Bisik-Bisik with Viktor Moskalenko

Hola, GM Viktor Moskalenko!

Bisik-Bisik with Edwin Lam Choong Wai

Rated at 2575, Viktor Moskalenko was born in Odessa, Ukraine, on the 12th of April 1960. Married to Tatiana Yastrebova, who incidentally turns out to be a chess player as well (with a FIDE rating of 2037), this chess couple is blessed with a daughter named Mila.

Moskalenko's competitive career blossomed rather late and enjoyed the first wind of active tournament participations in the period of 1980 to 1995. He was Ukrainian Champion in 1987, and gained his grandmaster title in 1992. He competed in many events and enjoyed victories against players such as Morozevich, Khalifman, Sveshnikov, Bronstein and many more. During the period of 1992 to 1994, Moskalenko twice helped Vassily Ivanchuk with his chess preparations.

Grandmaster Viktor Moskalenko, a.k.a. CapNemo on Playchess.com

Perhaps his love of coaching and training, as well as his love of his wife and daughter, have overpowered his desire to compete in chess tournaments. This resulted in him being rather inactive in competitions. But the family relocation to Barcelona in the year 2000 brought about a second wind in his chess playing career. Besides competing Moskalenko also became actively involved in chess writing. He is a frequent contributor to the New In Chess Yearbook as well as Chessbase’s ChessBase Magazine 114-120.

Recently, GM Moskalenko released his first chess book entitled, The Fabulous Budapest Gambit, published by New In Chess. To find out more about the “other side” of this author of this book read on. You will learn about his triumphant slaying of a monster in Advanced Variation of the French, his passion for ping-pong and the little story of how Ivanchuk and him were asked to leave a church for having a chess discussion.

Early years

Viktor Moskalenko: Hola, a todos! I consider that all humans are born of a magical form, but we all soon start to live like ‘idiots’ or madmen, if you want… Nevertheless, I will continue to try to be willful, independent and curious besides retaining the same drive to succeed!

When I was five years old, I was ill and I wasn’t able to go out. So my dear grandmother taught me many ‘tablecloth games’, like for example card games and draughts. Those days were decisive for my learning of games. By playing thousands of games I learned everything: openings, calculation, strategy, tactics, the philosophy and psychology of each game and also typical tricks and traps at any level. It was very useful for my chess later on.

It was rather similar to the way Capablanca learned them; I learned the chess rules when my father played with my uncle after they had been eating and drinking a lot. From this moment on I always wanted to join them. Unfortunately, in the first years they did not let me – so Capablanca was luckier than I was!

I think that overall, it was myself.

Unfortunately, I found my way to the chess club very late: when I was 14 years old. Curiously, in my city Odessa, I happened to be walking in a street when I found a poster which said ‘Odesskiy Centralniy Shaxmatniy Club’. The next day my father had me registered there to study chess. The first year I was in a group of young students of my age. We began to play some tournaments and to learn the basic steps...

Soon I obtained good results and they sent me to an advanced group where the trainer had a perfect level to teach chess. This was a fantastic season for me. The basic program of each class was: the history of chess, analysis of a classic game, the study of an interesting opening, some problem positions, analysis of our own recent games, blitz games. It was so interesting that I did not miss any of the classes and always was the last to leave. Also, the general atmosphere of the chess club in Odessa helped me a lot in my development as a player. I was almost always able to find some master to listen to their opinion, to analyze or to play some games...

In my early days I tried to read many books on different subjects, but what really stood out to me was the book by Emanuel Lasker called ‘How Viktor became a chess master’. I think that this book is comparable to the present-day ‘Harry Potter’. I also liked many autobiographies of the best players, with their annotated games.

My favourite chess personality of all time is the American Bobby Fischer.

Initially the time I spent on chess was very short. When I was young, I did not have good discipline to study chess. I always preferred practical chess – playing tournaments or blitz games. Later on, when I began to participate in serious tournaments, I learned that without analytical work, there can be no progress. So I dedicated more time to the analysis of systems on my repertoire. I also liked the analysis of adjourned games a lot. In the 1980s-90s this was done without the help of a computer, of course. I have gained many points thanks to the higher quality of my analysis and better ideas.

