What can we learn from the (Chess) Machine? This is a common question that grips many a chess enthusiast, these days. But what I wish to touch upon here is, what we can learn from the Cuban Genius Capablanca, who was nicknamed "The Chess Machine" in the last century. His play was characterized by quickness of thought, effortlessness of ideas and a brilliant intuition. He was rightly compared to Mozart, because of his early proficiency in the game, and for him Chess was truly his native language! He was absolutely self taught and there are even myths that the first Chess book he read was the one he wrote :-) ( Chess Fundamentals). Chess Fundamentals is a fine book, which reflects Capablanca's approach to Chess in his writings also. The underlying theme, is simplicity and clarity of thought! Botvinnik once remarked, that whatever one needs to know about Chess is contained in Capablanca's book! I feel Capa's approach to chess is also shared by two of his esteemed successors- Robert Fischer and the current world Champion Magnus Carlsen. When looking at their games too, one cannot but help admire the clarity of thought and the tendency towards simplicty!
Sunday, April 12, 2020
The Chess Machine
What can we learn from the (Chess) Machine? This is a common question that grips many a chess enthusiast, these days. But what I wish to touch upon here is, what we can learn from the Cuban Genius Capablanca, who was nicknamed "The Chess Machine" in the last century. His play was characterized by quickness of thought, effortlessness of ideas and a brilliant intuition. He was rightly compared to Mozart, because of his early proficiency in the game, and for him Chess was truly his native language! He was absolutely self taught and there are even myths that the first Chess book he read was the one he wrote :-) ( Chess Fundamentals). Chess Fundamentals is a fine book, which reflects Capablanca's approach to Chess in his writings also. The underlying theme, is simplicity and clarity of thought! Botvinnik once remarked, that whatever one needs to know about Chess is contained in Capablanca's book! I feel Capa's approach to chess is also shared by two of his esteemed successors- Robert Fischer and the current world Champion Magnus Carlsen. When looking at their games too, one cannot but help admire the clarity of thought and the tendency towards simplicty!
Friday, April 3, 2020
Retro Commentary
There are so many reminiscences of the past in various spheres of activity. I found it particularly funny when cricket scores were updated in espncricinfo with a retro live theme! And with the dearth of inflow of activity television channels too have decided to resort to re telecasting old programs. In many ways as Chess players and enthusiasts are very fortunate because it is much more feasible and pretty to revisit olden games. The FIDE candidates tournament too had to be stopped due to the current situation, and continuing with the current trend, I thought why not pretend to commentate on a Retro Candidates event? And What better event than the famous Zurich 1953 with the inimitable comments of David Bronstein! Lets delve into the second round duel between Efim Geller and former World Champion Max Euwe. To maintain the purity of time travel I will give below the comments of Bronstein in descriptive notation! For those who are not used to this can check the re playable board given at the end for the currently used Algebraic notation. I have also included some of my observations in italics.
One of the best games in the tournament, and the winner of a beauty prize. White starts a strong Kingside attack by sacrificing his QBP. Geller has every chance of succeeding if Black according to tradition, counterattacks on the Queenside. Euwe however, carries out two remarkable ideas:
1) he makes good use of communication with the Queenside to attack the Kingside, and
2) he lures his opponent's forces deep into his own territory in order to isolate them from the defense of their Kings.
It is extremely interesting to see how White's pieces dig deeper and deeper into their frontal attack on the King while Black regroups circuitously.
Geller-Euwe Round 2 Candidates Zurich 1953
1. P-Q4 N-KB3 2.P-QB4 P-K3 3. N-QB3 B-N5 4. P-K3 P-B4 5. P-QR3 BXN ch 6.PXB P-QN3
7.B-Q3 B-N2 8.P-B3
Thursday, March 26, 2020
In Search of Harmony
" Perhaps Chess and Music are drawn together by laws of harmony and beauty that are difficult to formulate and difficult to grasp" -Vassily Smyslov
With an abundance of time at one's disposal these days, I came across an instructive and thought provoking piece of analysis from an endgame which occurred in the recent game Wang Hao-Vachier Lagrave in the candidates tournament. The author (and my friend) Grand master Vishnu Prasanna is not only a gifted player and trainer, but also a fine thinker! Looking at this fascinating game and comments , triggered a variety of thoughts in approaching a chess position.
Wang Hao-Vachier Lagrave Round 6, Candidates 2020
This is the position after Black's 32nd move Bc8. As Vishnu rightly points out in the ChessBase India video, Black's main problem in this position is that his Knight on a5 is out of play. Had it been on d6, the position would not at all be bad for Black. But such small differences, sometimes as little as one tempo can alter a position diametrically.
They key factor in this position that seems to determine White's advantage is the superior position and activity of his King. White need not actually just be contended with the fact that his King has reached a commanding post on d4, but can even strive to improve the royal monarch's position by rolling a red carpet! Let us see how the game continued:
With an abundance of time at one's disposal these days, I came across an instructive and thought provoking piece of analysis from an endgame which occurred in the recent game Wang Hao-Vachier Lagrave in the candidates tournament. The author (and my friend) Grand master Vishnu Prasanna is not only a gifted player and trainer, but also a fine thinker! Looking at this fascinating game and comments , triggered a variety of thoughts in approaching a chess position.
Wang Hao-Vachier Lagrave Round 6, Candidates 2020
This is the position after Black's 32nd move Bc8. As Vishnu rightly points out in the ChessBase India video, Black's main problem in this position is that his Knight on a5 is out of play. Had it been on d6, the position would not at all be bad for Black. But such small differences, sometimes as little as one tempo can alter a position diametrically.
They key factor in this position that seems to determine White's advantage is the superior position and activity of his King. White need not actually just be contended with the fact that his King has reached a commanding post on d4, but can even strive to improve the royal monarch's position by rolling a red carpet! Let us see how the game continued:
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!
Sunday, March 18, 2018
Three More Endgames
Yesterday's game between Cheparinov and Firat from the European Championship rekindled memories of working on Aronian-Dubov World Cup game. Here, the position has a slight difference, both sides have f-pawns instead of g-pawns.
Cheparinov-Firat EU Championship 2018
This position was reached after White's 57th move Kd5.
Black continued with 57...Bc3? which is an instructive mistake. White won the game cleanly with 58.Ra7 + Kf6 59. Ra3 Bb2
60.Ra2 Bc3 61.Kc4! Be162.Ra6 1-0 with the idea 63.Kd4 next move and getting the same Zugzwang as in Aronian-Dubov game which I had analyzed earlier in the "Tale of Three Endgames".
However Black could have drawn this game if he had continued with 57...Bg7! or 57... Bh8!
An Important position to remember!
The difference between this position and the one with g-pawns for both sides is that Black's Bishop has two hiding squares behind his King on f6, namely g7 and h8. White's Rook and King duo can never force a Zugzwang as Black always has the moves Bh8-g7-h8. Although this seems counter-intuitive Black should know that he should hide his Bishop in the rear to hold this game! There were 2 more games from very similar positions.
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