Andrey Esipenko

Russian GM

“I usually wake up quite late, around 11:00. I’m not one of those people who is happy to get up early. Waking up late gives me energy. Then I have breakfast or lunch — it depends on the time. After that, I work on chess, I study openings. I try to do it every day, as a habit I’ve imposed on myself and one that cannot be skipped. I study as much as I can.

Generally, I train alone. But I also work with friends. And, of course, I work with the computer, but not only with it. I have many books at home. Moreover, I really want to reread them, because it’s a great way to improve your own play.

There is another point: if you overuse the computer, you can lose the human element. It’s very important to evaluate positions without engine help, because the machine says a move is ‘best’, while in real life people would never play like that, and you won’t encounter it in a game. Without the module, you can better anticipate human moves.

This, of course, does not mean denying the important role of computers in modern chess: for example, they are very useful for understanding structures, because books sometimes become outdated, and some analyses turn out to be incorrect. In my opinion, you need to work with both.”