Harmony in chess....(just because an article requires a title!!)

"Let the reader not think that grandmasters are without sin: they get in time trouble, fail to calculate variations to the end,, make blunders and oversights....." - David Bronstein

In Chess....strategy and tactics are inseparable parts of the same coin...

Also, every rules that can be stated in Chess, which are laid down under the 'pretext' of strategy & tactics, has an exception...which, the particular configuration on the board dictates...

.....and the one who perceives this 'anomaly'.....emerges successfully!

And, the 'hero of the script', in all these rules and its exceptions....is the Pawn!  Everything in chess revolves around the movement of this hero: his move forward or staying back; capture or non capture...., his associations with his co-actors and conflict with the opposing factors!

Great Philidor was a true visionary!


Vassily Ivanchuk - Garry Kasparov, Linares - 1991

A not so usual bind position.  Ivanchuk's first entry into the big league where both big "K" were in the fray and probably he wanted to stay away from the famed Kasparov preparations.  Kasparov took the Botvinnik system of methodical preparation to another level.....which has now attained manic proposition.....with the devil taking up the driver's seat.....driving chess players crazy and chess creations lousy......

White had just took his King to the corner...a typical move in such situations, staying away from the dark diagonal from potential checks and pins and from the frontal threats by Rook on the half open g-file.

12......h5

If allowed, this hero will march upto "h3" to weaken the light squares.

13.a4

Gaining space on the Queenside and with the support of his friend sitting next to him on b2, intends to prevent Black's light squared Bishop from staying on c6 square.

13......h4; 14.h3 Be7; 15.b4 a5 16.b5!

Stage 1 concludes.....both sides have completed what needs to be done with their pawns on both sides!

Now, it is time for the pieces to move around the spaces thus created by the pawn moves.....the pillars of a building!

16......Qc7; 17.Nd2 Qc5; 18.Qd3!

Enticing the World Champion to come at him!

18......Rg8

Half open g-file, presence of Black pawn on h4 hemming the White's...., famed double Bishops..... hoping point on c5 (created by the backward c4 pawn) for his Queen and Rook to transfer to Kingside.... Kasparov must have been aiming for......

Meanwhile, Ivanchuk was calmly playing....

19.Rae1 Qg5; 20.Rg1 Qf4; 21.Ref1! b6; 22.Ne2!

A picturesque position!  A pair of Rooks, Knights and Bishops standing side-by-side!

Ideally, Black would have loved to play the typical sicilian push "d5" at some point,, which would open lines for his Bishops.....but in this position, it cannot even occur as a bad dream!

22......Qh6; 23.c5!!

The hero of this great game!

23.f4 - f5 etc may be in spirit of the position....but....the move played is in the spirit of creation!

The move played plays a profound role in the mind of the opponent who is wishing to overpower by using the "c5" point to transfer his pieces and not close it with his own pawn!

Also, a natural "giver" seldom is a gracious "taker"!

23.....Rc5

This move was censured...., but 23.....dc5 24.Nc4 Rb8 25.Rd1 Bc8 would never occur in the mind of this great attacker who always wished to throw his pieces in front and on fire!

But, had he known the eventual fate of his pieces....in this game...perhaps, he may have relented!

It is very easy to censure a move on hindsight.....but during a game, the considerations of the mind which is dynamically involved in a fight and conflict with an opposing mind....are bound to be different....unless and until one attains the much desired "state of no-mind"!

24.Nc4 Kf8; 25.Nb6 Be8; 26.f4 f5; 27.ef5 Rf5; 28.Rc1 Kg7; 29.g4! 

29......Rc5

Or 29......hg3 30.Qg3 Kf6 31.Qc3!

30.Rc5 dc5; 31.Nc8 Bf8

The Bishop returns back to its birthplace.  How often one get to see a Knight pushing opponents Bishop to the back rank!?

32.Qd8 Qg6; 33.f5! Qh6; 34.g5! Qh5; 35.Rg4! ef5; 36.Nf4! Qh8

The annihilation is complete!!

37.Qf6 Kh7; 38.Rh4 Black Resigns 


The game and this final position will be etched in the memory of Ivanchuk and Kasparov for different reasons.....and will stay in the memory of chess lovers for ever....!

Very rarely he would have done such discredit to his pieces......

.....after all, he used to do the reverse of this on most occasions!


...to where we started....

Where is the strategy and where is the tactics!?

The great physicist David Bohm wrote...."....the artists, the musical composer, the architect, the scientist all feel a fundamental need to discover and create something new that is whole and total, harmonious and beautiful. Few ever get a chance to try to do this,, and even fewer actually manage to do it. Yet, deep down, it is probably what very large number of people in all walks of life are seeking when they attempt to escape the daily humdrum routine by engaging in every kind of entertainment, excitement, stimulation, change of occupation, and so forth, through which they ineffectively try to compensate for the unsatisfying narrowness and mechanicalness of their lives..."

So it is for a chess player.....

The fundamental need is to discover and create something new....which is whole, total, harmonious and beautiful.

And for this to happen, a mind should meet the mind....not a machine...

A game of chess is not for dissection.....but to consider as a harmonious whole....by embracing the limitations of the human mind and its ways of considering things....which may not (and will never) stand the test of 'deep' analysis....leave alone the decimation by the engines.


Nowadays, players shatter their self-belief and ability to create by enslaving themselves to the engine.....rendering them stale, sterile and produce 'games' which are most boring.....

.....instead, they will be better-off....going on a vacation to middle of Sahara....where the heat of the desert would allow only a chess set.....

.....perhaps.....