Reports | March 08, 2007 19:08

[lang_nl]Interview met Aronian en Leko[/lang_nl][lang_en]Interview with Aronian and Leko[/lang_en]

[lang_nl]Over de partij Aronian-Leko uit de 11e ronde ben ik iets te kortaf geweest. Wit kreeg strategisch voordeel maar raakte op een gegeven moment overoptistisch en blunderde. Daarna vond hij de prachtige manoevre Pa2-c1-d3-e1-f3 waarna Leko niet de meest overtuigende voortzetting koos. Eigenlijk gebeurde er van alles, ook in de hoofden van de spelers. Hoe reageert een 2700-speler als hij blundert? In hoeverre hebben eerdere partijen in het toernooi invloed op zijn spel? Dit zijn twee van de vragen die Macauley voorlegde aan Levon Aronian en Peter Leko in zijn nieuwste filmpje.[/lang_nl][lang_en]There was much more to say about the game Aronian-Leko from round 11 than I did say about it. White got a strategic advantage but at some point he got over-excited and blundered. But then he found the nice manoevre Na2-c1-d3-e1-f3, when Leko didn't play the most convincing way. Actually, a lot happened in this game, and in the minds of the players too. How does a 2700 player react when he blunders? To what extend is his play influenced by earlier games in the tournament? These are some of the questions Macauley asked Levon Aronian and Peter Leko in his latest video.[/lang_en]




Peter Doggers's picture
Author: Peter Doggers



Linux fan's picture

That's some funny stuff, and good questions too from the reporter! Thanks for making this video available.
I only wish Aronian had spoken more, because he is famous for being witty.

Jan Blom's picture

Dit lijkt mij een tamelijk academische discussie. De spelers kunnen wellicht niet verbieden om de post-mortem te filmen, maar het staat ze wel vrij hun mond te houden zolang de camera loopt. Dus je zult alleen beelden van een post-mortem kunnen krijgen als beide spelers instemmen.

arne's picture

Interesting point. I have actually thought about this issue before, while filming a post-mortem at Corus. Was I actually allowed to do this? Shouldn't I have asked permission to the players first? Wouldn't they find me terribly rude for simply filming their precious analysis? To be honest, I always feel slightly 'weird' making photo's and movies without explicit permission of the people involved, whether it's for chess or other subjects. I always thought that this was just my modesty, but perhaps these questions are not so strange after all. Now I think perhaps it's better to ask permission, if only 'pro forma'. Journalists should always respect some form of privacy, in my opinion. The question is, where do you draw the line?'s picture

A postmortem is generally public if it is in a public location. Naturally, if they decide to move to one of their hotel rooms to conduct the postmortem, the cameras shouldn't follow them.

That said, I think it is common courtesy to ask and respect the players' request. There is a lot to gain, including the respect of the players, by behaving thusly, and they remember (and hopefully appreciate) the few who bother to inquire as to their wishes and honor them.

Wim Heemskerk's picture

Het lijkt me een kwestie van fatsoen de mening van de spelers te respecteren. Helaas leert de praktijk dat er nogal wat journalisten en fotografen rondlopen die zelf niets (kunnen) presteren, maar meedrijven op de daden van anderen. Dat zie je dagelijks op TV en in de krant. Ik hoop van harte dat ChessVibes (dat ik met veel plezier lees) zich niet verlaagt tot het niveau van dit soort verderfelijke paparazzi.

Ray Kelley's picture

The videos don't work! I click to play and nothing happens!

Anders's picture

I love your interviews, press conferences and all that. But not the post-mortems, I quickly stopped watching those. The players have been "on" for several grueling hours, and should have the opportunity to relax a little, without the full spotlight of the public watching. Going to a private room is not really an option, that would be very unusual anti-social behaviour at a chess tournament.

At least ask them.

jason sowers's picture

The videos work! I click to play and something happens!

Marcel Heilig's picture

I feel the wishes of the players should be respected. After all, during the post-morten some interesting ideas might arise that can be useful in future games. There's no reason for the players to sell those ideas cheap to their fellow chessplayers who are wachting the videos on the internet. As long as chessplayers are prepared to anlayze their games in chess magazines, or if they are prepared to give interviews like the one above, chess afficionados have nothing to complain about.

Kyle's picture

Why is it that non-native english chess players say 'ok' incessantly, is this a feature in their native languages as well?

(as in 'yeah but ok', 'ok but' etc every other sentence)

Jerrel's picture

The last couple of months I have read many positive reactions on the post mortems on this site. I'm really glad that these videos are so much appreciated. Naturally our sport will never be as popular as football for instance, but I truely believe that these videos are a promotion of the chess game. Therefore I hope that the players are willing to cooperate. Nevertheless I think it's respectful to ask them for permission before running the camera.

kiryakleiv's picture

ofcourse they would mind!it's bad news for us but in fact i was surprised they didn't mind even earlier! they don't want other players to know the way they react to certain situations,the kind of mistakes they might make etc. but we should respect their wish

Centercounter's picture

This was very kind of Leko and Aronian to provide such a fun interview. They both have speak English well, have a good sense of humor, and get along very well with each other. The interview reflected that, in many ways, they have the same feelings after a bad string of tournaments, as well as after a bad move as the rest of us mortals do.

Centercounter's picture

Kyle, even native English speakers have little quirks. I had a Calculus instructor who said "by the way" frequently. Of course, "OK" or "um" is also very common when trying to determine how to express a thought.

Additionally, it is sometimes not so easy to speak in front a camera, even after you have done it a good number of times. Lev and Petr are chess players first, and while they can speak English well and have experience being interviewed, it's probably never completely natural. The interviewer tried his best to keep them both comfortable and did a great job.

Pedro's picture

Nice video, i'm very glad that you can put these videos in the internet. I'm sure these videos will improve the popularity of the chess!

thanks a lot

Johan Cloete's picture

PLEASE give us postmortems! It is wonderful to see how a grandmaster thinks, and not very interesting when the topic switches to bowling, in fact quite boring.
As far as showing a postmotem, don't make an issue out of something which isn't. Just ask the players if you can publish the postmortem, and everyone will respect their answer. And if they agree that it be published, then we have something interesting to watch.

peter's picture

I just added a poll in the grey column about this subject.

Tom M.'s picture

Great Video!
Don't they just want money for it?

Ray Kelley's picture

I'd sure like to watch the video but it won't play when I click

Ken's picture

I initially thought that their wishes for privacy should be respected. But on further thought, post-match interviews are compulsory for many other sports, so maybe ... it's not such a bad idea.

Thanks for the video!

J's picture

Agree that the players' wishes should be respected. Interviews are one thing, post mortem's are another, and the point made above that they wouldn't want the entire chess playing population to have easy access to new ideas which might come up is very important.

Alec Cheney's picture

Thank you vey much again for your videos.Having watched the games live on ICC I find it very interesting to see and hear the players discussing their games.
Please keep up the good work.

Pal's picture

How many hours or days after a game can GM's remember the exact moves? That was scary when Leko started rambling off game moves faster than I can count to 10. I don't think he was looking at a score sheet or anything. I can hardly remember what I did 5 minutes ago..


Richard B's picture

I'm a bit surprised that players even do post-mortems with each other. The top players might be playing each other again in a few weeks and go into the same variations, so isn't their post-game analysis just part of their pre-game prep for the next tournament? Do some players not analyse with their opponents? And might a player keep secret in post-game analysis some clever idea that he might use next time? I can see post=game analysis as a cat-and-mouse game in itself.

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