World Chess Championship: Anand - Carlsen: Game - 3

Did Kasparov's presence made game-3 energetic?…or so was one question from a press man, huh… Made me wonder how Garry would have 'answered' a similar question when he was playing Karpov!?

Shame, I am yet to see a vibrant question which would pull out a magical revelation into the game that is being played. You have two brilliant minds fighting it out on 64 squares and all that the media could salvage was such trivial questions, barring one or two occasions when somebody discussed chess. 

Come on, let us discuss chess guys! Forget FIDE and politics; chess players and chess lovers would love to get drowned in the beauty of the play. Let the officials and politicians do their business on their den - these are serious business hours and the business here is CHESS! No offence meant to the Chess genius from Baku or the FIDE officials. 

Coming to Game - 3, still no sign of first blood. The expected storm is just sending the outer clouds to the shore, no rains yet! Both the players are pretty well relaxed and if at all there is a semblance of worry, it was Carlsen who said was a bit disappointed with his play with white. Anand seems to be comfortably equalising and in this game was even starring at some initiative!

By move 12, Anand had already achieved a comfortable position, his pieces were harmonious. White knight on 'e4' looking as insipid as a bouncer of a pacer who bowls at 120 k speed! Magnus decision to part with his dark squared bishop for the knight is in comprehension of certain disharmony in his pieces which does not bear on anything significant. 

After a few further moves, Vishy managed to bring his bishops to best squares in the centre and in tandem with the dominant pawn on d4, he created certain doubts and uncomfortable feeling in Carlsen's mind. 

Carlsen quickly opened the a-file and moved his queen for the fourth time in 20 moves to mock activity. That he was qualmish was evident from the invitation for a repetition, when he played 22.Nd2. 

Vishy, this time around was not interested in a hide and seek game! Instead he went for some seemingly interesting activity by pushing the white queen to the most improbable square - 'h1'!! How many middle game position would you have seen with the queen tucked in the farthest corner in her own den!

In Chess, at times, one weakness in a position is not sufficient for pressing the initiative. There was enough resources for Magnus to blunt the initiative assumed by Anand and both the players made the further moves on sheer inertia before shaking hands in truce. 

Let us discuss some business! 

Fallibility infuses beauty in any system. Perfect symmetry will bore you to death. Perfection always is a real killer of creativity. It is only those fine artistic imperfections which leads to fascinating encounters in any game. 

Not that the players are playing invincibly, only that they have not managed to lay hands on the other's armoury - leave alone start stripping! One of these days, one of the players would outthink the other and go far a kill. 

Perhaps the threshold limit of a weakness getting exposed is very high in these guys, but definitely the parity would be disturbed soon!

Is it a convention that we need to discuss only the games played in this match alone!?  If yes, let me flout the convention and enliven the scene a bit by showing you a beauty from Zurich 1953!

In this position, Gligoric playing black against the iron man Petrosian made a weak move 37)….Rda4 under time pressure and lost soon.

Instead he could have played the brilliant 37)….Rxe4!! 38) fxe4 Nxe4 39) Qe1 {forced move, else 39)…Nd2+; 40) Ka1 Ra2+; 41) Ka2 Qa8 mate!} 39)…Qd5 and suddenly black is faced with threats of mate and material loss! (treat yourself with the various matting patterns the position offers!) 

My friend, Chess is not a battle which is fought on 64 squares; rather it is a co-creation of two minds which jointly sculpt a form. I; as an avid art lover would prefer not to take sides, rather sit back and enjoy the development of the art form! 

I am captivated by what Vera John Steiner said on collaboration:

"Collaboration offers partners an opportunity to transcend their individuality and to overcome the limitations of habit, and of biological and temporal constraints. The unity in diversity of complementary relationships is further strengthened when partners create an amplification of individual vision and purpose. Collaborators redefine their own boundaries as they strive toward mutuality and deep understanding."

This collaboration is harmony - after all it takes two players in chess to produce a game!

I denounce the contest and conquest - both happen at the fall or destruction of the other and what is left is bitterness, animosity - where individuals loom large than the art and creation. 

I wish to shift the view point and look up for a co-creation where one stands an inch taller than the other and which doesn't demean the other who is an inch shorter! Let the players strive for more harmony and exhibit fine finesse - for this they need to liberate their minds of all botheration, even the nagging fad of world title! 

Tomorrow is Tuesday or another "truce-day"!?