There exist a myriad of incredibly talented young players nowadays. Wei Yi (19, 2728 FIDE), Jeffery Xiong (18, 2677 FIDE) and Sam Sevian (18, 2655 FIDE), to name a few. Ilya Makoveev (13, 2275 FIDE) is from an even younger generation, but I can’t help but admire the simplicity of his chess style.
Makoveev plays every chess opening, which makes it impossible to prepare against him. He prefers quiet, positional, static positions, which is rather unusual for young players, who are notorious for their ability to calculate variations. Furthermore, Makoveev plays people in the same rating range as me, but beats them with moves that seem extremely natural, and little to no calculation. I, as a talentless fish, admire how these chess prodigies can make it seem that chess is a simple game. Indeed, it might be for them!
So let’s have a look at some of Ilya’s games.
Impressive victory! Let’s have a look at another of his seamless victories:
(Note: In this game, he didn’t beat any old fish, but IM Raja Harshit, rated 2446 FIDE during this game!)