Content

    Content

Introduction

Game...WAY TO DRAW................FIDE

1..........Be a Kryptonite.................2226

2..........Fake a Win........................2302

3..........Offer a Perpetual...............2303

4..........Enjoy a Kingwalk ...............2323

5..........Build a Fortress..................2325

6..........Time your Troubles............2340

7..........Recall your Patterns..........2355

8..........Time your Offer..................2367

9..........Trust your Intuition............2368

10.........Convince your Opponent...2374

11.........Prepare to Infinity.............2511

12.........Bore to Death................Olymp!

Old Cover

Impressum

It was unnecessary to write a conclusion because the educational content speaks for itself – this is not a joke!

 

 

 

Introduction

No, the title of this book is not about the art of handling pencils - it's a chess book! It contains twelve games where I managed to get at least a draw versus chess masters over the board with classical time controls due to different reasons.

 

Is it my goal to turn you into a chess master because you read a small book? No, that would mean lying. But I can try to give you the right mindset, a bunch of psychological insights and a few chess tools. It may help you to reach your goal of drawing with a master once in a while or at least once.

 

I have a classical OTB chess rating in three different associations with plenty of tournaments and in all three my rating is somewhere around 1900. Therefore chess masters are on average much stronger than me and should win the clear majority of their games against me. But since I've reached a level of 1900 many years ago for some reason – or a dozen reasons - they only win every second game on average.

All of my last three games with masters ended in a draw. I feel fully equipped to let you in on the secrets how and why I managed to get those draws. One reason doesn't get its own chapter because it happens in all of these successful games: I play faster than my master opponents.

I have an opening idea and stick to it without third-guessing. I use time for calculating in the middle game. I use my opponents time to form positional plans and to give my mind a break by walking around. If the games reached an endgame I always had plenty of time on my clock to find the ways to draw.

I found that it helps immensely to play white versus masters. Black pieces against a master seems like an impossible task – nonetheless you'll see three games where I managed to survive with black.

The other dozen reasons get their own chapters by the game that illustrates each point best.

 

The ratings are the peak FIDE ratings of my opponents to show what they are capable of. The games are sorted this way which can give you or me the feeling of climbing up the rating letter and facing an even better master each game until reaching the Olymp! At the time those dozen games were played, most of my opponents were ranked 375-456 points higher than me, the overall range being a wide 122-510 thanks to the last two games.

I refer to each of my opponents as “he” because for all I know, they were male.

 

I could have asked stronger players for help on the analysis of the games and I could have checked every move in detail with an engine to appear “correct” and to write a longer better-paying book. But that's not its point and doing so would probably have distracted you from focusing on the important factors!

My advice is to look at your or my games without an engine, at least when you analyze a game for the first time because it gives you a better insight about how the players felt during that game.

 

I would like to thank my brother Matthias Harndt for checking the spelling of the chess moves. Many thanks to my friend Joachim Lißner for proofreading whatever commas and sentence structures I threw at him. And I am way too ungrateful for every tiny bit of chess I might have been unconsciously taught by masters.

Wolf Michaelsen was the one who made me aware that this addicting game named chess exists. He doesn't even know it, but he is the source of all my troubles ;)

I wish you best of luck and fun in your future games!

 

Jan-Michael Harndt

Berlin, May 2023

Game 1

Be a Kryptonite...2226

 

Harndt – CM Hansch

Stendal 2012

 

Yes, he is only a Candidate Master, but hey, it is an

Impressum

Verlag: BookRix GmbH & Co. KG

Texte: Jan-Michael Harndt
Bildmaterialien: Jan-Michael Harndt
Cover: Jan-Michael Harndt
Korrektorat: Joachim Lißner
Tag der Veröffentlichung: 07.06.2023
ISBN: 978-3-7554-4403-9

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Widmung:
This book is dedicated to all lovers of chess. Books like this wouldn't exist if it wasn't for chess masters so shout out to them. Many thanks to 99% of my OTB opponents for your fair play!