Chess Game - The art of risk taking

"Opportunities multiply as they are seized" - Sun Tzu

Gene N.Landrum how wrote a wonderful book "Eight keys to Greatness", describes "risk" - one of the keys, thus: "Risk takers are people who feel comfortable in unknown environments. They have what psychologists label 'comfort with ambiguity'. Such people thrive in creative and innovative environments and become frustrated and anxious in risk averse organisations. Risk empowers them rather than disarming them." 

She further added, while explaining the theme through examples, " No one would think of an artist like Picasso as a risk-taker, but he lived right on the edge of the world professionally and personally, engaged in dangerous activities, such as running with the bulls in Pamplona. He said, 'My whole life has been a struggle against reaction and the death of art.' His work Les Demoiselles d'Avignon and Guernica are testimony to risk taking of the highest order, since they pulled all limits of artistic expression, defying dignity and mortality (death and prostitutes are grotesquely depicted). Using the metaphor of jumping rope he said, 'If you jump you might fall on the wrong side of the rope. But if you're not willing to take the risk of breaking your neck, what good is it? You don't jump at all'. To him that was far worse than a broken neck."

I proffer you a wonderful game played between Yeffim Geller and Max Euwe in Candidates tournament at Zurich, 1953, to explain myself on this chosen theme.  The comments of David Bronstein in his fabulous tournament book; aptly titled "The Chess Struggle in Practice" interspersed with the comments of Gary Kasparov in his monumental work "My great predecessors"; which I reproduce here in italics,  would  enthrall you for sure.

White: Y.Geller           Black: M.Euwe

1) d4 Nf6; 2) c4 e6; 3) Nc3 Bb4; 4) e3 c5; 5) a3 Bc3; 6) bc3 b6; 7) Bd3 Bb7; 8) f3

"A small but important detail in this opening: as a result of Black's substitution of b6 and Bb7 for the usual Nc6 and OO, White, who failed to react correctly in time with Ne2, has to spend an extra tempo to prepare e4.

Such details must never be overlooked, but they should not be overemphasised either. It is sometimes said that White's advantage consists of the first move; if he loses a tempo the advantage should go to Black. In practice, however, White's advantage is that he has a greater choice of possible plans to suit his taste; when play is in full swing the loss of a single tempo is not always of great importance." (Bronstein)

Young chess players who wish to understand chess thoroughly, cannot afford to miss out on engaging themselves with a serious study of this book by Bronstein.  He has unravelled the secrets of chess in his brilliant commentary - through the games played by the top grandmasters of that era, with the exception of Botvinnik - who was sitting pretty on the throne, waiting for Smyslov who won the tournament!  For heaven sake, do not switch on the engine and just engage in thinking deeply on the lines Bronstein takes you and this would enable the young player to understand the modern chess theory and practice better.

8) ......Nc6; 9) Ne2 OO; 10) OO Na5; 11) e4 Ne8!

"Black moves the knight to avoid the pin Bg5 and to answer White's f4 with f5 blocking the kingside. White therefore takes control of 'f5' before moving f2-f4.  Defending the 'c4' pawn is pointless; it was already doomed by White's 5th move." (Bronstein)

"Capablanca's prophylactic manoeuvre. The inclusion of the moves f2-f3 and Bb7 is definitely to the advantage to Black, since he can quickly being a siege of the c4-pawn, whereas for White it is more difficult to attack on the kingside, since his queen is cut off from the g4 and h5 squares." (Taimanov)

12) Ng3! cd4; 13) cd4 Rc8; 14) f4

"It was far quieter to play 14.c5 bc5; 15. dc5 Rc5; 16.Be3 and then Ba7, but Geller did not venture all this just for a draw!" (Kasparov)

14) .....Nc4; 15) f5 f6; 16) Rf4

"White's attack becomes threatening. Black's last move was necessary because White intended to advance it to 'f6' and to answer Nf6 by pinning the Knight and attacking the King with the combined force of Queen, Rook, and three minor pieces.  Now White needs only two moves to transfer his Queen and Rook to the h-file, after which nothing , it seems, will save the Black King.

But Euwe is not easily upset. Remember that in his life he played more than seventy games against Alekhine, the most dangerous attacking player of his time." (Bronstein)

That's a lovely way to infer...or assess a Chess players prowess in a particular aspect of playing - here it is fending-off attack!  Yes, Euwe would certainly have fine tuned his defensive skills through playing as many games against one of the most fabulous player of all time - I consciously left out the word "attacking" which delimits the ability of great Alekhine.

