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Joel Lautier - on Chess, Shogi and Life
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12 June 2000
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On Life
Q: How was Japan - have you been there before? How much contact do you have with this part of your background?
JL: Japan is, as you know, my second motherland - or should I say, my motherland since France is my fatherland ! However, my visits to it have unfortunately been few and far between: this year was only my second time, the previous visit dating back to 1993.
It would really take up too much space if I was to sum up my impressions of this wonderful country. Let me just say that it is quite an exhilarating feeling, for a chessplayer, to be in a country where a board game (Shogi of course) is given almost as much TV coverage as any of the major sports: baseball, football, etc. Imagine at least five hours of chess every week on the BBC or ZDF !
Q: When did you move to France?
JL: I moved to France (from Canada) when I was about three. It is indeed a pity that I didn't learn Japanese at an early age, especially since it will take an iron determination to learn it properly now. Well, "Impossible n'est pas français" as we like to say in my country...
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| Almira Lautier - Skripchenko
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Q: I have heard that Lev Psakhis has some famous advice to players: "Avoid marriage and family life if you want to keep improving." (Lev supposedly said this just after winning his second USSR championship and just before getting married...) I am especially curious about your views on this, since your marriage seemed to get nearly royal wedding treatment, Yasser Seirawan played it up (in his magazine Inside Chess) - and it was an occasion in a rather unusual way for the chess world.
JL: I never heard of that Psakhis story before, but I wonder why he felt compelled to prove his claim! As for me, if marriage to another strong chessplayer has some obvious disadvantages, like "How on earth could you hang a piece when 31.Nf6+ clearly leads to (...) 45.Rh8 mate!", I find that his advice doesn't make any sense, since you can't actually postpone LIVING.
Q: I remember already at a tender age you were working as a journalist, and had the French advantage of Minitel - did this give you a head start in life on the web? What do you think of virtual chess, the future of the net, its impact on chess and other games?
JL: Well, I might have had a head start, but this is something you're not likely to keep very long with the Net ! I think the Net has completed the computer revolution in the chess world. It has made the task of a chess professional so much easier, but on the other hand, it has raised the stakes considerably, as far as the opening preparation is concerned.
Nowadays, there is no way you can hope to use a devastating novelty, carefully prepared after weeks of hard work, more than once! For all you know, the next potential victim it might have been intended for could be watching your game live via the Net the minute you uncork your new idea!
I think the appearance of the Net, and the immediate availability of any valuable chess knowledge, has forced professionals to reassess their preparation techniques. I might dwell on that a little later, for instance when ... I retire!!
It's pretty obvious that Internet Chess is bound to grow very quickly (ICC is claiming to host 50,000 games a day, can you believe that ?), though some clear rules would need to be established. For one thing, you can't have proper tournaments with real money involved without a referee on the spot checking that every competitor logged on isn't using any silicon advice.
I should add that in a time when organizers are becoming rare, Internet Chess is a perfect solution: no more organizers needed! I would still prefer to play Garry face-to-face though, if only to see the smoke coming out of his ears...
Q: I can't help noticing that you show every sign of being widely educated, but your career started at such an early age that I would guess that chess probably took you out of school?
JL: As for my school background, your assumption is quite correct: I quit school when I was seventeen and never went back to it. Thanks for your compliment about my self-education, I didn't attend any lectures since my distant school days and the rest came from a healthy appetite for knowledge.
(Editor's note: Some details may have changed slightly since the course of this conversation.)
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