Sochi: "Meeting of minds" - a perspective on Space and Time!

"A man like me arrives at a watershed in his development when he turns from the personal and ephemeral in an effort toward intellectual understanding. What is essential for a man like me is what he thinks and how he thinks, not what he does..." 

                                                                                                            - Albert Einstein

Ultimately, this "what" and "how" one thinks is 'what matters'!

As we advance in age, the physical aspects atrophy and undergo a change.  The one who takes care of his physical being enough....thorough exercises and yoga etc, would remain physically robust for an extended period of time and then the body will take its natural course.

The mind is not concerned with the limitations of physical body and even the slowing down of regeneration of brain cells will have no effect as what we are left with is far sufficient to indulge in the process of thinking. It is like the old wine which matures of age and tastes sweeter!

But, then why a chess player who is advancing in age loses to the younger player, who is roughly on par with him in terms of understanding the game and expertise?

If we look deep within ourselves, the answer will emerge.

As a boy and youngster, our minds are programed to go in pursuit of something...education, job, profession, sports, fine arts etc.  This mode of "doing" continues unabated until we consciously stop and think and decide to change.  The aspect of "doing something" builds in a considerable amount of stress - both physical and mental.  In trying to do, or try to accomplish something, we are only subjecting ourselves to the vagaries of success and failure and the allied emotions, which builds more stress, anyway!  

The mind is naturally elastic in the beginning, when we are young and hence the recuperation or the restoration to the original state is easier.  With the passage of time and advancing in one's chosen profession, the mind collects countless prejudices, perceptive blindness and gets conditioned.  And therefore, it loses the elasticity and every time something undesirable happens, it loses its elasticity further and turns rigid.....until and unless one becomes aware of it!

The awareness of this alone will result in the resurrection and start looking at things that one pursues with great freedom from conditioning and other undesirable aspects that we discussed above.  And this is what Einstein meant in the afore quoted statement!  

Everybody has to return back from 'personal' and 'fleetingness'...and just..."be"...

Let us look at this match afresh with the profoundness of "what" and "how" and certainly not about "ifs" & "buts"!

What!?

Whatever that goes behind it, a game of Chess is bound by certain fundamental laws...principles and they are no different from physics - Space & time!

Right from move one, the race is on for time...Black trying to catch-up with White for that one extra tempo...and both sides vying for squares and secure space for their pieces!

Every move a player makes is in quest for more space and time and the game is lost by a player by lack of space and in most of the cases...one tempo!

Game - 1: Position after 18.Qd4!

Except his Queen no other Black pieces cover any square on the White-half of the board; whilst White Bishop is controlling the all important diagonal leading to "c8" square and the Queen on "d4" is nicely centralised and full blown! One Rook is already occupying an important file and the other is only one move away from moving into the "e" file - which proved to be the most important line in this game.

From the above observation, you may also safely conclude that White is ahead in time! 

Since White is ahead in time and controls more space, can we conclude that he has a overwhelming advantage?

Yes! We may....if...

"If" White's Kingside pawns are not fractured and "If" Black had one more weakness... apart from the "e6" and its allied weakness the pawn on 'e7'. 

Chess play is not dependent on just one fundamental law but an interplay of the fundamental principles...the forces.  For the moment, let us not get into the aspects which are apart from what happens on the chessboard; but which are no less relevant!

 Carlsen's last move ....Qd6 was not merely to attack the pawn on "f4", more importantly to vacate the "d8" square for his Rook in an effort to catch up with time - even if it means that he forced White to move his queen to the most powerful square in this game.

I loved this move instead of the direct Qb6.

Position after 22.f5!

This move, which is primarily to reinforce the hold on "e6" square, also accomplishes one more task - elimination of one of the weak doubled pawn in exchange for a healthy Black pawn! 

Now look at the following position (after 31.Rd6)

White is thoroughly dominating the position; but his inability to breach the pawn cover "f6 & g6" ensures safety for Black. This is the triumph of Black's strategy and his unhurried approach, starting with Qd6! And....

...look at this position!

A nightmare! And what a transition from the position that we saw early...due to a moment of indiscretion!!

Black commands a huge chunk of space and has trespassed into White's territory. White is only a few moves away from losing...apparently...the tiny soldier on "a4" appears to have achieved something magically.  The ingenuity of Vishy was full blown in finding the only resource to save the game, when everyone else analysing outside struggled with various options...!

Vishy's 44.Qh1 was poetic!

Game - 2: Position after 12....cb6

The position is even, Black will try to regroup his Knight to g6 square and the Bishop on b7 and aim for d5 applying pressure on White's center. White on the other hand will play his trump d3-d4  at the earliest (immediately, as it happened in this game!), preempting Black's "d5" push.  His concern however is the Bishop which lacks a purposeful square. In fact, it did not develop at all in this game and its first move was the capture 22.Bxf4!  And with the Bishop remaining on c1, the Rook on a1 will have to find an alternate route, which is what Carlsen did, ingeniously!

The attack that Carlsen embarked was only a pretext to move into a favourable major pieces endgame!  We shall just see three positions from this game.

