Mark Rivlin Interviews Ali Shahruhki
Ali Shahruhki was a strong junior player in the 1980s who gave up a promising chess career as a teenager. After a 35-year absence, he is back in action through online chess and some friendly OTB games with me. As a good mate on the comedy circuit, I was delighted to hear that Ali was a junior prodigy and aside from dropping one blitz game, he has sent me packing the other times we have locked horns. As you will see below, however long you may be out of chess, the bug mutates, even at 50 years of age. Ali and I are considering putting together a four-board team made up of open-mic comedians in the London Chess League next season.
We have a lot in common; we are both on the open-mic comedy circuit with one-liner jokes and we both love chess. I’m a patzer-plus 1690 and you were around 165 (old currency) as a junior in South Bucks 35 years ago. Please tell us about those years.
I started playing chess in 1986. I remember turning up at the school chess trials that year and everyone beat me. I couldn’t quite fathom why that was, so I started reading quite intensively from then on, including opening and endgame theory, some of the famous books like ‘Think Like a Grandmaster’, and books by Alexey Suetin, but also a lot of puzzle-solving. I’ve always loved chess puzzles and feel like I have good tactical instincts. Within two years I became captain of the school chess teams (at the Royal Grammar School, High Wycombe) and in 1988 I took our first team to the quarter-finals of The British Schools Chess Championships, sponsored by The Times. We lost to Ipswich. I played Board 2 as a junior for South Bucks in the late 1980s. I was champion in my year group in those years.
What has rekindled the chess spirit and how much do you play?
I’d always felt like I’d abandoned chess somewhat. The last year or so, I have taken it up seriously again, and started studying and revising theory, with a view to increasing my playing level. My ICC rating is generally around the 1750-1900 mark. As a medium-term goal, I would like to see it consistently over 2000. To keep my focus on chess, I have also started chess tutoring for beginner and intermediate players at ashahrukhi@yahoo.com.
Why did you give up playing as a junior?
My mother stopped me from playing for the school and county. She felt like the intense focus I had on chess would be better focused on schoolwork. It was really devastating at the time to have had chess taken away from me.
Are you excited by the thought of competitive over-the-board chess?
Yes, very much. I’ve really enjoyed our recent games, Mark, and you have really been an important part of re-lighting the fuse. I’ve also played a few games with the Hackney team at their Sunday get-togethers. The psychological and physical element of playing a person (as well as the game) is much more exciting than playing online.
Tell us about some of your achievements as a junior player, and about coaches who helped you become strong.
In addition to the above achievements I’ve mentioned, I won a few tournaments in the Buckinghamshire and Berkshire regions, and generally placed well in all the tournaments I entered. A lovely guy called Brian Lacey used to run the county team in South Bucks. He would sometimes organise chess days/seminars for the stronger players. I remember going to a seminar led by IM Shaun Talbot, on positional chess, which was really excellent. I do wish there had been more opportunities like that for established players to pass on their knowledge to the next generation.
What are your standout games since your comeback?
I feel I am getting more competitive with higher-rated players on ICC. I beat GM Mark Hebden recently (after he miscalculated). I also really enjoyed this recent drawn game with the white pieces against Sarimmahlina (2148).
