EP 403- IM-Elect Selim Citak on How a Spontaneous Decision to Return to OTB Chess Led to Him Earning the IM Title at Age 39

Perpetual Chess Podcast

Perpetual Chess LLC

Sports, Leisure, Hobbies

4.8 • 678 Ratings

🗓️ 8 October 2024

⏱️ 77 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

“Coming back to classical chess was the best decision of my life,” Selim said. IM-elect Selim Citak came out of semi-retirement on a whim a few years ago, needing one more norm and some more FIDE rating points, in order to earn the IM title. Selim quickly discovered that adjustments were necessary, as his rating plummeted from over 2300 to 2150 while he grappled with the stronger new generation of chess players. Through hard work, sacrifice, and psychological adjustments, Selim turned things around and gained the 250 FIDE points and final norm necessary to earn the IM title at age 39! In our conversation, Selim shares his remarkable story, along with plenty of chess improvement advice. Selim is very active in the Turkish chess scene as an author, Chessable author and commentator. He joined me just after attending the Olympiad as a second to young star GM Yagiz Erdogmus. Selim also shared what makes GM Ediz Gurel and him such special talents, and why Turkey is a potential rising chess power. This was an inspiring conversation of personal chess revival, so be sure to tune in. 1:30- IM-elect Selim Citak joins me: He discusses his chess origins and why did he returned to tournament chess in 2022. Mentioned: GM Suat Atalik, GM Mikhail Gurevich Selim’s FIDE graph: https://ratings.fide.com/profile/6301819/chart 22:00- Selim describes his study routine Mentioned: GM Evgeny Romanov 28:00- Selim’s approach to openings 35:00- Selim’s study routine, and how he pays for the expenses Mentioned: Sorcerer’s Apprentice by GM David Bronstein 43:00- Does Selim play a lot online chess? 49:00- Selim’s next goals 53:00- Selim’s helped GM Erdogmus at the Olympiad. He reflects on the experience and Turkey’s status as a potential future chess powerhouse. Mentioned: GM Ediz Gurel, GM Yağız Erdoğmuş 1:10:00- Selim’s advice for getting unstuck. If you would like the help support Perpetual Chess via Patreon, you can do so here: https://www.patreon.com/perpetualchess Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello everyone and welcome back to perpetual chess.
0:07.0	We've got a really inspiring interview coming your way, Salim Sittak, who came back to chess in his mid-30s and made it to International Master.
0:16.0	He round-tripped his rating from like 2350 to 2200200 and back, and then needed to get to 2,400
0:23.1	and another norm in order to win the IM title. And he did it. He earned the IM title. So we go into
0:29.5	his journey, his perseverance, his advice, a lot of it, which comes down to sort of chest psychology,
0:34.8	believe it or not. But Salim is very active in the Turkish chess scene.
0:39.3	So in addition to talking a lot of chess improvement in the first half of the interview.
0:43.0	In the second half, we get into, he was just at the Olympiad,
0:46.7	helping out the young stars on the Turkish team.
0:48.9	So he reflects on that experience.
0:50.8	And it's a really fun interview.
0:52.4	We'll get you to it momentarily, but just wanted to thank, as always, our sponsors,
0:56.2	Chesopal.com.
0:57.4	They've got new courses out by Sam Shanklin, Maurice Ashley.
1:01.4	They've got all the stars making courses.
1:03.5	There's new ones opening-wise on the semi-tarash, the classical, excuse me, the classical
1:09.4	Sicilian.
1:11.0	So as always, if you sign up for Chesable Pro, be sure to use the link in the show description.
1:16.8	And without further ado, let's get you to a really inspiring interview with Salim C-Tac.
1:23.2	Here it is.
1:24.0	And we are here to share the remarkable story of our guest, who is a trainer, author,
1:29.1	Chesable author, and soon to be an I.M. He returned to O.T.B. Chess in 2022, as he will tell us,
	...

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