My Chess Blog

"Never think you understood a work in physics if all you had done was to read someone else's derivation. The only way to really understand a theory, is, to derive it yourself..."   - Richard Feynman " Ramanujan's " (the great mathematician from Kumbakonam, India), E.H.Neville an English mathematician, said, " mind is free, or, shall we say, was the slave of his genius ?" .....and his genius was such that, he transcended the existing level in mathematics that his teachers and contemporaries in Kumbakonam knew, and there were no material available for him to do advanced mathematics. How was this possible!? Ramanujan had to reinvent most of the existing mathematics, that wasn't known in his hometown, in his formative years - and many later thought this as a constraint and perhaps, he wasted time in doing so. But, this for me is the key factor! Perhaps, this process of reinvention is what dug deep within him to reach and attain an und

" In Chess, human intelligence achieves a creativity which cannot be explained away in terms of conditioned reflexes or the formation of habits. Mental habits and memory are elements in the Chess mind as a knowledge of his language is part of the equipment of an orator, or as a technique is essential to the musician. Beyond that equipment training ends, and the mind creates from its own resources and material. What a good chess player does is comparable, as a mental act, to what the inventor does, be he a scientist or a poet; an act of free imagination, which changes its own surroundings by the revelation of latent possibilities ." - Gerald Abrahams The language used for the title in itself is quite controversial.....the usage of "leveraging"....using the term Lever as a verb! Yet.....everything else in this world, the language should also be 'malleable' .....accommodative.....after all a language is a mere tool to communicate .....and it i

"The night advances toward dawn, Dew drips from the bamboo onto my brushwood gate. My neighbour to the west has stopped pounding his mortar; My little hermit's garden grows moist. Frogs croak near and far, Fireflies flit high and low. Wide awake, it's not possible to sleep tonight. I smooth my pillow and let my thoughts drift." - Ryokan (18th Century Zen poet and recluse) .....and so did I.....! after having witnessed that great game...... .....and not without reasons, Tarrasch said...." Chess like music and love has the power to make men happy " Some of the many positions.....will stay ever on top of our minds........and keep constantly inspiring and giving us......great hope....!                            Bernstein - Capablanca, 1914           Capablanca - Janowsky, 1918                             Paulsen - Morphy, 1857                   Pillsbury - Lasker, 1896                             Reti - Alekhine, 1925   

"After reading every article of Bill, I always get the feeling that I actually learned something.....that I had broadened my understanding of Chess." - Kevin Spraggett  Bill  or William Lombardy would be remembered - if not for anything - his book titled " Understanding Chess - My System, my games, my life ".  If you have not read that.....you miss something...... He was a very unconventional teacher.....and his postulates defied conventional wisdom....and stood on their own merit.... rebellious !! .....a few of them.... " Castling is to be considered a waste of time, wrongly expended when there is almost always something more important to achieve! Thus castling is a passive move that nurtures the hope of King safety !" " Analysis is not Chess. It is an emergency condition by which we solve immediate problems during a game of Chess....analysis is overrated " " All weaknesses can be improved or transformed. The experienced

"There is a time for living and a time for giving expression to life. There is also a time for creating, which is less natural. For me, it is enough to live with my whole body and bear witness with my whole heart. Herein lies a freedom." - Alburt Camus Meursault - the protagonist in Camus's phenomenal novel " The Stranger " said....after he was imprisoned and sentenced to death for an unintended......accidental crime....." When I was first imprisoned, the hardest thing was that my thoughts were still those of a free man ". Does not we Chess players harbour a similar feeling after committing something which disturbed the equilibrium in a position......much later though, when the position turns hostile at us...indicting us for the crime which we committed unintentionally.....accidentally......! Like in life, in Chess too, things happen in-spite of us......and therefore.... Chess is an Art ! .....and like in life, in Chess too, we think we are

" You see, one thing is, I can live with doubt and uncertainty and not knowing. I think it's much more interesting to live not knowing than to have answers which might be wrong. " - Richard Feynman The fine art of Chess lies in transformations......which necessarily means, pawn moves.....and exchanges - in short those changes that happen in a position which are irreversible!  And every time a pawn is moved and every exchange that happens are critical moments! A player's mastery of the game is revealed in how he perceives and responds in these critical moments. Magnus Carlsen differentiates himself in this art....from others.....supported by his undiminishing tenacity and great love for the game ..... .by just playing for little things! Little things is what Chess offers....it is a highly resilient game; and it is the mind of the opponent, with its allied apprehensions, that makes it big!  As in life, in Chess too, we are offered choices.... every moment