Navara talks strategy, in life and on the board

Interview: Chess master David Navara
Czech chess master talks strategy, in life and on the board
Posted: February 22, 2012

By Filip Šenk – Staff Writer
Twenty-six-year-old David Navara recently participated in one of the most competitive chess tournaments in the world, in the Dutch coastal town of Wijk aan Zee, although he didn’t show his full potential there.

Competing against chess players from Ukraine, Azerbaijan and Italy, among other countries, Navara offered glimpses of his rare talent, but unfortunately wasn’t able to turn advantages into victories. Yet in his only win in the tournament, he beat champion Armenian Levon Aronian, whose only other loss has been to the world’s No. 1 chess player, Magnus Carlsen from Norway.

Navara recalls the tournament with his typical blend of humility and detachment.

“It was maybe my best game of chess so far. But it was still only one of 13 in the tournament,” Navara tells The Prague Post.

Navara is the best chess player in the Czech Republic, according to the official list from the World Chess Federation. He has held the honor for several years, despite his young age. Many experts predicted a bright future in chess for him when he was still a teenager, placing him in the top five in the world, or higher. So it was a disappointment for many when the player, who had become a grandmaster at the age of 17, decided to study logic at Charles University and not fully focus his life on chess. Navara says it isn’t at all certain whether he would reach the top international ranks.

“The probability would be higher, yes, but there is no certainty. I’m a man who cannot really organize his own time. At least, I haven’t in the past. If I fully focused on chess instead of high school, there would be the threat of a bad end. I could have started drinking a lot or something similar. I wasn’t mature enough at that age to organize my time alone,” he says.

Navara says he doesn’t regret his choice to stay in high school and later attend university, although he is aware it cost him better chess results. He says it is more important for him to develop as a human being than simply be a chess player, which requires a great deal of dedication and certain qualities that are still no guarantee of success.

“Intelligence is needed, obviously – intelligence, meaning ability – and it helps when one is fully focused on chess. I am not saying one should be limited to only chess, but one has to like chess and be ready to devote a lot of time to it. And it is important to be industrious in this area of human activity,” Navara says. “You could count the exceptions – those who weren’t industrious but reached the top – on the fingers of just one hand. For instance, [José Raul] Capablanca would be such a case. He didn’t study chess much, but he played a lot, so that was compensation.”

Capablanca, a famous grandmaster from Cuba, was world champion between 1921 and 1927. Legend has it he learned to play chess at the age of 4 simply by watching his father play. He pointed out a mistake to his father and then beat him twice. It’s a charming story, but Navara says he doesn’t look for such role models.

“I never had a big role model. I always try to play good chess and take the best from others,” he says. “From what I’ve heard about myself, I know a lot is overstated, and one has to be skeptical about such information.”

One of the things Navara appreciates most about chess is that it allows him to be creative, so it is not that much effort to find both satisfaction and self-realization in the game.

“Chess allows me to create something new in an area that is not particularly significant for humankind but is the area where I have a big talent. I worked hard to develop my talent,” he says.

But after such words of self-appreciation follow nearly unemotional words of self-judgment.

“I’m not always as creative as I wish to be. In fact, the really beautiful games are rare. The really good games are always in the minority, but most of the games I play are at least interesting,” he says.

Navara is a man with a mind for precision. When he speaks or writes – he posts a chess blog from time to time – he is always clear in what he wants to say. According to him, the best age for a chess player today is between the ages of 25 and 35. Although this doesn’t necessarily apply to all chess players, let us hope it will be true in the case of David Navara. Such a humble, modest and hardworking man deserves to finally prove his chess genius and reach the very top.

Source: http://www.praguepost.com