Almost everybody frees some time around new year to visit their family. It is a very hyped period in which everything is about fortune and happiness but the reality is rather different. The preparation of the festivities is often creating a lot of stress and some family-members which you fortunately only meet once per year, still manage every time to irritate you. You can choose your friends but it is much harder to ignore family.
I am not going to complain here about my family. Especially my relation with my parents-in-law is very good. If they are visiting us in Belgium for a month during the summer or we visit them in Ufa as last 2 weeks, I am always surprised by their endless patience and concern about us. They clearly put their children and grandchildren in front of their own interests. I don't know if this is something typical for Russians but this is for sure not granted in Belgium.
Anyway despite good relations it is hard to have a conversation going beyond some chit-chat with the family. Most of us have very different interests. One likes very much football while the other doesn't care at all who won last the Champions League. A big exception are the foods and drinks which are normally abundantly available on any family-party. Also in Russia they know how to spoil their guests. Of course parties have their own local characteristics. I noticed that the table always has to be overloaded by different dishes and drinks as you can see on below picture made at a visit of a cousin of my wife.
So food and drinks play an important role at family-parties but it is of course more enjoyable if you have other things in common. Therefore I find it a good idea to try to find a hobby as parent which you can do together with the children. 4 years ago I teached my children the rules of chess (see cheating) and I am happy that today one of them still likes to play.
I find anything what my children do interesting but it is a bonus if you also like to do the same stuff. Besides my son very well realizes that he has a big advantage compared to the other children with a father able to help him any time with any problem (within the boundaries of fair play of course). Today we already see that he has a considerable lead with probably a temporarily biggest accomplishment of a first place in the final standings of the F-series of the last Flemish Youth-criterium.
Naturally I hope that we can play in the (nearby) future some tournaments together as some other families do in Belgium. On the other hand a confrontation at the board will definitely create some extra tension. I am not going to give presents as others do (see Familychess part 1) as I have to show the right example. On the other hand exchanging preparations or knowledge of openings will be obviously done extensively.
I also take this last element into account when I have to prepare against a descendant of a chess-family. In 2011 I played below game against Patrick Boons.
Another well-known Belgian chess-family consisting of already 3 generations are Daniel, Arben and Bardyl Dardha. Also here we see an overlap between their repertoires especially of Arben and Daniel. In my recent game against Arben played in the interclub I followed for some time my preparation which was based on a game played by the son Daniel.
In my article openingchoices I already indicated that external elements heavily influence somebodies repertoire and this article just confirms this. That doesn't mean that family-members will automatically copy each others repertoire but you should take the possibility into account. Besides my son plays today very few systems which I also play. I did advise against the Dutch. Anyway my knowledge of most openings is more than sufficient to help him at the level he plays today.
Brabo
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