My Chess Blog

"For me, the most important thing was the inner contents of the fight, the inner state of the two opponents at the board." - Tigran Petrosian The prophetic words of the great master of strategic play studded with great deceptive dynamism, is the underlying factor....chief one in determining success. Stress......the oft mentioned term in modern days, is the chief component of this inner state! Simply put, " stress refers to that quality of experience, produced through a person-environment transaction, that, through either overarousal or underarousal, results in psychological or physiological distress " - the best description of the term that I've come across. Without getting into the science of it, suffice to say that it is merely a perceived sense and the protagonist in the 'act of stress' is Mr.Mind! Stress can be "experienced" either through overarousal or underarousal and Svidler exemplified both in two games!  It can be psycholog

" To value, to valuate, to judge, to estimate a thing does not pretend to exact knowledge "                                                                                                               - Steinitz-Lasker ....and.....therefore, it is not 'static' calculation but the 'dynamic' evaluation which is paramount in determining the success of a strategy; and as Einstein said, we can only strive to find, derive, manifest value and have absolutely no control over success - which incidentally depends on the interplay of valuation by two different minds and its capacity to stay and thrive in the state of flux without swaying much! Well.....then, in the first game of the World Cup final between Svidler and Karjakin, this theme was resoundingly portrayed - as well as in any well played game. I shall touch upon this subject from this game to begin with and digress a bit and return back to conclude. Peter Svidler - Sergey Karjakin, World Cup, 2015