditions (for Bulgaria that might mean playing in a cafe, for example, as in the last 25 years or so a lot of the existing town chess clubs closed their doors, or in the park), with normal level of noise, just a few kibitzers, etc.; then, when the level of noise started rising, for example when you have a throng of kibitzers around eagerly suggesting your next move
, I would start playing very bad, losing most of the games, with my opponent usually unaffected; but, when we transferred to a more quiet location to continue the match, a private room, even better during the night, I would suddenly start winning every single game.
It was like that once, and nothing has changed till now. Therefore, I am not a good competitive player, but that does not mean that I am objectively weak.
Style testing' seems like an interesting enterprise to me
Concerning books, I think GMs might well avoid all computer opening preparation by simply picking up an inexisting opening line very early on (let's say, by playing seemingly a very slightly inferior move that promises unchartered waters; in this case, you need no opening preparation at all). The real challenge would be to remain unruffled during the course of the entire game, which is easy for computers, that do not have affections, but difficult or fully impossible for humans who are influenced by a variety of non-chess situations (someone distracting your attention, intrusive thoughts unrelated to the event, getting nervous under certain conditions, etc.). I think engines still have less knowledge than humans, but you need to make just a single bigger mistake and it is over (like Kramnik missing a mate in 1 against Fritz).
