GM Vincent Keymer Visits Silver Knights

Vincent Keymer's Best Victories

The session started with a challenge for GM Keymer: when shown a position from three famous games in his career, could he recall which game each position was from and who he was playing against?

After correctly identifying all three, he shared some insights into how he felt about each game and an analysis of his position. 

1. Rapport-Keymer, GRENKE Chess Open, April 2018
   

   Hear what GM Keymer had to say about his experience at the tournament:

   
   
2. Keymer-Gelfand, Isle of Man Masters, October 2018
   
3. Keymer-Carlsen, FIDE World Cup, August 2023

SKCA Students Challenge a GM

Two of our Elite Academy students, Si Hao (Oliver) and Kelton, won a qualifying tournament that earned them the chance to play a game against GM Keymer. Both of them put up a great fight! Take a look at their games below: 

GM Keymer vs. Si Hao (Oliver)

GM Keymer vs. Kelton

Q&A With GM Keymer

For the latter half of the session, the rest of the audience was invited to ask GM Keymer questions. Twenty students were able to take part! Here are some of our favorite questions and answers:

Komal: What are the steps you use to analyze a position in your game?
Vincent Keymer: I would say usually you try to check for immediate threats, like pieces being attacked, or any direct threats like mate, checks, open files, whatever. Then you check for candidate moves. Either you have a feeling for what’s good, or you can go by the old mechanism: you go for checks and captures first, then maybe attacks on other pieces and so on. If you go a bit deeper than that, you can check for pawn structures, or which pieces you want to trade, or which pieces you’d like to improve.  

Olivia: What’s the saddest you’ve ever been after losing a game in a tournament, and what did you do next?
VK: I think the toughest game for me wasn’t actually a loss--it was a draw. It was quite recent. I didn’t win my 10th round game against Bluebaum in the Grand Swiss, which, in some way, pretty much cost me the qualification for the Candidates [Tournament]. It’s tough. I can tell you it doesn’t really get much easier, even if you have experienced it a lot. You just get used to handling it. Usually it’s a sense of frustration first, then some anger as well, which eventually settles into sadness and resignation. To recover for the next day, you need to give yourself some time to process the emotions, then try to gather yourself–do whatever you feel is good for you–and then try to re-focus for the next game, because it’s very bad to go into the next game with anger or sadness or any emotion that changes the way you play. It’s important to go into the next game and try to play as objectively as possible. 

Siddharth: Let’s say you were winning, but then you lose the game and your next game’s right after that. How do you continue and not play too badly?
VK: That’s difficult for everyone, I can tell you. That’s the situation you normally have in blitz tournaments, right? In classical tournaments, you’ll have some time, but [in a] blitz tournament, you might have to play the next game within five minutes. It happens to top players that we start to lose several games in a row because of that, so that’s something I’m still trying to figure out how to do best myself. I would say you need to find a way to not let this last loss discourage you. It’s important to keep confidence and belief in yourself, so in the next game you won’t be very scared and very cautious. Just try to be authentically you and still believe in what you can do. 

Sanjivkala: What are your two favorite pieces to checkmate with?
VK: Probably knight and rook.

Bella: What are some tips you can use during a game if you start to lose, like if you’re losing by a couple of pieces? How do you get back up?
VK: At that point, usually you cannot do much yourself, but you have to trick the opponent because you cannot defend the position on your own. Normally, it’s good to keep pieces on the board, especially tricky pieces like the knight to have some hope for tricks, forks, whatever wins you back some material, and generally just try to… you have to be a bit tricky, sneaky, that’s the only way. At that point, that’s the best you can do. 

Dominic: What openings would you recommend for White and Black?
VK: It depends on what you enjoy. For starters, I believe e4 is always a solid opening. E4 is the kind of opening that, if you learn it as a child, it benefits you in the future because you get used to the structures and everything. As Black, it really depends on your playing style. For more aggressive players, normally the Sicilian is quite good. For more strategic players, e4 e5 with something like the Berlin or Anti-Marshalls with the Ruy Lopez is nice. That’s pretty much it. But generally, I always believe that chess players need to find their own way. Also, you can check openings and see what you like for yourself. That’s normally the best. 

Watch more of the Q&A session below: