Chess Child

"... and enjoyed the scenery of the most beautiful place on earth in Tromsø." ... Dette er historien om den unge sjakkmesteren Ray Robson, som imponerte også i Tromsø, fortalt av hans far.

Ray Robson er av en sjakkverdenens mest løfterike unge spillere, og det er nok i disse tider aktuelt å lese om "prosjektet" hvordan en slik ung stormester har "blitt til". Kanskjenoe for ambisiøse norske sjakkforeldre?

Første del av en anmeldelse av boka av IM John Donaldson:

Chess Child: The story of Ray Robson, America’s Youngest Grandmaster (Nipa Hut Press 2010, www.nipahutpress.com, 281 pages, paperback, $16) by Gary Robson may initially remind many of Fred Waitzkin's Searching for Bobby Fischer. Both are great father-son stories and each traces the development of a young boy from a chess novice to strong player. Along the way each family is forced to make sacrifices and find their own way with no guarantees as to how things will end. Both fathers start out with no knowledge of the chess world and have to figure things out along the way with no maps or books to guide them.

While there are similarities between the two stories there are also important differences. One major one is that the Robson family lives near Tampa, a semi-desert for chess compared to the Waitzkins who were based in Manhattan. While Josh had the advantage of living in the center of American chess near both the Marshall and Manhattan Chess clubs, Ray's club was the Internet. Despite all his hard work and gift for the game it is unlikely that a player the strength of Ray would have emerged from Central Florida 20 years.

Not only were all the opportunities that the Internet allows not available then, nor were ChessBase and Rybka/Fritz not to mention strong coaches. The latter was a key in Ray’s development. Gary Robson writes movingly of the difficulties of finding the right person to help his son at the right time. This coach not only has to possess the necessary chess information and the ability to communicate it but also achieve the right rapport with young Ray.

Finding one coach is not enough. One of the more painful passages in Chess Child deals with one of Ray's first teachers, a Florida expert who has been a good teacher and friend but who is unable to recognize that he has no more knowledge to offer. As Ray climbs up the ladder this need for stronger and stronger teachers doesn't go away.

A gifted young player and his parents in the Soviet Union didn't have to make this sort of choice nor worry how the lessons, tournament entry fees, hotels and airline tickets would be paid for. There were many (!) problems in the old communist states but for chess most of them got it right. Think of the amount of state support that was allocated to Karpov and Kasparov to name but two prominent examples. A reoccurring theme throughout Chess Child is the sacrifices the Robson family (Gary, Yee-chen and Ray) make. There can't be too many families in Florida that have spent several summers without air-conditioning! Giving a young talent a chance to thrive is not cheap. At one point the Robson's are spending $25,000 a year out of pocket and they are not materially wealthy people ...