Self Portrait! - The Art of playing chess
"Every portrait that is painted with feeling is the portrait of the artist, not the sitter" - Oscar Wilde
In his seminal work; "The act of creation", Arthur Koestler writes....quoting Sir Frederick Bartlett - the French psychologist....who said, "Even the most elementary perception have character of inferential constructions" ....that "even the inferential process, which controls perception, again works unconsciously....or below the level of consciousness..."
Well, then, what is self portrait!?
What you proffer is not self portrait! It is just pretense.
What shows up...inspite of you is self portrait!
In chess too, the game should happen "inspite of you"....then it attains the quality of great self portrait!
.....everything else.....irrespective of the result....is only a copy....a poor imitation......crap...!
There were a few great masters who attained this level.....and the prime amongst them was
David Bronstein!
Bronstein playing White pieces against Tal.....played here....
15.g3!!
Tal got the first shock when Bronstein opted for Kings gambit....and faltered on his 9th move with a wrong sequence of exchange......where he missed out the fact that he cannot castle long because of an elementary tactic - great Tal overlooked it!
....and this move by Bronstein....discovering the path to the h1 Rook for the opponent Bishop.... would have shook everyone!
Paul Keres who was witness to this move live, wrote: "The most surprising move, typically Bronstein! Few players would have considered a move like this here, especially as White has a lot of other promising continuations. Very strong would have been simple 14.Re1 followed by g3!
When I asked Bronstein after the game why he did not play simply 15.Re1 first, he looked at me as if I could not understand anything about the position and then said; 'I could not miss the opportunity to play a move like 15.g3 against Tal, which I may never get in my whole life.'
That's Bronstein. Now I am glad he played 15.g3!!"
Bronstein went on to win the game after some fine continuation....and I am not going to deal with it here as it is not intended in this discussion.
The move 15.g3!! in the aforesaid game
......and the incredible move....
8.de4!!
....against Rojhan....just to explore how an avalanche of pawn in the central lines could wreck the rational thinking of the player who is forced to defend passively in return for the acceptance of that gift.....and succumb finally!
and....
15.Nb5!!
...in the above position against Keres!
Bronstein deliberately removes the control over the "d5" square and this Knight sortie.....though it does play a part later....is a wonderful camouflage for his real intention.....a Bombshell that he dropped subsequently, on the Kingside....which took even the great Keres by surprise!
AND
Many other such moves that he played in his glorious chess career, bore stamp of his genius and served as his SELF PORTRAIT!
A conscious....calculative mind can never play such moves!!
Bronstein gave double exclamation marks to only one move in the entire book 'Chess Struggle in Practice - Lessons from the famous Zurich Candidates Tournament of 1953'....
Kotov - Gligoric
21.....f3!!
....and this move and the blockade on the dark squares that it created in tandem with an earlier pawn sacrifice 11....e4! became synonymous with the name Gligoric!
If you want to understand the genius of Bronstein, one needs to undertake a deep study of his afore said book on Zurich Candidates tournament, his 200 open games; Sorcerer's Apprentice; Chess Improviser (authored by Vainstein) and last but a significant one....."The Modern Chess Self-Tutor"....which is wrongly taken for as a beginner's book, but infact a sort of Bronstein's chess autobiography!
Especially, "The Modern Chess Self-tutor" should be read with great care as Bronstein reveals his mind in his inimitable way....!
For eg., in the following position taken from Tolush - Flohr, Kiev 1944
Bronstein's instincts makes him indulge in a dialogue with Black's pieces.....especially the Knight on d5, which, with the consent of his Queen plunged onto the e3 square.....
.....when everybody else, including Flohr were only looking at the position one move before (when the White Knight was on c4 and Black had not castled long) .....21......Nf6; 22.Nd6 Kd8; 23.Nf7 Kc7; 24.Bf4 Kb6...and the attack on g2 would decide the issue.
