My Chess Blog

While writing on Spassky, Kasparov wrote......: " while working on Spassky's games, I discovered that his play does not lend itself to a distinct division into any clearly expressed components, thus making it unique and unrepeatable ." He further writes, " But at the slightest opportunity Spassky would nevertheless demonstrate his innate ability to find his way in complex positions, abounding in tactics and lacking customary guides. And in this aspect, Spassky is much closer to Chigorin, Alekhine and Tal " When it comes to acclaiming the great players in Chess, we find ourselves in the position of a Buridan's Ass.....named after the philosopher John Buridan, and the tale goes... A donkey finds itself positioned exactly halfway between two equally divided stack of delicious hay and because he lacks reason to decide one over the other, the ass cannot arrive at a decision and will die of hunger ! Yet.....! Well, Boris Vasilievich Spassky - the livin

"The coordination of the pieces is an essential feature of any Chess formation. But as long as there is on the board a mass of forces of different character, and when their inter-relations are complicated, disputing the files, ranks, diagonals in the zone of important squares and close to the regions of the enemy castled positions, at such times it is difficult to distinguish clearly what is coordination, and what is simply the useful drawing up of reserves from the depths of the rearguard."   - David Bronstein Chess.....unlike free-rock climbing....is not a life threatening sport. In free-rock climbing, the climbers put their lives on line and climb cliffs as high as almost a Kilometre....90 degrees upwards..., without any support....and no option of returning back.... they just have to reach the top, (I am not hinting the other option...." slip....free-fall and death " as they would not have come to this business if that had been in their mind in the fi

" Chess is boundless only in the overall number of possible combinations of moves by White and Black. In any particular game, the number of real possibilities is much smaller. And the stronger the player, the more restricted his choice at each step, since too many possibilities for him are taboo - the results of their actions can easily be predicted as giving a negative result ." - David Bronstein .... the number of real possibilities ....and ..... the stronger the player, the more restricted his choice .... Let me single out the above two assertions....as the comprehension of this is the real step forward towards great mastery and understanding of the game of chess! What the expression, " lesser the real possibilities and choices " essentially mean is the process of condensation, crystallization..... .....it is like condensation of a huge prose into a beautiful couplet.....poetry, which is impregnated with essence of what is pivotal. One of t