"Congratulations, Jennifer, you won the World Championship!" A call from a parent in the Eastern United States instantly propelled me to the throne of a world champion coach. After the congratulations, we discussed how to help her son overcome a bottleneck in his chess studies. After the call, I spontaneously reviewed Jennifer's chess journey, hoping to find some tips for quickly overcoming bottlenecks.
 

In 2010, a beautiful young girl joined my advanced class.

She was Jennifer Yu, but I later learned her Chinese name was Yu Runhe.

The students who were promoted to this class were all top students, selected after about two years of training by international master Lü Xiaosha. The class was mostly male, and

her performance, aside from being diligent and well-behaved, was unremarkable. It was during a later competition for outstanding students that I began to notice her. She not only used the openings I taught her in class but also executed her middlegame plans coherently and accurately, with strong offensive intentions. She was a rare attacking and killing player among girls!

What impressed me even more was her competitive ability. In one match, she defeated her opponent even though White was short of a rook. Her unyielding spirit is precisely the potential of an excellent athlete.

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Jennifer's outstanding performance in class and competitions led her to begin one-on-one coaching with me in 2011. She also competed in local club tournaments every Friday, making rapid progress. Later, due to work commitments, her parents had to move to Virginia, near Washington, D.C. Before leaving, I told her mother that Jennifer had a natural talent for chess and hoped to find a good coach there for her to continue training. However, we couldn't find a suitable coach. At her mother's request, I taught her at the ICC until 2013, when she began training with American Grandmaster Larry Christiansen. That year, Jennifer achieved outstanding results, winning the North American 12-year-old championship and the Women's Chess Federation Master title. In 2014, she won the U.S. Girls Invitational. She performed even better at the World Junior Championships, which concluded in September, winning the 12-year-old championship with a commanding 9-2 record.

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The competition wasn't always smooth sailing. In the third round against an Iranian player, she was already losing after the middle game, and her unique fighting spirit played a crucial role. She remained composed and, at the crucial moment, gave it her all, forcing her opponent into a flurry of errors, ultimately turning defeat into victory. This match instilled confidence and form for her subsequent matches. In her match against Li Yunshan, her fighting spirit was once again on display in a heavy endgame, where she supported her king to assist and took a risk to secure a crucial point. Everyone in the industry knows that becoming a tournament champion involves some element of luck. If a player can win when they should and avoid losing when they should, they're definitely within reach of the championship. Rather than blaming luck for both games, it's more accurate to explain it as her competitive nature and tenacious fighting, which created opportunities for her opponent's psychological fluctuations. Watching the unforgettable 60 games, Fischer famously said, "Masters are always lucky." I've always wondered if luck is the key to mastery, or if masters simply have a natural talent for attracting the gods of luck. Is it luck or talent? Luck is largely accidental. This reminds me of a book I read titled "How to Be Lucky in Chess," which states that luck is predictable. Starting in childhood, turning defeat into victory wasn't accidental in Jennifer's matches. It seemed to happen regularly.

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A few days ago, a parent brought her child to see me with a host of questions: "Coach Deng, does my child have a talent for chess? Can you help me cultivate him?" Based on the principle of universal education and business, the answer was a simple affirmative. The conversation ended in a relaxed and pleasant atmosphere. But after they left, they were left with a deep sense of reflection. It's a common desire among Chinese parents to cultivate their children's multi-talentedness to help them get into a good university. But with so many talent programs available, how do you choose? Education is a significant investment. This is a crucial question for parents. But what is talent for chess? How do you answer it? The answer must satisfy you. What is talent? The ancients said, "High talent, extraordinary ambition." It seems not everyone possesses it. Americans have a more down-to-earth standard for talent. For example, when they see a child playing chess well, they'll grab their parents and say, "He has talent!" He needs a good coach! Everyone wants to be a mentor.

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As a professional chess player and coach for twenty years, am I qualified to explain what talent is? What are my criteria for talent? The worry of misleading students, though unnecessary, constantly troubles me. It wasn't until I carefully watched Jennifer's matches and analyzed her path to victory that I seemed to have a new understanding and explanation of chess talent.

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If Jennifer has any particular talent for chess, I can only say: she has a talent for turning defeat into victory! Her success confirms the more scientific explanation of luck: "Luck is when preparation meets opportunity."

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Looking back on her life, what was Jennifer's preparation for luck? Jennifer's parents, both top graduates of Peking University, studied and worked in research institutions in the United States in the late 1990s. They advocated for the well-rounded development of their children. They believed that the most important things in raising a child were physical and mental health, diligence, resilience, and optimism. Her parents approached Jennifer with a casual attitude about chess, putting no pressure on her and letting her pursue her interests and abilities. But she was reminded that to achieve anything, she needed to put in effort and endure setbacks. "Frustration education! This is the best gift her parents gave her besides genetics!" A tenacious fighting spirit is the hallmark of chess talent!

Chess is a fusion of science, art, and sport, requiring players to possess excellent overall qualities. However, to ultimately be the winner, character and willpower are even more crucial.

Often, when we talk about whether someone has talent in a particular area, we often focus on their ability to learn a particular skill, such as their ability to apply knowledge to other situations. As a professional chess player with no experience teaching chess, I often focused solely on the technical corrections my students made before a loss, often overlooking their performance afterward. This difficult period is the perfect time to observe a player's willpower and tenacious fighting spirit. If the first half of a game only demonstrates a player's knowledge and intelligence, The second half of the game further demonstrated his creativity and talent!

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In today's digital age, what children lack isn't knowledge, but opportunities to hone their willpower.

World champion Steinitz once said, "Chess is not a game for the weak-willed." This demonstrates that chess training can strengthen a child's willpower!

When one day, bright but weak-willed children grow up to become strong chess players like Jennifer, I will be even more proud, truly achieving the ideal of Beyond Chess!

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Deng Kongliang, Coach, Beyond Chess Academy, USA