Second (chess)

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A second in chess is a player's helper during a tournament or competition. He provides support in preparation, analyzes games that have already been played and makes suggestions for improvement. However, he is not allowed to intervene during the game.

Historical development

Seconds were already common in the 19th century, but their activity was mostly limited to administrative tasks: They acted as middlemen in negotiating game conditions, as trustees for betting stakes and as secretaries who took care of the recording of the games. Systematic preparation for an opponent was not yet common at that time, especially since usually only a fraction of the games he played was known. It was also considered unsporting to analyze interrupted games or to seek advice from third parties.

This changed in the 20th century. Before his competition against Siegbert Tarrasch in 1908, Emanuel Lasker engaged the masters Simon Alapin and Heinrich Wolf as seconds, who supported him especially in the area of openings . In 1935, Max Euwe was advised by Reuben Fine and Salo Flohr , who were both world leaders in his World Cup fight against Alexander Alekhine .

This development also attracted critics. In 1960 , Milan Vidmar described the second being as a "degeneracy that wants to turn the ideal knightly battle of two heads, two wills, two skills and two kinds of knowledge into a strange struggle between two sociétés anonymous ".

Soviet Union

In the Soviet Union, which saw the conquest of the world championship title as a matter of prestige, seconds were paid by the state for their work. In the 1948 World Cup tournament, each of the three Soviet participants had two seconds. In the decades that followed, highly qualified helpers proved to be a competitive advantage, especially in the analysis of hanging games , but also through the complete evaluation of chess magazines with regard to opening innovations . In contrast to their Western counterparts, Soviet players could usually complete a training camp lasting several weeks at state expense before a competition. Since the prepared variants were not allowed to become known to the later opponents, most world-class players only worked permanently with a few seconds that they could completely trust. Well-known teams of two were, for example, Mikhail Botvinnik and Vyacheslav Ragosin , Vasily Smyslow and Vladimir Simagin , Tigran Petrosjan and Alexei Suetin as well as Michail Tal and Alexander Koblenz . Specialists were also consulted for individual analyzes, but they were not given any insight into the overall concept of the preparations. Occasionally, Soviet grandmasters were even obliged, against their will, to help a compatriot. This happened in particular when the American Bobby Fischer became a serious contender for the world title. However, this massive support did not always have the desired effect, so in 1972 Mark Taimanow lost a game against Fischer because he was confused by the numerous analyzes submitted to him. Fischer, on the other hand, preferred to work alone. At the Match of the Century in 1972 he officially had William Lombardy as a second, but did not take his help.

In 1978 Anatoly Karpov's World Cup fight against Viktor Korchnoi, who had fled to the West shortly before , the Soviet Union offered numerous top-class seconds who prepared a spectacular innovation in the Spanish game (11. Ng5 in game 10, notation).

At the beginning of his career, Garry Kasparov was supervised by Alexander Nikitin , but his skill level was later no longer sufficient to help Kasparov with chess. In 1986 there was a scandal when Kasparov accused his second Yevgeny Vladimirov of having betrayed opening versions to Karpov.

In addition to the seconds who were responsible for the chess support, there was often also a head of delegation. He made sure that the player he was looking after was in no way disadvantaged compared to the opponent, and took over the communication with the tournament organizers and the arbitration board.

Time of the chess databases

With the advent of chess databases from the mid-1980s, there were always better ways to prepare for future opponents, as the games of all major tournaments were quickly recorded. Likewise, planned opening moves could be efficiently examined for tactical errors using chess programs . Suspended games, however, were abolished to prevent computer analysis. The requirement profile for seconds has changed: while earlier, older, preferably experienced players were hired, now young players with good computer skills were in demand. One example is the future world champion Vladimir Kramnik , who in 1995 served as Garry Kasparov's second in his competition against Viswanathan Anand . Sergei Karjakin became the second of Ruslan Ponomarjow in 2002 at the age of only 12 . Both sides usually benefit from such cooperation. The young players bring new, creative ideas to the table, while at the same time gaining professional preparation experiences that are useful for their own careers. After the end of the collaboration, however, problems can arise because the former seconds know the repertoire of their previous employers very well and can use this knowledge to their own advantage in later encounters with them.

Therefore, some players prefer seconds that do not have their own title ambitions. For example, Nigel Short worked with Lubomir Kavalek in his 1993 match against Kasparow , with whom he later fell out due to financial differences. The Hungarian world-class player Péter Lékó has his father-in-law Arshak Petrosian as a second .

swell

  1. ↑ Milan Vidmar: Golden Chess Times . 2nd Edition. De Gruyter, Berlin 1981. ISBN 3-11-002095-5 . P. 243.
  2. ↑ Anatoly Karpov vs Viktor Korchnoi ( English ) chessgames.com. Retrieved October 26, 2019.

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