Kasparov attached a "?!" to this move and commented: "A seemingly logical continuation of the attack: the rook is aiming for h4. But it was better to play 16.a4 e5 (16.....Ba6?! 17.Ba3!) 17.Bc4 Rc4; 18) de5 fe5; 19) Qb3 with compensation for the pawn (Polugayevsky - Averbakh, USSR Ch, Leningrad 1956)." (Kasparov)

"At first sight White's initiative more than compensates for the sacrificed pawn. For eg, after 16.....e5?! 17.Rh4! ed4; 18.Qh5 Ne5; (18....h6? 19.Bh6) 19.Qh7 Black must be prepared for the worst." (Euwe). But how can the creation of the Rh4 and Qh5 battery be prevented? Is it possible that Black's deep strategy was incorrect?!" (Kasparov)

16......b5!!

"The beginning of a remarkable plan.  It is clear that any defensive maneuver on the Kingside that depends on pieces without significant scope - Rf7, Qe7 etc - is doomed to fail.  But Black has another defensive resource - counterattack! The Bishop on b7; Knight on c4 and the Rook on c8 occupy good launching positions, and all that remains is to activate the Queen. The basis for the counterattack is Black's preponderance on the central squares. With b5 push, Black reinforces his Knight's position and opens the way for the Queen to b6. Nevertheless, the impressions is that these operations will be too late." (Bronstein)

"Such quiet moves are more beautiful than any sacrifices! A path is simply opened for the queen to b6, and the weakness of White's d4 pawn and of the g1-a7 diagonal immediately makes itself felt." (Kasparov)  

Chess artistry is pinned on such moments and only a true artist seizes those moments!  Such moments and moves such as "b5" are like the silence of the pause after touching the peak note in music...those few seconds take you to heaven!

Chess is not a means to pursue a career....an accomplishment....or even happiness.  Rather a true Chess lover needs to submit and surrender himself to 'Mother Caisa' and lying on her lap, unconditionally, would enable him to unravel the beauty inherent in the game, which is far beyond mere pursuit or description through mere words...!

17) Rh4

"17.Qh5? Qb6! 18.Ne2 Ne5 would have led to an echo-variation: White would not manage to play Rh4." (Bronstein)

"And after 17.Bc4 Rc4; 18.Rh4 Qc7! 19.Be3 Rc2 with the threat of ....Qc3 Black also has dangerous counterplay." (Kasparov, Botvinnik and Abramov)

17) .....Qb6! 18) e5!

"An excellent defensive-attacking reply: White takes the h7 pawn by force!" (Kasparov)

18) ....Ne5; 19) fe6 Nd3; 20) Qd3

"Each of White's moves requires careful and accurate calculation. Here, for instance, the natural 20.ed7? would not have worked because of ...Qc6." (Bronstein)

20) .....Qe6!

"Another difficult decision. 20.....g6 looked better, as 21.ed7 is met by 21....Qc6 (threatening mate), and 22.....Qd7.  But White plays 21.Bh6 Ng7; 22.Bg7 Kg7; followed by the surprising 23.Nf5! gf5 (or 23....Kh8; 24.Ne7! or 24.Qh3 b5; 25.Rb5! - Kasparov) 24.Qf5 Rh8; 25.Rg4 Kf8; 26.Qf6 etc." (Euwe)

21) Qh7

"So, at no great cost White has been able to break through. Black's position again looks critical." (Bronstein)

21) .....Kf7; 22) Bh6

"White increases the pressure. After the weaker 22.Qf5? g6; 23.Qh7 (23.Qb5? Rc1; 24.Rc1 Qe3; and 23.Qd1?! Qd5!) Ng7; 24.Bh6 Rg8 the attack peters out and Black launches a counter-offensive with ....Rc2!" (Kasparov)

22)......Rh8?!! (Kasparov)

Alas! such positions and moves are increasingly becoming extinct....  Of course you encounter great moves in the modern day play, and the quality and flavour that you derive out of it is entirely different, but....here again you encounter most of such finesses and great moves only in the postmortem, in the analysis that one player indulges after the game, showing how such and such things were sidestepped and at times it runs into two pages....and one wonders....!

"Black's 16th move, b5!! was the beginning of a strategic plan of counterattack, and the Rook sacrifice is its main tactical blow, aiming to divert White's Queen far from its Qb2 and to use that time to attack the King." (Bronstein) 

"A surprise!" (Kasparov). "The principle of the aggressive defence is pushed to its limits. The strength of the text move lies mainly in the fact that it makes 'c2' available to the Rook, while the White Queen is sidelined. Black could also have continued normally with 22....Qd5 (or 22....Qc6; 23.Ne4) 23.Re4, but both continuations leave White with dangerous counter threats." (Euwe)

"However, the computer continues 23....Rc6! 24.Rae1 Re6, evaluating the position in Black's favour. Also not without its point is 22....Rc4!? (Bronstein), or 22....Rc3!? (Plisetsky), or even 22.....b4!? (Crouch) with the idea of 23.ab4? Rh8!! 24.Qh8 Rc2; 25.d5 Bd5; 26.Rd1 Rg2; 27.Kf1 Qa6; 28.Ke1 Rg1; 29.Kf2 Rd1; 30.Bg7 Ng7; 31.Rh7 Qb6; 32.Ke2 Bf3! and mate in 10 moves. It is therefore better to play 23.Rf1! ba3! (if 23....Rh8; 24.Qh8 Rc2, there is now 25.Rf6! Kf6; 26.Bg5! Kg5; 27.Rh5 with a draw).