Bronstein suggested 22......Ne3!! which decides the issue then and there....and one wonders how this would have failed to appear for Tolush and Flohr!
I conclude with another example of Bronstein's copyright creation!
Bronstein - Simagin, USSR Ch, 1946
This game one of my favourite of Bronstein's) is worth a very serious study as it would reveal great secrets on the act of creation!
I would only be dealing fleetingly as, this game would eat up great space and your time if I have to expound it!
Bronstein played....
11.e5! Ng4
Simagin is also a fine tactician and would not allow the game to drift into endgame without exploring the possibilities inherent in it! This is the prime quality of great artists!
12.Bg5 Ne5; 13.Ne5 Be5; 14.Nd5! Bd6
Now, the intention of Bronstein is clear.....he has dislodged the Bishop from its home diagonal....and the play would now revolve around this long dark diagonal, weakened by the absence of this Bishop and the adjacent light diagonal a2-g8! ...."......one day it dawned on me that a dark-squared weakness meant that the pieces on the light squares were also weak" - Bronstein
15.Re1 Ne6; 16.Bh4 Bd7; 17.Qd2
Here, Black could have played the immediate 17......Bc6 and got rid off that dangerous Knight on d5!
But, Simagin played....
17.....Rc8; 18.Bb3 Kg7; 19.Rad1 Re8; 20.Ne3! Nc5; 21.Bc4!
Why this move and why not straightaway Bd5!?.....the secret to lure the pawn push .....b5 would be revealed much later in one of the variations in the great skirmish that is to follow!
21.....b5; 22.Bd5 Qc7
.....and here Bronstein embarked on yet another surreal attack that he is known for....
.....starting with......
23.Bf7!!
and I stop here, with the remark that, this position and the attack was analysed and debated for months and years after.....and the beauty inherent in the position was brought to the fore.....
.....which incidentally is not a part of this article...
The act of creation.....the act of playing such moves....as the ones I shown above, happen not at conscious level.....
for...
....as Wolfgang Von Goethe said, "Man cannot persist long in a conscious state, he must throw himself back into the unconscious, for his root lives there...."
In his seminal work; "The act of creation", Arthur Koestler writes....quoting Sir Frederick Bartlett - the French psychologist....who said, "Even the most elementary perception have character of inferential constructions" ....that "even the inferential process, which controls perception, again works unconsciously....or below the level of consciousness..."
Well, then, what is self portrait!?
What you proffer is not self portrait! It is just pretense.
What shows up...inspite of you is self portrait!
In chess too, the game should happen "inspite of you"....then it attains the quality of great self portrait!
.....everything else.....irrespective of the result....is only a copy....a poor imitation......crap...!
There were a few great masters who attained this level.....and the prime amongst them was
David Bronstein!
Bronstein playing White pieces against Tal.....played here....
15.g3!!
Tal got the first shock when Bronstein opted for Kings gambit....and faltered on his 9th move with a wrong sequence of exchange......where he missed out the fact that he cannot castle long because of an elementary tactic - great Tal overlooked it!
....and this move by Bronstein....discovering the path to the h1 Rook for the opponent Bishop.... would have shook everyone!
Paul Keres who was witness to this move live, wrote: "The most surprising move, typically Bronstein! Few players would have considered a move like this here, especially as White has a lot of other promising continuations. Very strong would have been simple 14.Re1 followed by g3!
When I asked Bronstein after the game why he did not play simply 15.Re1 first, he looked at me as if I could not understand anything about the position and then said; 'I could not miss the opportunity to play a move like 15.g3 against Tal, which I may never get in my whole life.'
That's Bronstein. Now I am glad he played 15.g3!!"
Bronstein went on to win the game after some fine continuation....and I am not going to deal with it here as it is not intended in this discussion.
The move 15.g3!! in the aforesaid game
......and the incredible move....
8.de4!!
....against Rojhan....just to explore how an avalanche of pawn in the central lines could wreck the rational thinking of the player who is forced to defend passively in return for the acceptance of that gift.....and succumb finally!
and....