Chess professional

My first success was in a strong grandmaters’ tournament in Lvov, 1988. I ended up on tied 2nd–4th place with Ivanchuk and Malaniuk. The same year, in Budapest 1988, I won the Open Championship of Hungary ahead of the sisters Zsofia and Judit Polgar. I started the tournament with a score of 8.5/9 and then drew the last two games to coast home to victory.

The foundation of my progress was laid in my participation in many Soviet tournaments in the 1980s-90s. I have played against Ivanchuk, Gelfand, Dreev, Khalifman, Epishin, Rozentalis, Krasenkow, Sveshnikov, Kupreichik… and then in 1990-95 against Morozevich, Svidler, Ponomariov, Leko and many other grandmasters of the highest level. In the years 1989-90, when the politicians opened the borders, my formula for success was very simple: to combine strong Soviet tournaments with European Opens, thus gaining many prizes without problems. In 1992 I was in very good shape and I won seven tournaments in the space of a few months. I scored my final two GM norms in France: joint 1st-3rd place in Metz, and I won the Open Championship of Paris with 10/11.

From 1995 onwards, it bored me to make all those heavy trips all over the world. I prefer to spend more time with my family. From that point on I liked working as a trainer much more than playing. To teach chess is a pleasure for me, and perhaps it is my destiny. Nevertheless, when our family moved to Barcelona in 2000, I got an excellent opportunity to start playing active chess again. It is a fact that there are more tournaments in Spain than anywhere else in Europe. In the years between 2000 and 2007, I obtained very good practical results. As a general statistic, in my chess career I have won nearly 100 international tournaments, not counting a few small ones. And, I believe that the greatest success in my life – both in terms of play and results – was the shared 1st-2nd place with Vasily Ivanchuk in the Magistral Casino Barcelona Masters 2005.

I defeated Sveshnikov with the black pieces in his favourite Advance Variation of the French (1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.e5!). In that game, I had prepared a totally new and very creative counter-plan and obtained a very good position. But I gained the victory only after a tense and spectacular fight. I felt as if I had killed a monster!

I bought my first computer at a very late stage. The revelation came in the closed tournament of Copenhagen in 1995. Peter Leko, whom I drew with the black side of the French Defence in the tournament, won the event. I had good possibilities to win, but I lost the last game due to a lack of information about my opponent. It was then that I understood the need to have computers in order to have equal chances in a competition. That said, I think that to play well you do not need too much assistance from the computer. The machine does not guarantee a successful game and it is simply necessary to combine things. We can see typical examples of victims of computer preparation in the latest World Championship in Mexico. The players who ended up in the first three places never trusted their computer and won their games as always, using their strengths and their knowledge – in short, their own heads. Whereas it seemed to me that the rest of the participants were very tired, due to their preparations with databases, even before their games had begun...

Against Bronstein, I had the black pieces. In the opening, which was a Benoni, the grandmaster demonstrated to me the main problem with this system. But in the second phase, I was able to demonstrate in return to the grandmaster that youths like me know how to play dynamic chess. Nevertheless, I have to acknowledge that David Ionovich was still by far the greater player in 1992. When I beat Bronstein I was of course very contented, but at the same time I sensed the tension of a master who had a good position and then lost due to lack of energy. So, I felt some discomfort. I learned that chess can be a very cruel sport and if you are weak at some point, your name will not always save you.

Personally, I have known Vasily Ivanchuk even when he was still wearing short pants! I have observed his fast progress from the days we participated together in Ukrainian tournaments all through his fast ascent to the top. Vasily is a friend and chess analysis companion. Often, even at nights, we made contact to analyse some game or idea, or simply to consult each other on some opening or player. Later on, in the years 1992-94, I twice helped him with some specific preparation, although I think this was not for something concrete. The first time we were in Moscow, and Vasily’s only preoccupation was how he could beat Kasparov. The second time was in his house in Lvov and I believe that the training was more effective then. There I met his parents, and they seemed to me to be very pleasant people who were very concerned about the life and the successes of their son. In general, I am very impressed by Ivanchuk’s great daily studying discipline and his capacity to learn. For example, for breakfast Vasily always took a notebook (not a computer notebook!) full of difficult chess problems, prepared especially for training purposes. It surprised me how quickly and easily he found the solutions, while I was sipping my coffee… Soon, we were analysing some interesting games and we also studied some positions that are still not understood by the best engines. Sometimes we played blitz. I think that a special feature of Ivanchuk is that he is always analysing something. His mind never stops working. Once we took a stroll in the beautiful city of Lvov and entered a lovely church. There, Vasily and I relaxed for a few seconds, but suddenly he started to ask me about a certain game. The church father was not so pleased and asked us to leave...

