My chess story - How I started playing chess and became a FM
Hey Guys!
This is FM Viktor Neustroev and in this video I’m going to tell you my chess story. How I started playing chess, how I became a title player and then a FM.
This is the first part of my story where I’m going to focus on my childhood and tell you how I learned chess and started progressing in it.
Would you like to know at what age it’s better to start playing chess? What to start with? And how to make significant progress?
If yes, please, watch this video and learn from my own experience. Ok, this is FM Viktor Neustroev and “My Chess Story”!
How did I learn chess? Good question. When I was five years old, my cousin Vladimir (he was 6) and I spent our school holidays at our grandparent’s house. We played games like soccer and army, typical kid games. Our grandfather Stepan was a military man and he had a lot of military stuff at home. No weapons of course, but some map cases, medals and military clothing.
One day he suggested that we play chess. Chess was quite popular in the Soviet Union, especially among the military. My cousin and I both agreed, and after learning the rules we spent the rest of the day playing chess. Sometimes we got to play against our grandfather, but we never had any hope of outplaying him. I was so young then and more interested in sports where I could run around, but my cousin decided to go to a chess school and study with a professional coach. After that, he made very rapid progress and eventually he became a Candidate Master with FIDE rating of 2266! For some reason he quickly lost interest and didn’t play chess for 15 years after that.
Photo 1. Me (on the left), my cousin Vladimir (on the right) and my older brother Sergey (not a chessplayer) in the center
Photo 2. My grandfather Stepan at the age of 44 (unfortunately, he died at the age of 92). He was an officer in the Soviet Army.
I finally went to a chess school at the age of seven, too late I think. 5 or 6 years is the best age to start playing chess, in my opinion. However, some strong players started learning chess even at an older age. For example, GM Dmitry Bocharov learned to play chess at the age of 12.
The school that I attended was only a five minute walk from my home, but we attended the classes together with my grandfather Stepan. My coach Aleksandr Tyulin (FIDE 2137) gave us chess puzzles to solve every day. That was my main task at the school, and I’m absolutely sure that solving tactical puzzles is the best way to make rapid progress. In my school, moving the pieces was prohibited. The first few puzzles were solved by my grandpa, but then I started to solve them faster than him!
My lessons were only an hour long and immediately after the chess lessons I went home to watch “Maya the Bee”, a cartoon at the time. However, my coach suggested I take a longer class and I agreed, but I regretted missing my favorite cartoon. After I made the decision to spend more time on my lessons, my chess strength really began to increase and I started to beat my grandpa consistently.
Unfortunately, I had to give up chess for a year because we moved to another place and I was unable to attend that chess school. But the year after that (at the age of 8 and a half) we moved back. I didn’t go back to the school right away, but once my coach met my grandpa on the street (they were living on neighboring streets) and he asked if I wanted to continue my chess lessons. I was happy to get back to chess! In just one year I became the strongest chess player in that school, despite the fact that I was younger than any of the other students.
Photo 3. Me – second from the left on the first line, my cousin Vladimir – first on the left on the second line. The guy in the center with mustache is my coach – Aleksandr Tyulin.
Btw, the girl on the right is WIM Anna Novikova (FIDE 2247).
In this video I told you my chess story. At least the first part – how I started playing chess and went to a chess school. Thank you for watching and make sure to like this video, subscribe to my channel and share it with your friends - chess players.
I hope you liked it and learned from my experience. Please, don’t repeat my mistakes. If you have kids and they show interest in chess, take them to a chess school when they are 5 or 6. And, of course, don’t make any long breaks in chess learning process!
Would you like to watch the continuation of my chess story and learn more about the way from amateur to a FM? If yes, please, watch the second part of my chess story on the screen next! See you there in a moment!