15.Nb5!!
...in the above position against Keres!
Bronstein deliberately removes the control over the "d5" square and this Knight sortie.....though it does play a part later....is a wonderful camouflage for his real intention.....a Bombshell that he dropped subsequently, on the Kingside....which took even the great Keres by surprise!
AND
Many other such moves that he played in his glorious chess career, bore stamp of his genius and served as his SELF PORTRAIT!
A conscious....calculative mind can never play such moves!!
Bronstein gave double exclamation marks to only one move in the entire book 'Chess Struggle in Practice - Lessons from the famous Zurich Candidates Tournament of 1953'....
Kotov - Gligoric
21.....f3!!
....and this move and the blockade on the dark squares that it created in tandem with an earlier pawn sacrifice 11....e4! became synonymous with the name Gligoric!
If you want to understand the genius of Bronstein, one needs to undertake a deep study of his afore said book on Zurich Candidates tournament, his 200 open games; Sorcerer's Apprentice; Chess Improviser (authored by Vainstein) and last but a significant one....."The Modern Chess Self-Tutor"....which is wrongly taken for as a beginner's book, but infact a sort of Bronstein's chess autobiography!
Especially, "The Modern Chess Self-tutor" should be read with great care as Bronstein reveals his mind in his inimitable way....!
For eg., in the following position taken from Tolush - Flohr, Kiev 1944
Bronstein's instincts makes him indulge in a dialogue with Black's pieces.....especially the Knight on d5, which, with the consent of his Queen plunged onto the e3 square.....
.....when everybody else, including Flohr were only looking at the position one move before (when the White Knight was on c4 and Black had not castled long) .....21......Nf6; 22.Nd6 Kd8; 23.Nf7 Kc7; 24.Bf4 Kb6...and the attack on g2 would decide the issue.
Bronstein suggested 22......Ne3!! which decides the issue then and there....and one wonders how this would have failed to appear for Tolush and Flohr!
I conclude with another example of Bronstein's copyright creation!
Bronstein - Simagin, USSR Ch, 1946
This game one of my favourite of Bronstein's) is worth a very serious study as it would reveal great secrets on the act of creation!
I would only be dealing fleetingly as, this game would eat up great space and your time if I have to expound it!
Bronstein played....
11.e5! Ng4
Simagin is also a fine tactician and would not allow the game to drift into endgame without exploring the possibilities inherent in it! This is the prime quality of great artists!
12.Bg5 Ne5; 13.Ne5 Be5; 14.Nd5! Bd6
Now, the intention of Bronstein is clear.....he has dislodged the Bishop from its home diagonal....and the play would now revolve around this long dark diagonal, weakened by the absence of this Bishop and the adjacent light diagonal a2-g8! ...."......one day it dawned on me that a dark-squared weakness meant that the pieces on the light squares were also weak" - Bronstein
15.Re1 Ne6; 16.Bh4 Bd7; 17.Qd2
Here, Black could have played the immediate 17......Bc6 and got rid off that dangerous Knight on d5!
But, Simagin played....
17.....Rc8; 18.Bb3 Kg7; 19.Rad1 Re8; 20.Ne3! Nc5; 21.Bc4!
Why this move and why not straightaway Bd5!?.....the secret to lure the pawn push .....b5 would be revealed much later in one of the variations in the great skirmish that is to follow!
21.....b5; 22.Bd5 Qc7
.....and here Bronstein embarked on yet another surreal attack that he is known for....
.....starting with......
23.Bf7!!
and I stop here, with the remark that, this position and the attack was analysed and debated for months and years after.....and the beauty inherent in the position was brought to the fore.....
.....which incidentally is not a part of this article...
The act of creation.....the act of playing such moves....as the ones I shown above, happen not at conscious level.....
for...
....as Wolfgang Von Goethe said, "Man cannot persist long in a conscious state, he must throw himself back into the unconscious, for his root lives there...."
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