Mikhalchishin: how to beat a World Champion

From June 9 to 23, 2012 Kazan, the capital of the Republic of Tatarstan, will play host to the FIDE Women's Grand Prix, part of a series of elite events organised by FIDE and Global Chess. There will be six tournaments over two years in various countries around the world. The winner of each tournament takes home 6,500 Euros, the total prize fund is 40,000 Euros. The overall winner will get a further 15,000 Euros at the end of the series. Starting time of the games is 15:00h (check your local time here).

Looking back: Hou Yifan vs Betül Yildiz in round two

Analysis by Betül Yildiz trainer GM Adrian Mikhalchishin

How to challenge the world champion? We looked at this problem eight month ago, as during the Shenzen Grand Prix my pupil, Turkish WGM Betül Yildiz, managed to draw against World Champion Hou Yifan. Despite having 300 rating points less, she twice had excellent chances to win this game. Now in Kazan came the next game against the Women's World Champion, and once more Betül had black.

So what to do? We evaluated that in Shenzen Hou had prepared to play match against Koneru and had tried to hide her preparation, avoiding the Ruy Lopez. Here in Kazan there was no reasons to skip Spanish, so the question was what what to play. We decided that she will try to prepare main line of the Arkhangelsk, which they played two years ago. Betül got a good position at the time, but lost later in the game.

In such a situation it is important to prepare something new. We decided on the Malaniuk-Onishchuk version of Arkhangelsk. But the most important part was the psychological preparation: the motto was don't go into slightly worse positions, the World Champion has a fantastic technique. Try to challenge her from the start. If there is sharp play, it will be your chance! Better to die like a hero, and not like a mouse in a slightly inferior endgame. We have nothing to lose! Russians and Turks never run away from the battlefield!

So bravery always wins! But it is not easy for chessplayers to get in such a state of mind. I remember the second match Karpov-Kasparov in Moscow 1985, where I was Karpovs second. We stayed in the beatiful dacha of the famous Soviet World War Two Marshall Ivan Konev, all the seconds: the great Efim Geller, Igor Zaitsev, Valery Salov, Sergei Makarychev, Victor Zheliandinov and me. One hour before the game Tolya had a 15-minute session with his psychologist, a man from Odessa, very nice - made a fantastic fish soup! He started his preparation, and we heard him say, on the other side of the wall: Kill him! Destroy him! Force him to his knees! We almost died laughing. Geller used to say if the world heavyweight boxing champion would appear at this moment ,Tolya would cut him to pieces! But in reality psychological preparation is one of the duties of trainers and seconds, who know the weak sides of own pupils. It is a difficult task and does not work every time. But when it does work it is the Everest of the trainer's achievment! Yes, beating a World Champion is just that!

Photos by Anastasiya Karlovich and Rashit Shiriyazdanov, with kind permission of FIDE

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