Coherence....incoherence....imagination - a glimpse

"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 launcher!

24.Ne3 Qf3?? 

Is this out of pressure??? Madness??  Probably Black thought that the fire would destroy him quickly without much suffering instead of sitting on a frying pan!

25.Rhf1? 

The difference between moving this Rook to f1 and the other one standing on e1 is that, the chosen move leaves the e1-Rook hanging when the Rook on f1 is called for duty in the front for mating purposes.  Chess results sometimes hinges on such minute details - though in this case, the position was winning even after multiple misses.

.....and when everybody would have expected the Black King to have got mated in one of those squares around him, Topalov drifted....drifted.....drifted......and finally landed in a peace island.

Chess can be played in such a manner too, even by the finest master!

Well, how do you....or more precisely to what do you attribute, this failure to win from that overwhelming position on move 25.  

A grandmaster of Topalov's class is bestowed with all that which Bronstein listed, including "great eyes for imagination", in the aforementioned quote.

Then...?

For most of such instances, you cannot try to find an answer 'chessically'....there are areas, horizon's beyond this, which act upon and tamper with the thinking process. Instead of "sound thinking" and a thorough postmortem, it requires a silent introspection.....a state of no-mind to be precise!

Probably there was a great deal of incoherence in the thought process that went behind the choice of moves.  Theoretical Physicist David Bohm describes 'incoherence' profoundly, thus, "the basic sign of incoherence is that you're getting some result which you don't intend and don't want."  

So many things happened, which should not have, in this game and it continued for probably 10 moves or so.... the incoherence in the thought process allowed the position to drift, and trying to locate the problem chessically is to betray or disregard something that is happening at a subliminal level.

Chess history is full of such spoiled chances and there are instances when even World championship title was hinging on such missed opportunities!  

But what we saw yesterday was overdose and to bring down its effect, we need to look at something which will act as antidote!

I was browsing the excellent book "The Stress of Chess....and its infinite finesse" by Walter Browne, I came across this position....

Samuel Reshevsky - Walter Browne, Lone Pine, 1977

Reshevsky's last move was 47....Rf8-e8?.....

.....and the move 47.....g5 which he precluded, ironically, was the winning move for Black and.....

48.g5!!

.....the saving grace for White!  Chess can be that cruel....at times! 

The game continued....

48.....fg5; 49.Qd7! Re3; 50.Ng4

Even after 50.fg5 Black King cannot escape checks from the White Queen.

50.....Kh5; 51.Ne3 Qe3; 52.Qh7 Kg4; 53.Qd7 Kf4; 54.Qf7 Kg4; 55.Qd7 1/2 - 1/2

I would not have shown this example, but for something that it reminded me.....deja vu.....!

Vishy Anand - Magnus Carlsen, Sochi, 2014

Pushed to the corner when everybody around the globe were fiddling with their engines and pieces to see What Vishy would do to escape...if at all there was a way.... Anand came out with a brilliant....

44.Qh1!!

The tigress after all has a way out to the wild....and it required, as Bronstein said, a great eye.....for imagining such a route!!

A great silent move which just threatened to put the Queen on the seventh rank to check the Black King. If now 44.....Kh6; then 45.Qa8 even threatens Black with a mate!  Such is the power of this move, which did not give time for Black to organise a mate on White's back rank!

44.....Re7; 45.Qd5!

Another fine centralising move which ignores Black's next move which infact threatens a mate in one!

45.....Re1; 46.Qd7 Kh6; 47.Qh3 Kg7; 48.Qd7 1/2 - 1/2

....and the finish in the game between Reshevsky and Browne, reminded me of this modern day beauty by the magician from India!