1. d4 d5 2. c4 c6 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. Nc3 a6 5. e3 b5 6. cxb5 cxb5 7. a3 Bb7 8.Bd3 e6 9. O-O Ne4 10. Qe2 Nd7 11. Nd2 Nxc3 12. bxc3 Bd6 13. e4 O-O 14. e5 Be7 15. f4 g6 16. Rf3 f5 17. exf6 Rxf6 18. Rh3 Qb6 19. Nf3 Rf7 20. Ne5 Nxe5 21. fxe5 Rc8 22. Bd2 Bf8 23. Rf1 Rcc7 24. Bg5 Rxf1+ 25. Qxf1 Rf7 26. Qe2 Be7 27. Qg4 Qd8 28. Rxh7 Rxh7 29. Qxe6+ Kh8 30. Qxg6 Qg8 31. Bf6+ Bxf6 32. Qxf6+ Qg7 33. Qd8+ Qg8 34. Qf6+ Qg7 35. Qd8+ Qg8 36. Qf6+ Qg7 (Game drawn by repetition)
The opening transposes into what is basically the Exchange variation of the Slav, which is notoriously drawish. With 11. Nd2 I decide to let myself be saddled with a weak, backward c-pawn for the sake of playing for a quick e4 pawn-break and a kingside attack. I think it’s a mistake for Black to allow the pawn advance e5, as he does, as this pawn wedge in the middle of the board means Black’s light-squared bishop remains forever cut off on the queenside. This means, if White can mobilise all his pieces, he will, in effect, be material up. I took a very direct approach in this game, playing a quick f4 and transferring all my pieces to the kingside as quickly as possible. 18 … Qb6 is an error, leaving the black queen on the wrong side of the board too. In time-trouble, I missed 28. Bxg6 hxg6, 29. Qh4, which gives White a decisive advantage and played the far too ‘clever’ 28. Rxh7, seeing that 28 … Kxh7 runs into 29 Bxg6+ Kg8, 30 Qxe6. In the game, 30 … Qg8 is a further error in time-trouble. I should have played 31 Qxg8+ Kxg8, 32. Bxh7+, transitioning into what should be a winning endgame. The end position is an aesthetically pleasing perpetual check: Black can never block with Rg7 as then Qh4+ wins. I missed some possibilities in this game, but the game is a good illustration that tactical possibilities always flow from a correctly-judged and clearly-executed strategy.
There is a link between comedy and chess (look at some of my games). Two years ago, GM Jonathan Levitt wrote an excellent book about humour (Contemplating Comedy) and comedians Josie Long and a handful of players on the circuit play at decent club player level. Is there a link between writing gags and finding moves?
This is a really interesting question, which I have thought about a lot, and there is definitely a link. A joke is a combination of the everyday (an ordinary or mundane phrase or situation, for example) and a surprise (or unexpected connection). Winning at chess also involves seeing possibilities in a normal-looking position that your opponent is, as yet, unable to see. A good or pleasing combination always has a ‘punchline’ – an unusual and counter-intuitive move which comes to you by way of feeling and instinct rather than analysis.
Who are your favourites from chess history to the present?
I grew up when the great battles between Karpov and Kasparov were just beginning. I was always glued to the TV coverage and bought British Chess Magazine and Chess so I could study the annotated games. Garry Kasparov has always been a great hero. I’m not sure anyone else has ever combined such subtle positional acumen with monstrous tactical ability. They used to do games on the BBC where he would voice annotate his games after, and you’d hear him rattle off a 15-move variation and evaluate the end position, as, for example, ‘slightly better for White,’ which would blow my mind. He’s like a hybrid of Mikhail Tal and José Raúl Capablanca, which should, in theory, be impossible, because you’re always supposed to be one or the other. Kasparov always used to play 1 d4 back then. So I did too. It’s why I always used to play the Sicilian (2 ... e6, instead of 2 …d6, after Kasparov reinvigorated the Taimanov and Scheveningen variations). I also used to play the King’s Indian for the same reason.
Chess today is very different from your days as a junior, particularly with so many online options to play and learn. Would you rather have been a junior today?
I have to say, and to show my age at the same time, I liked studying chess via books. I found that learning this way also helped my visualisation develop, as I would often read on the move (or in a library) without a board, which forced me to play through the different variations for a move in my head. Having said that, I do watch a lot of chess videos online (YouTube and ICC), and there are some great teaching materials available, especially when it comes to learning, for example, standard endgame theory, like rook endings.
What advice would you give to young players who find it hard to combine chess with their studies?
Well, let me say first of all that I never got the balance right! So, I’m probably not in a good position to give advice. I was totally obsessed with chess, almost immediately. I sense that this is probably the case with a lot of players. The game demands such attention to detail, planning and focus, that you can’t easily dip in and out of it. So, I’ve had a rather all-or-nothing relationship to it. Chess is such a beautiful and unique mixture of science and art or intellect and intuition. Once you are a chess player, you are forever a chess player. Just when I thought I was out, it pulled me back in. Chess has always been a big part of who I am, and it’s wonderful to be rediscovering that fact.
Chess players like a good laugh, so please give us a couple of your best one-liners.
As a kid, I was expected to get top grades in everything. I got a B once. My mum made me retake the blood test.
I grew up on a council estate. Had a lot of girlfriends. Nothing serious – just friends on benefits.