White seems to have made a considerable progress: The Queen, Knight, Rook and even the unborn Bishop on c1 are targeting Black's King. And yet, the attack will not succeed, not because it lacks, but because Black has enough resources: the minor pieces will come in aid and exchange off White pieces at an opportune moment; he can organise a second rank defence with his major pieces and above all the Kingside pawn are robust with no weakness.

So here is the case where an advantage in space and time does not suffice for a direct attack and win and hence....the need for Carlsen to shift his attention and use this direct attacking manoeuvres as mere threat!

Anand could still have held on, but the problem was to keep one's nerves and REMAIN...remain in the position!

Black succeeded in warding-off the attack and the minor pieces have disappeared from the board. However, the White rooks and Queen dominate the board.  The Queen Rook which looked good on the third rank becomes menacing on the fourth rank - especially on e4 square! 

Anand tried luring it to a4, but Carlsen was unmoved and played a stoic 29.b3!! And it is this stoicism which is characteristic of him and is an invaluable asset!

Game - 4; Position after 15....Bh5!

If there was one game where everything was even and the play of both the sides was original, then my choice would be this game!

Carlsen has the habit of sending his pieces, especially the Queen to "Timbuktu", as we say to denote a place which is remote and unusual! In this game he sent his Queen to "f1" to take care of the "h3" square!  Vishy outsmarted this manoeuvre with a prophylactic and deep 15....Bh5! He further manoeuvred his Knight amidst exchanging the pieces and took sufficient care of his isolated pawn and drew the game comfortably. 

Game - 5; Position after 20.Nd5!

And here we find a position where the it is absolutely open: the Bishops cancel out for their effectiveness and White Knight is superior to his counterpart who is on the edge and supporting the Bishop. White is ahead on time with a Rook already on an important open file and the other ready to come.  Black on the other hand is ready to bring his Rooks and the Queen is out of the firing line by the Rooks and is attacking the b2 pawn. 

Or precisely, Vishy with his last move 20.Nd5! is offering a pawn temporarily in exchange for a few tempi to take his Rook to the seventh rank.

In fact, many analysts were calculating a variation arising out of the immediate capture. But Carlsen played instinctively and exchanged his Bishop for the powerful White Knight on d5 and then grabbed the pawn.  He had no qualms in accepting a doubled pawn weakness after the exchange of Queens and rightly assessed the position as ok, and nullified that minimal advantage which Vishy enjoyed by placing his rook on the seventh rank.

That Carlsen believed in material was evident here too!

Game - 10; Position after 19.Ng5

And this is one of the finest moment in this match.  Many things have been said about that "d5" pawn in Grunfeld and what it can do if it becomes mobile. The game promised a lot and Vishy played 19.Ng5! with the intention of stepping-up the pressure on Black's position...the point "f7", in combination with the d5-d6 push. Black cannot afford to waste time.

Carlsen's 19.....Bd4!! contained his deep feel for such positions and such occasions!  He seems to be making simple moves, but some of his simple moves are profound and camouflages deep insight into the position and Chess at large.

Needless to say, 19....Bd4 sealed the hopes of White....in attempting to secure an advantage.

And the final game of the match, the 11th game, wins the contest for the best game!

Game - 11; Position after 23....b5!!

It was nice to see Vishy rediscovering himself and his trademark ability to come out with outrageous moves!  But alas, it was fagend and the pressure was mounting, and probably this prevented him from unleashing further after that magical move 23....b5!! which defied the eyes of every other human being sitting in front of their monitors!

The point is, he was neither ahead on time (not the actual time!), nor commanding more space in this game and yet he could start dictating terms...because and only because of his outrageousness! Mother Caisa allows such acts which are exceptions to the rules...the principles. And here lies the beauty of the game of Chess!

The move shifted the entire focus from the Kingside to the Queenside. After basking in pleasantness of the position, Magnus suddenly had to tread cautiously and needed to draw all his energy to find...

....26.Kf3!! in the following position!

The idea is simple and profound: simple for Carlsen and profound for everybody else!!  All the White pieces are occupying the best squares and Black still has his Bishop on the original square and the Rooks carrying out defensive roles.  The Knight on g6 is active but can be exchanged for one of White's Knights.  However, the jolt b6-b5 created serious weakness on the White's Queenside pawns and Carlsen rightly found that the Bishop on e6 is the fulcrum and Black's entire play revolves around it.  

He just looked around his board and found that his King was sitting in an area where nothing would happen henceforth, and therefore decided to move the King to the center from where it will overprotect his central squares, aid the passage of Knight to f4 in a bid to exchange the "e6" Bishop and above all, it can crossover to the Queenside to cover the enemy pawns...if the need arise!

Had Vishy not let the steam diffuse after that thunderous b5 and looked around to find a counter for this final bid by Carlsen in this position...instead of that premature Rb4...

We have arrived...after covering enough space and travelled for a sufficient bit of time!  I did leave out a few games on purpose, even if there were two decisive games included in the leftovers...for, they do not satisfy the needs of the chosen topic of "Time" and "Space"...and me!

To sum-up; Anand was poetic in phases but Carlsen managed to write the script! 

You can only say farewell to greatness, never a goodbye!  Who knows.... just because, as Kramnik said earlier, "he still can" and 2016 is not too far and in any case age is not as big a factor as it is portrayed!

Congratulations to Magnus!  Comeon Vishy...the art still remains...and so do we!