Skip to content

Integrity

Integrity Wins

Integrity has practical benefits. That’s why we put such a strong emphasis on sportsmanship during our camps, clubs, and tournaments. 

It is much harder to reach the higher levels of chess without the ability to honestly evaluate one’s own play. Those who believe that they had a winning advantage until they inexplicably had a momentary lapse and lost are often unable to correct the defects in their game. 

In camp this past week, we were pleased that the students exhibited excellent sportsmanship. As a result, every student made substantial strides towards becoming an excellent player.

The disappointments in losing games were tempered by their subsequent wins. The students know that practicing doing their best will pay off. Our discussion during the week revealed that improving one’s skills is the surest way to have fun, and that the result is the least important part of each game.

Our students this week showed great resilience, not giving up when things were not going well. They were gracious both in victory and defeat, making the camp a pleasure to lead.

Integrity and Hard Work Makes Students Successful

It was fitting that the camp we ran during the occasion of Judit Polgar‘s 50th birthday attracted the strongest female players we taught this summer. Emily, who had a spectacular week, would have won the camp championship had she won her final game on Friday.

That she came up short in that game against Alex, the winner of all nine tournament games he played this week, was not a letdown. This was a week about integrity and hard work, and how those two concepts combine to make chess fun.

During the week, we discussed how these character traits define Judit Polgar, the strongest female player in history. Hungarian Prime Minister Peter Magyar recently offered Polgar the Presidency of her country. She declined this high and prestigious honor, understanding that her life as a chess professional did not give her the qualifications to unite a divided nation.

It is not enough to be honest; chess players learn the value of integrity. Evaluating a position accurately requires accepting that every player makes mistakes and must find ways of adapting to unfavorable circumstances as well as finding ways to exploit advantages that opponents sometimes provide.

Thinking through positions often is difficult. Students such as Emily found great pleasure in figuring out hard things. Having fun by working hard makes a student successful, and we take immense satisfaction in watching great young people mature into leaders.

Judit and Sofia Polgar Played a Simul in the German Bundestag to Honor Israeli Hostages

We try to inculcate our motto of Friendship, Courage, Integrity to all our students. We see examples of these traits in many strong chess players, although, regrettably, not all.

The best female player ever, Judit Polgar, with the active participation of her sister, International Master Sofia Polgar, recently performed a simultaneous exhibition in the German Parliament in Berlin to honor the hostages taken from Israel into Gaza. The exhibition strengthened the ties of friendship between Germany and Israel, while allowing 40 chess players the opportunity to face the Polgar sisters, who are retired from active competitive play.

 

The simul in the German Bundestag on March 14

With anti-Israel sentiment running high in many places, it took considerable courage to speak out for the hostages. Judit is a chess player of unquestioned integrity. Despite facing discrimination as a young player, which deprived her as a teenager of opportunities to compete for the World Chess Championship and to represent her country of Hungary in the Olympiad (she was offered, but declined, the chance to play in the Women’s Division of each), she steadfastly worked to become the strongest female player ever.

In rising to the top of the chess world, Polgar defeated 11 current or past World Champions including Magnus Carlsen and Garry Kasparov when they were each ranked #1. She broke Bobby Fischer’s record of becoming the youngest grandmaster ever and did so before the changes in the system that allowed the rank of grandmaster to become more common. She is the only woman ever to be ranked among the top ten players in the world.

When she speaks on an issue, the world listens. Now, she speaks on the topic of hostages. As she recently said, “Speaking up for hostages is not political. It is humanitarian. The world of sports is asking all athletes to heed the call to protect the safety and security of all hostages.”

The exhibition was staged by Chess4Solidarity, a collaboration between Germany and Israel.

Judit and Sofia Polgar, pictured in 1988

Some thoughts on the recent tragedy during the Sinquefield Cup in St. Louis

If a chess player is caught cheating, every notable accomplishment that follows is viewed with suspicion. The recent controversy during Sinquefield Cup in St. Louis serves as a reminder to our students that nothing good comes from dishonesty. If Hans Niemann had never been caught cheating before, his win over Magnus Carlsen would have been seen as a magnificent performance, perhaps a once-in-a lifetime accomplishment. That he has admitted cheating repeatedly in his young life, however, has caused this result to be viewed more skeptically.

Many prominent figures in the chess world have weighed in on the likelihood or lack thereof that Niemann broke any rules during the game in question.  This much is certain: in the third round of the annual elite Sinquefield Cup round-robin event, Niemann, the lowest-rated player in the tournament, defeated Carlsen, the long-time World Champion and highest-rated player.  The day after the loss, Carlsen withdrew from the tournament, the first time in his career he has pulled out in the middle of an elite event.  Carlsen’s only public explanation for the withdrawal was an enigmatic Twitter post that was viewed by many as a possible allegation that Niemann had received some form of outside assistance in the game the day before.

At the present moment, any evidence of foul play during that game is subjective and inconclusive.  What has truly amplified the contention is Niemann’s self-confessed history of cheating in online games, some as recently as three years ago.

Our experience shows that most people enjoy playing with strong players but nobody likes playing without confidence that the game will be played fairly. If players don’t follow the same rules, the game is no fun. Trash-talking diminishes the competition, as distracting or annoying an opponent is not supposed to be part of chess. Trying to get away with a touch-move violation, taking a move back, moving an opponent’s piece, or using a computer during a game, all are things that might tempt a player, but players of character resist those thoughts.

There is no game, and there is no tournament, so important that it is worth damaging your reputation or honor. Once either is lost it can take a long and miserable time to get it back.