As an Author

In the years of my youth, I tried out the ‘BG’ on a few occasions with the Black pieces, when I wanted to surprise my rival, and the results were not bad. Soon I forgot about this possibility, perhaps because of the lack of material, or the lack of a good book, on the subject... Last year I decided to take up BG again for the following reasons:

1. When I showed my first article on the ‘BG’ for Yearbook 80 to Viktor Kortchnoi, the legendary grandmaster immediately asked me: “Have you ever played this gambit yourself?” He liked the article and the games in it, also his own game against Yukhtman and Mohr. Kortchnoi was also contented with our discussion of the subject and was rather surprised by the article. He told me about his own experience with it and his opinions on it.
2. I wanted to test my own ideas that I found in this opening.
3. I needed material for a new book.
4. I wanted to surprise my opponents.
5. I discovered that it is a correct and quite dynamic opening!

   What is your current competitive chess score with the BG as Black?

My personal BG statistics in 2007 are: from a total of 11 games played, I scored 3 wins with 8 draws, which translates into a performance of 2577 (some of these games can be seen in the book).

The problem is not the ‘romantic’ style, but the character and personality of the player. Petrosian never attacked his rivals directly. His strategy was first of all not to give his rival too much counter-play, and then to take advantage of their errors. The combinations, the sacrifices and the tactics: all these would come later. The “Tiger” (Tigran) always attacked from the barricades! The same goes for Karpov. But the latter has never played more than three or four, solid openings in his life. I believe that he also had certain problems memorizing variations. I remember in some of his games there were some confusion in the opening – he would mix up certain moves...

In the first place it is necessary to learn that the Budapest Gambit is much more than just a surprise weapon or a ‘romantic’ opening. Nor, is it a simple attacking weapon or a system with which you can ‘cheat’ your opponent. I have discovered that each main line of this opening contains elements of the modern game and there is enough room for improvisation. See for example Shakhriyar Mamedyarov’s fascinating games with the Budapest Gambit. I am sure that even players like Aronian and Svidler could include the ‘BG’ in their repertoire. (Note: Svidler played the BG in his youth).

It’s clear that for rapid or blitz games it is a more than a sufficient opening. There the element of surprise is far greater. I have practiced the Budapest Gambit and the Fajarowicz in numerous Internet games on the ChessBase’s Playchess.com site, with the handle CapNemo. It was very amusing, there were many errors and lapses on both sides. That said, I also like to play the gambit in normal games. Some lines are easier to play with white, so in that case it’s better to have more time to improvise. From the 115 fantastic games analyzed in the book, it includes some of the best classic and modern ones. Games like these are hard to produce with only 3 or 5 minutes of thinking time…

Viktor Kortchnoi seems content after winning the Banyoles Open 2006. But then, GM Moskalenko showed him the first article on the Budapest Gambit... On the right is GM Moskalenko's wife Tatiana

Husband, father and a Catalan

It enchants me to travel by car throughout Spain. It is a wonderful country with many special places. I also like driving the car all night listening to music! My other interests include going to the cinemas, playing ping-pong with my wife, reading thrillers and fantasy books – above all by the American author Roger Zelazny and the English author Robert Asprin. I am strongly influenced by the series of anthropologist books by Carlos Castaneda and I also like wine!

In recent years, I’ve been living near Barcelona, about 30 kilometres away, in a small village by the sea. The city of Barcelona is good for tourism as well as for a night out, but I prefer to sleep well! There are many fantastic sites in Barcelona; I especially like the harbour area, the mountain of the ‘Tibidabo’, the park of ‘Ciutadella’ with the Triumph Arch and, of course, Camp Nou with the football club Barcelona!

Yes of course, indeed in Catalonia the level and the popularity of chess is very high. There are many clubs, with around five thousand federated players. The Catalonia team championship is a very popular event. There are also strong titled players and we already know the famous ‘Gran Casino Masters’ tournament.

Lately we have participated together in many tournaments in Spain, sometimes even together with our daughter. It is not very difficult to obtain satisfactory conditions for both. When organizers invite one, they can also invite two or more.

Yes, we have played a couple of times and I always won quite easily. I am the one who knows her repertoire better!