The two exclamation marks to the move in the game were attached by me for the beauty of the idea: an unusual tactical solution - a wonderful diverting rook sacrifice! Black attacks the enemy King with Queen, Rook and Bishop, and his lone Knight copes with the defence of his own monarch. But, alas, I also had to attach a question mark: in the resulting wild complications Black risked squandering virtually his entire advantage.

Even so, I am one with Bronstein's conclusion: 'Although analysts have shown that 22.....Rh8 was a premature idea, chess fans will find it hard to agree with this: such moves are not forgotten!" (Kasparov)

When a great man who breathed chess and spewed fire on chess board has this to say, we should all be just ears...suspending every other thought....for he was not only a great attacking chess player, a great analyst - both individually and with the aid of the modern day engines - but is the vital link between the history and the present!  

The essence of his "?" will be revealed by him in commenting for Geller's 24th move!

23) Qh8 Rc2; 24) Rc1?

"The fatal error. Geller defends the c4-square in the event of 24.....Rg2; 25.Kf1, but the black queen finds another route for the final rendezvous with the White King!

The only way to dispute Black's fantastic combination was by 24.d5!, disrupting the harmonious coordination of the opponent's forces:

a) 24....Bd5! (but not 24....Qd5? 25.Re4) 25.Rd1! Rg2; 26.Kf1 gh6; and now:

i) 27.Rh6? Rg3! 28.hg3 Bc4; 29.Kg2 Qe2; 30.Kh3 Be6; 31.g4 Qg4; 32.Kh2 Qd1; 33.Rh7 Kg6; 34.Rh6 Kg5 and Black wins.

ii) 27.Rd5 Qd5; 28.Re4 Ng7! 29.Kg2 f5; although, after 30.Qh6 fe4; 31.Qf4 and Ne4 and the win is still problematic for Black.

iii) 27.Qh6 (this is generally held to be the best move) Ng7, 'and Black, with two pawns for the exchange, has slightly better chances (Euwe); or even good winning chances (Bronstein).  But in my view, after 28.Rhd4! Bc6; 29.Rd7 Bd7; 30.Kg2 Bc6; 31.Kg1 Qa2; 32.Qd2 Qa3; 33.Rc1 White is completely alright.  27.....Bf3! is better, but even here after 28.Rd2 Qc6; 29.Rg2 Bg2; 30.Kg1 the outcome is unclear.

b) 24.....Qb6?; 25.Kh1 Qf2; 26.Rg1 Bd5, after which the analysts found 27.Re4! Be4; 28.Ne4 Qh4; 29.Nd6! Nd6; 30.Qg7 Ke6; 31.Qg8! Ke5  

(Analysis diagram after 31....Ke5)

Here Euwe concludes his analysis with the uncommonly optimistic line 32.Be3? Rc8! 33.Qg6? Nf5! and Black can already go for mate (34.Ba7 Qh2! or 34.Bd2 Ng3!).

But, evidently, not without reason did Fischer once said about Euwe: 'He is so correct, that there must be at least something incorrect in him!'  The Black King is too exposed, and after 32.Rd1 it is not Black who wins but White: 32.....Qe4; 33.Be3!! Rc3 (or 33.....Qe3; 34.Qd5 Kf4; 35.g3 Kg4; 36.Rd4) 34.Bf2! Ra3; 35.Bg3 Rg3; 36.Qg3 Kf5; 37.Rf1 Ke6; 38.Re1." (Kasparov)

24) ......Rg2; 25) Kf1 Qb3!  26) Ke1 Qf3 and Geller Resigned

This game attains "great" status, purely on the choice of Euwe to flirt with danger....'not fearing to jump and break his neck'.

I deliberately chose Euwe's game to get through the point of risk taking and not David Bronstein himself, who earned himself the epithet sorcerer or Mikhail Tal who flirted with danger all through his life, and had the audacity to put the Bishop on g5 and play "f4" against Botvinnik in the World Championship match...or even Gary Kasparov the colossus who lifted chess to a different altitude and who can forget his incorrigible d5!!? in a topical line against Karpov in their historic World Championship match!

If there is a will - will to even lose, but not compromise on the creation - then the way appears!  

I say, even at the cost of repeated repetition, that it is not about the correctness of a move: the correct or wrong comes later in the post match analysis and even then it is subjective!

Hope you enjoyed this and I hope we get to see at least one such game in the remaining 3 games!

Come on Vishy, lift your game and make a match out of it!