After Murali's Queen sacrifice in Asian continental, another game featuring an even more spectacular Queen Sacrifice started making rounds across the internet chess audiences. This happened in a game between Grandmaster Mchedlishvili and International Master Rathnakaran in the ongoing 2nd Goa international chess tournament. I have been meeting Rathnakaran right from my junior days in various events. I can't remember even one occasion of not greeting me with a smile! A very pleasant and nice chap, but when it comes to Chess he becomes totally transformed. He could sacrifice many a material with utter disdain, but he would never take his eyes off your King for all his other niceties! As a player he is quite unique in modern Indian circles, as far as I know he is perhaps the only player who has no formal chess training, no deep study/preparation and a skill and understanding that is completely honed by self learning by playing tournament games as well as Blitz and Bullet online. So, nobody really knows how he perceives chess( not even himself!) and he lets his moves speak for him, When I came across his recent interview to Sagar Shah ( immediately after the game) I really enjoyed listening to it. Sagar has done a great job of making Rathnakaran speak a few things about the game which give a glimpse of whats happening behind the scenes in his mind! This was extremely interesting and I think it would benefit chess lovers at large, so I am discussing the game with some comments of my own. I also kept in mind not to interfere the artistic aspect of the game and have reduced my comments to the ones which are absolutely necessary and in a way not to obstruct the view of Rathnakaran's comments.
Monday, June 24, 2019
According to the wizard of Kozhikode
After Murali's Queen sacrifice in Asian continental, another game featuring an even more spectacular Queen Sacrifice started making rounds across the internet chess audiences. This happened in a game between Grandmaster Mchedlishvili and International Master Rathnakaran in the ongoing 2nd Goa international chess tournament. I have been meeting Rathnakaran right from my junior days in various events. I can't remember even one occasion of not greeting me with a smile! A very pleasant and nice chap, but when it comes to Chess he becomes totally transformed. He could sacrifice many a material with utter disdain, but he would never take his eyes off your King for all his other niceties! As a player he is quite unique in modern Indian circles, as far as I know he is perhaps the only player who has no formal chess training, no deep study/preparation and a skill and understanding that is completely honed by self learning by playing tournament games as well as Blitz and Bullet online. So, nobody really knows how he perceives chess( not even himself!) and he lets his moves speak for him, When I came across his recent interview to Sagar Shah ( immediately after the game) I really enjoyed listening to it. Sagar has done a great job of making Rathnakaran speak a few things about the game which give a glimpse of whats happening behind the scenes in his mind! This was extremely interesting and I think it would benefit chess lovers at large, so I am discussing the game with some comments of my own. I also kept in mind not to interfere the artistic aspect of the game and have reduced my comments to the ones which are absolutely necessary and in a way not to obstruct the view of Rathnakaran's comments.
Wednesday, June 12, 2019
Queen Sacrifice
"For it is in giving that we receive" -St.Francis of Assisi
Right from the times of Greco until the current day, the idea of sacrifices in chess has appealed to both amateurs and professionals alike. Masters of the yesteryear valued the spirit of chivalry very highly and would even stake their quest for victory in order to create artistic beauty. Perhaps, things have changed a little bit nowadays with the advent of better defense aided with advent of powerful chess engines refuting( in theory) daring and beautiful attacks through cold blooded defense( though, I have to admit, who knows how Alpha Zero has changed even the perception of the engines! ) Nevertheless I know that all of the players aspire to create a lasting masterpiece over the board. If sacrifices appeal to the artistic side of a chess player what can be a better way than to sacrifice the most powerful of all pieces- the Queen?
While observing the games from the ongoing Asian Continental Chess Championship at China, the following position from the first board duel between two talented youngsters caught my eye.
This is the position after White's 9th move in the game between the Iranian prodigy Alireza Firouzja and Karthikeyan Murali of India. Here after 21 minutes of thought former National Champion Karthikyan came up 9...Qxc3!! From the time spent I infer that it was purely an improvisation over the board than a result of detailed home preparation( which makes it even more impressive!) The sacrifice is purely positional one and there are no forced lines leading to clear assessments in the near vicinity. I do not ( or even want to!) know whether the sacrifice is objectively the best continuation and so on. But things are clear that as a practical player the opponent is in for a big shock when you sacrifice your queen this early in the game for 2 minor pieces. There can also be thoughts such as " I need to refute this impudent sacrifice etc" which can be counterproductive to a calm thought process. So all in all a brilliant psychological master stroke, but things do not end there! Thinking purely in chess terms also I like the fact that Black gets 2 minor pieces and a pawn for the sacrificed Queen and apart from that wrecks white;s pawn structure a little bit and gains good sole control of dark squares of the board. But all said and done, a Queen is still a Queen and it still requires great guts and imagination to sacrifice it!
Right from the times of Greco until the current day, the idea of sacrifices in chess has appealed to both amateurs and professionals alike. Masters of the yesteryear valued the spirit of chivalry very highly and would even stake their quest for victory in order to create artistic beauty. Perhaps, things have changed a little bit nowadays with the advent of better defense aided with advent of powerful chess engines refuting( in theory) daring and beautiful attacks through cold blooded defense( though, I have to admit, who knows how Alpha Zero has changed even the perception of the engines! ) Nevertheless I know that all of the players aspire to create a lasting masterpiece over the board. If sacrifices appeal to the artistic side of a chess player what can be a better way than to sacrifice the most powerful of all pieces- the Queen?
While observing the games from the ongoing Asian Continental Chess Championship at China, the following position from the first board duel between two talented youngsters caught my eye.
This is the position after White's 9th move in the game between the Iranian prodigy Alireza Firouzja and Karthikeyan Murali of India. Here after 21 minutes of thought former National Champion Karthikyan came up 9...Qxc3!! From the time spent I infer that it was purely an improvisation over the board than a result of detailed home preparation( which makes it even more impressive!) The sacrifice is purely positional one and there are no forced lines leading to clear assessments in the near vicinity. I do not ( or even want to!) know whether the sacrifice is objectively the best continuation and so on. But things are clear that as a practical player the opponent is in for a big shock when you sacrifice your queen this early in the game for 2 minor pieces. There can also be thoughts such as " I need to refute this impudent sacrifice etc" which can be counterproductive to a calm thought process. So all in all a brilliant psychological master stroke, but things do not end there! Thinking purely in chess terms also I like the fact that Black gets 2 minor pieces and a pawn for the sacrificed Queen and apart from that wrecks white;s pawn structure a little bit and gains good sole control of dark squares of the board. But all said and done, a Queen is still a Queen and it still requires great guts and imagination to sacrifice it!