Jon Speelman's Agony Column #27

Jon Speelman's Agony Column #27

In an age when the best young players become grandmasters in their mid if not their early teens, it's easy to forget how different things were back in the day. When FIDE changed the requirements for becoming a grandmaster from 2550 to 2600, it seemed at a time before major rating inflation to be a big deal and people were often in the their very late teens or early twenties before they managed it.

A late developer I was already 24 when I became a GM at a tournament in Maribor in Slovenia. During it I met Darko Spelec and afterwards I arranged with him to have the issues of Chess Informant which I was missing sent to me. Recently, Darko contacted me with a couple of games and when I reminisced about the Informants he replied:

"Yes, the Informators – golden age of prehistoric non-digitized chess literature. At the time you sent me the cheque, I was in the Yugoslav People's Army and my whole company's sobriety was disputable for this reason, at the very least..."

Now 57, Darko still lives in Maribor and has been married for more than three decades to Tatjana. Their daughter Sara is preparing a PHD in history. He himself graduated in history and philosophy and he writes:

"The traces of puritanism in John Locke's philosophy was my thesis. At the beginning of my career I was teaching history, then I worked with troubled children – not chessplayers – for ten years. I then became addicted to computer sciences. Now, at the end f my career, I am once more working with children with special needs. All my adult life I was also playing and studying chess, tutoring youngsters. I've written about chess tuition and recently about chess history."

Darko's two games both come from the same Open tournament and we start in chronological order with the "Agony" in which he got a won position against an International Master but then went astray and lost. Many of the notes in both games are by him, and as usual I've added ideas as JS.

Near the end of the tournament Darko, who was rated just 2012. won against another opponent in the high 2300s and actually a few points higher than Kiss.

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