My Chess Blog

"It is usually thought that the prerequisites of chess creativity are logic, accurate calculation of variations, and technique; the latter including theoretical knowledge. There is a fourth component, however, perhaps the most attractive, although it is often forgotten. I have in mind "intuition", or, if you like, "imagination" - David Bronstein Lu Shanglei - Veselin Topalov, WC, 2015 This opening by Lu, dating back to " Qing Dynasty ", is probably for celebrating the great escape in his first game..... and he managed to survive this too....not so elegantly. What was shocking was the first game between these two! Veselin Topalov -  Lu Shanglei - WC, 2015 - Game: 1 A guy who fires even without bullets in his gun, got a loaded AK-47! 23.....Qg2?! When one would have squirmed seeing his previous move 22.....h5, this move would have defied expression!  No longer Topalov has AK-47, instead Black has sold him a missile launc

" For a long time, I suspected that the question of dark-square weaknesses and attacks on the dark squares that I read about in books was incomprehensible not only to me but to the writers themselves. I used to tell myself, in fact, that my opponent's dark squares were weak when his men stood on light squares and he had no dark-square Bishop. But what if he took all his pieces off the dark squares? What could I attack then? That is how I reasoned until one day it dawned on me that a dark-square weakness meant that the pieces on the light squares were also weak. Likewise, a weakness of the light squares leads to the weakness of the men on dark squares. " If Kafka's famous opening sentence in ' Metamorphosis ': " One day, Gregor Samsa wakes up on his bed to find himself transformed into a giant insect... " was revolutionary in literary fiction world; then so is David Bronstein's famous opening paragraph from the 'bible for chess players

"You cannot solve a problem with the same kind of thinking that you had at the time of its creation" - Albert Einstein Einstein was ruing after realising that. what he discovered has the potential to destroy the world.  The problem confronting us now in Chess is also similar; the human quest to exercise his intelligence and invent lead to the 'creation' of engines, which has spread like virus.  It bestows ill-found power and means to over exploit the profoundness of chess and rob it off all the wonders and surprises.  I wish we have a reset button pressing which will take us back to the age without chess engines, computers..... .....a walk on the roads, amidst woods also took us to our destination, as did the air-plane, but as one might say, delayed…. But the delay provided us with unbound treat of observing the nature, in its own terms; discovering new men, their culture, and exploring mystery amidst our walk, without compromising on the target of

Wilhelm Steinitz "Inspiration is when you find the right theme, one that you really like; that makes the work much easier. Intuition, which is also fundamental to writing fiction, is a special quality that helps you to decipher what is real without needing scientific knowledge or any other special kind of learning. It's a way of having experience without having to struggle through it." - Gabriel Garcia Marquez This position is from the 1st Official World Championship Game! Steinitz's last move 11.....h5!? was a nudge, the Austrian Grandmaster laid down his cards, blatantly revealing his intentions to go for the jugular. The thought process would remain by and large similar in an era, amongst players of same level. Their proclivities may differ, choices may differ, but perceiving chess would be based on the prevailing state of the game in that particular era.  And it helps us if we observe from that standpoint of view - all the advancements, defensive an

Wilhelm Steinitz NOW, this now as you read this, we are in 1886....1894, 96 and the takeaways are different if we transport ourselves to that now and observe in 'this now'..... and rigidly remain in this today and observe 'that past...' .....I always remain.....wish to remain....in the now and therefore it doesn't make any difference whether it is "now of now" or the "now of 1886"...! In normal sense, there are always two ways of looking at the same thing....event.  Good or bad; right or wrong...., they are contextual, of course.  But, when one deals with the 'thing' called CREATION these ill-perceived boundaries....the two extremes get blurred.....for they do not exist as separate entities but merge into one....the whole....the creation! And what gives us joy and thrill is 'the act of creation', that which is unfurled in the present - remember, there is no past; for when we play out 'that game' played in 1886, we